MasterSolana Staking
Unlock the potential of your SOL tokens with our comprehensive staking guide. Learn, stake, and earn with confidence.
Why Stake on Solana?
Earn Rewards
Generate passive income by staking your SOL tokens with annual percentage yields typically ranging from 6-8%.
Secure Network
Help secure the Solana blockchain while maintaining full ownership of your tokens through delegation.
Compound Growth
Your staking rewards automatically compound, increasing your stake and future earning potential.
No Lock-up Period
Unstake your tokens at any time with a typical warmup period of 1-2 epochs (2-4 days).
Validator Choice
Select from hundreds of validators based on performance, commission rates, and geographic distribution.
Easy to Start
Begin staking with any amount of SOL using user-friendly interfaces and wallet integrations.
How to Start Staking SOL
Connect Your Wallet
Connect a Solana-compatible wallet like Phantom, Solflare, or Ledger to access your SOL tokens.
Choose a Validator
Research and select a validator based on their performance, commission rate, and reliability metrics.
Delegate Your SOL
Create a stake account and delegate your SOL tokens to your chosen validator to start earning rewards.
Monitor Performance
Track your staking rewards, validator performance, and adjust your strategy as needed.
What is Staking?
Staking is the process of delegating your SOL tokens to one or more validators, who process transactions and keep the network secure. Validators earn rewards for their services and delegators then get a proportional amount of the rewards less the validator's commission.
In order to delegate your SOL tokens, you need to create a separate stake account and choose a validator to delegate to. You can do it either from command line interface or by using one of the supported wallets.
Staking Timeline
After you delegate your SOL tokens, you need to wait until the next epoch for the changes to take effect. Throughout the epoch validator is voting and generates new transactions according to the leader schedule and only after one entire epoch ends, the reward is added to your staking pool and is automatically delegated to the same validator.
⚠️ Please note that during the pending epoch your tokens cannot be withdrawn.
If you wish to undelegate your tokens from the validator, you need to wait until the end of the epoch. In this case your last reward will be added to your stake account and will no longer be delegated.
Choosing the Right Validator
There are a couple of things to consider while choosing the right validator to delegate your stake to. In order to be able to vote properly and create new transactions it needs to have constant high speed network access and good overall performance. Another important thing is the commission validator takes to cover its costs - the less the better. You should also check if validator is credible and operates in a transparent manner.
Performance
We're gathering statistical data to determine how well the validator operates within Solana network. Root block distance and vote distance show how far behind it is from the top of the blockchain while the skipped slot % measures the percent of the time that a leader fails to produce a block during their allocated slots.
Commission
The important thing to notice here is that commissions can be changed at any moment, so it's crucial to check for particular validators commission change history and see if there's no malicious behavior. Some validators offer 0% commission as an introductory offer. Contact them to see when the offer expires.
Reliability
If the validator has all the information filled up, has its own website and no malicious behavior in the past is detected, it is more likely that it cares about reliability and thus is more trustworthy.
Data Centers
For security reasons it is recommended that the validators in Solana cluster are spread among as many locations as possible. It reduces the possibility of network collapse in case of a data center breakage. On our data centers page you can examine the validators distribution between data centers and organizations Autonomous System Numbers (ASN).
How Does the Validator Score V1 Work?
We track validator performance over several dimensions and assign a score in the range of (0..2) for each. The scores also correlate with colored icons: 🟢 is excellent, 🟡 is OK, and 🔴 means there is room for improvement.
Performance Metrics
Root Block Distance
- 🟢(2 points) Validator median block distance is at, or below, the cluster median
- 🟡(1 point) Validator average block distance is at, or below, the cluster average
- 🔴(0 points) Validator average is higher than the cluster average
Vote Distance
The scoring rules are the same as Root Block Distance above.
Skipped Slot %
We track a trailing 24-hour moving average of the skip rate compared to cluster median and average.
- 🟢(2 points) Skipped slot % is at, or below, the cluster median
- 🟡(1 point) Skipped slot % is at, or below, the cluster average
- 🔴(0 points) Average is higher than the cluster average
Additional Factors
Vote Latency
Average number of slots it takes for validator to vote for a block.
- 🟢(2 points) Average below 2 slots
- 🟡(1 point) Average between 2 and 3 slots
- 🔴(0 points) Average above 3 slots
Published Information
- 🟢(2 points) Published all four data elements (Name, Avatar, Website URL, Details)
- 🟡(1 point) Published two or three parts
- 🔴(0 points) Published only one, or zero, pieces of contact data
Contra-Scores (Penalties)
- ⚠️Stake Concentration: -2 points if in top 33% of stake holders
- ⚠️Data Center Concentration: -2 points if in high-concentration data center
- ⚠️Authorized Withdrawer: -2 points if identity matches withdrawer
- ⚠️Consensus Mods: -2 points for unproven software modifications
The maximum score is currently thirteen (13) points: 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢⭐
Dictionary
Commission
Commission is a percentage value set by a validator to determine how much of the rewards earned does it collect in order to incur the costs. It's automatically deducted from your rewards pay outs. It can be set anywhere between 0% and 100% and can be changed at any moment.
Epoch
Time determined by number of slots, for which the leader schedule is valid.
Root Distance
Measures the median & average distance in block height between the validator and the tower's highest block. Smaller numbers mean that the validator is near the top of the tower.
Vote Distance
Is very similar to the Root Block Distance score above. Lower numbers mean that the node is voting near the front of the group.
Skipped Slot %
Measures the percent of the time that a leader fails to produce a block during their allocated slots. A lower number means that the leader is making blocks at a very high rate.
Delinquency
If the validator is not active in the Solana network it is considered to be delinquent. Short-time delinquencies are considered acceptable, since it occurs while software updates or temporary internet outages.
Stake Concentration
Solana is a decentralized proof-of-stake blockchain. It is best for the network and for those who use it, that the total stake is divided among as many validators as possible. Keep this in mind while choosing a validator to delegate to.
Gross ROD
Gross Return on Delegation is a percentage value that represents total return from Solana network to both validators and stakers. It is calculated as: (stake_accounts_rewards + vote_accounts_rewards / total_active_stake) * number_of_epochs_per_year.
Stake Pool
Stake pools are an alternative method of earning staking rewards. This program allows SOL holders to stake and earn rewards without managing stakes. Read more about the program on Solana website.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to Start Staking?
Now that you understand the fundamentals, explore our validator list and start earning rewards on your SOL tokens.