Solana staking glossary
Definitions for terms you encounter when delegating SOL. Each entry links to related guides where we go deeper.
- Activated stake
- The portion of a validator's total stake that is currently earning rewards and participating in consensus. Distinct from stake still in warm-up or cool-down.
- Commission
- The percentage of staking rewards a validator keeps before distributing the remainder to delegators. Validators can change commission; always check historical logs, not just the current number.
- Cool-down period
- After you deactivate a stake account, SOL remains locked for several epochs before becoming liquid again. See our warm-up and cool-down guide.
- Delegation
- Assigning your staked SOL to a specific validator's vote account. You retain ownership of the stake account; the validator earns a commission on rewards produced.
- Epoch
- A fixed time window on Solana (roughly two to three days) during which the validator set and stake weights are held constant. Rewards are calculated and distributed per epoch.
- Inflation reward
- New SOL issued by the protocol and distributed to stakers proportional to their stake. Combined with transaction fees, this forms total staking yield.
- Liquid staking token (LST)
- A token representing staked SOL that can be traded while the underlying SOL remains delegated. Mechanics differ from native delegation; see our ecosystem explainer sessions.
- Nakamoto coefficient
- The minimum number of validators whose combined stake would exceed one-third of total network stake. Used as a decentralisation metric when choosing validators.
- Proof of stake (PoS)
- Consensus mechanism where validators are chosen proportional to stake weight. Solana uses PoS with additional proof-of-history for ordering transactions.
- Skip rate
- Percentage of slots a validator failed to produce a block when expected. High skip rates may reduce rewards and indicate infrastructure problems.
- Stake account
- A separate on-chain account holding SOL designated for staking. Created from your wallet; distinct from your main spending account.
- Stake pool
- A protocol that aggregates delegations from many users and spreads stake across multiple validators. Charges a fee layer on top of validator commission.
- Validator
- An operator running node software that produces blocks and votes on ledger state. Delegators assign stake to validators in exchange for a share of rewards minus commission.
- Vote account
- The on-chain account a validator uses to register for consensus and receive delegated stake. You delegate to this address, not the validator's identity key.
- Warm-up period
- After creating or activating stake, SOL does not earn full rewards until it completes warm-up across one or more epochs. Duration depends on network conditions.