Network

Validator Commission

The percentage of staking rewards that a validator retains before distributing the remainder to its delegators, configurable from 0% to 100%. A validator with 5% commission keeps 5% of all inflation rewards earned by its stake and passes 95% to delegators. Commission rates are set by the validator operator and can be changed at any time, though significant increases may cause delegators to redelegate. Delegators should monitor commission changes as part of validator selection.

IDvalidator-commission

Plain meaning

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The percentage of staking rewards that a validator retains before distributing the remainder to its delegators, configurable from 0% to 100%. A validator with 5% commission keeps 5% of all inflation rewards earned by its stake and passes 95% to delegators. Commission rates are set by the validator operator and can be changed at any time, though significant increases may cause delegators to redelegate. Delegators should monitor commission changes as part of validator selection.

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Validator Commission (validator-commission)
Category: Network
Definition: The percentage of staking rewards that a validator retains before distributing the remainder to its delegators, configurable from 0% to 100%. A validator with 5% commission keeps 5% of all inflation rewards earned by its stake and passes 95% to delegators. Commission rates are set by the validator operator and can be changed at any time, though significant increases may cause delegators to redelegate. Delegators should monitor commission changes as part of validator selection.
Related: Staking Rewards, Validator, Delegator
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Concept graph

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Branch

Staking Rewards

SOL earned by validators and their delegators each epoch as compensation for participating in consensus and securing the network, funded by protocol inflation rather than solely transaction fees. Rewards are proportional to a validator's active stake and are credited at the end of each epoch to stake accounts automatically; the effective APY depends on the current inflation rate, the percentage of total SOL staked, and the validator's commission rate. Validators set a commission (0–100%) representing the fraction of rewards they keep before passing the remainder to delegators.

Branch

Validator

A node that participates in the Solana network by validating transactions, voting on blocks, and (when selected as leader) producing new blocks. Validators run the Agave, Firedancer, or Jito client software, require significant hardware (128+ GB RAM, high-core CPU, NVMe SSD), and earn rewards from inflation and transaction fees.

Branch

Delegator

A SOL holder who delegates tokens to a validator's stake without running a node themselves. Delegators earn a share of inflation rewards proportional to their stake, minus the validator's commission (typically 0-10%). Delegation is non-custodial—the delegator retains the ability to redelegate or withdraw at any time.

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Network

Staking Rewards

SOL earned by validators and their delegators each epoch as compensation for participating in consensus and securing the network, funded by protocol inflation rather than solely transaction fees. Rewards are proportional to a validator's active stake and are credited at the end of each epoch to stake accounts automatically; the effective APY depends on the current inflation rate, the percentage of total SOL staked, and the validator's commission rate. Validators set a commission (0–100%) representing the fraction of rewards they keep before passing the remainder to delegators.

Core Protocol

Validator

A node that participates in the Solana network by validating transactions, voting on blocks, and (when selected as leader) producing new blocks. Validators run the Agave, Firedancer, or Jito client software, require significant hardware (128+ GB RAM, high-core CPU, NVMe SSD), and earn rewards from inflation and transaction fees.

Core Protocol

Delegator

A SOL holder who delegates tokens to a validator's stake without running a node themselves. Delegators earn a share of inflation rewards proportional to their stake, minus the validator's commission (typically 0-10%). Delegation is non-custodial—the delegator retains the ability to redelegate or withdraw at any time.

Network

Vote Credit

A reward tally credited to a validator's vote account each time one of its votes reaches the root (becomes finalized). Vote credits accumulate throughout an epoch and are used at epoch boundaries to calculate staking rewards — validators with more credits earn proportionally more rewards for themselves and their delegators. Credits incentivize consistent, timely voting.

Commonly confused with

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Networkvote-credit

Vote Credit

A reward tally credited to a validator's vote account each time one of its votes reaches the root (becomes finalized). Vote credits accumulate throughout an epoch and are used at epoch boundaries to calculate staking rewards — validators with more credits earn proportionally more rewards for themselves and their delegators. Credits incentivize consistent, timely voting.

Related terms

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Networkstaking-rewards

Staking Rewards

SOL earned by validators and their delegators each epoch as compensation for participating in consensus and securing the network, funded by protocol inflation rather than solely transaction fees. Rewards are proportional to a validator's active stake and are credited at the end of each epoch to stake accounts automatically; the effective APY depends on the current inflation rate, the percentage of total SOL staked, and the validator's commission rate. Validators set a commission (0–100%) representing the fraction of rewards they keep before passing the remainder to delegators.

Core Protocolvalidator

Validator

A node that participates in the Solana network by validating transactions, voting on blocks, and (when selected as leader) producing new blocks. Validators run the Agave, Firedancer, or Jito client software, require significant hardware (128+ GB RAM, high-core CPU, NVMe SSD), and earn rewards from inflation and transaction fees.

Core Protocoldelegator

Delegator

A SOL holder who delegates tokens to a validator's stake without running a node themselves. Delegators earn a share of inflation rewards proportional to their stake, minus the validator's commission (typically 0-10%). Delegation is non-custodial—the delegator retains the ability to redelegate or withdraw at any time.

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Network

Mainnet Beta

Solana's primary production cluster where real SOL and real economic activity occur; the "beta" designation reflects the network's ongoing protocol development despite being fully live since March 2020. It uses the same architecture as other clusters but with real validator stakes, live staking rewards, and permanent on-chain state. All production dApps, tokens, and NFTs exist on Mainnet Beta.

Network

Devnet

A persistent public Solana cluster intended for application development and testing, running the same software version as Mainnet Beta but with no real economic value. Devnet SOL can be freely airdropped via the CLI or faucet APIs, and the ledger may be reset periodically by Solana Labs. Developers use Devnet to test programs and integrations before deploying to Mainnet Beta.

Network

Testnet

A public Solana cluster used primarily by the Solana core team and validators to test new software releases, performance benchmarks, and network upgrades under real network conditions before they reach Mainnet Beta. Testnet SOL has no monetary value, and the ledger is reset more frequently than Devnet; it is less suitable for application development and more suited for validator operators validating their infrastructure.

Network

TPS (Transactions Per Second)

The rate at which a Solana cluster processes and commits transactions; Solana's theoretical maximum exceeds 65,000 TPS due to its parallel execution model, though real-world sustained throughput on Mainnet Beta typically ranges from 2,000–5,000 non-vote TPS under normal load. Vote transactions (used for consensus) make up a significant portion of all on-chain activity and are counted separately. High TPS is enabled by Proof of History timestamps, Sealevel parallel execution, and Gulf Stream mempool-less forwarding.