❓ Approved validator FAQs
Answers to the questions approved validators ask us most.
Common questions from validators on the approved list. For how stake reaches you, start with the Delegation onboarding guide.
Getting set up
Do I need to do anything after approval?
No. The stakebot includes you automatically. To receive stake from the buckets you need to qualify for them: the top 100 by direct stake, or the top 50 approved validators with 0% base and 0% MEV commission by vote credits.
How do I get the Validators role in Discord?
Open a support ticket and ask staff for the Validators role. It gives you access to the validator channels.
Can I get a direct line to the team?
Yes. Ask in a support ticket for a private Telegram group with staff, and include your Telegram username.
Stake
When will I see stake?
Allocations update every three hours. A new allocation ramps up over several epochs, up to about five, because of Solana's warm-up rules and rebalancing.
Why did my stake drop?
Usually because the validator left one of the bucket rankings: the top 50 by vote credits for Elite Performance, or the top 100 for Direct Stake Leaders, whose cutoff moves as other validators add stake. The leaderboards are posted in The Vault Discord and updated daily at midnight UTC. An invoice unpaid for 20 epochs also blocks delegation from both buckets.
How do I get into the Direct Stake Leaders bucket?
Have more direct stake through The Vault than the validator in position 100. Direct stake to your own validator counts, and so does vSOL your community directs to you, including through Kamino Multiply. The cutoff changes over time; the SOL floor on the validators page shows it.
How do I qualify for the Elite Performance bucket?
Run 0% base and 0% MEV commission and rank in the top 50 approved validators by vote credits. Vote credits are totaled over the last 10 epochs, so a performance issue takes 10 epochs to wash out.
Does a commission change affect my stake?
Yes. The Elite Performance bucket needs 0% base and 0% MEV commission, and staying approved needs a base commission of at most 5% and an MEV commission of at most 10%. Raising your commission above 5% or your MEV commission above 10% (the Solana Foundation Delegation Program criteria), even for one epoch, can block your stake for 10 epochs.
A commission above 0% doesn't shut you out: within those limits you can still receive stake from the Direct Stake Leaders bucket by ranking in the top 100 by direct stake, and from gauges.
How should I approach gauges and Votex?
Plan about three weeks ahead and favor lower bids. Votes last one voting epoch, so renew them every week. Gauge stake is moved by the same stakebot as pool stake, which moves a limited amount at a time to protect vSOL's APY. See Votex quick start guide.
Invoices
How do I pay my Stake-as-a-Service invoices?
On the validator dashboard: click your validator, connect your wallet and pay the outstanding invoices in vSOL or SOL. To pay them automatically, set up the SaaS payment bot, which checks for outstanding invoices once a day and pays them from a payer wallet you choose. See Pay your fees automatically.
Can I get reminders?
Yes. Use /register <vote account> in The Vault Discord to get a daily alert at 01:00 UTC while your validator has unpaid epochs, and /unregister to stop. The alerts track unpaid invoices, not your wallet balance.
What happens if I don't pay?
If an invoice stays unpaid for 20 epochs, the stakebot blocks delegation to your validator from the Direct Stake Leaders and Elite Performance buckets until your invoices are settled. You stay on the approved list.
Help
Something on the dashboard looks wrong. What do I do?
Open a support ticket with your validator's vote account and what you see, and the team will check it.