SolStake Advisor
Solana staking FAQ
Clear answers to common questions about validators, liquid staking tokens, and how to pick the right setup for you.
What is staking SOL?
Staking means locking up your SOL to help secure the Solana network. In return, validators (the computers running the network) share a portion of the block rewards they earn with you. It's like earning interest, except instead of a bank, you're backing the infrastructure of a blockchain.
What is a validator?
A validator is a computer (or cluster of computers) that processes transactions and votes on the state of the Solana network. Anyone can stake SOL with a validator — you're essentially delegating your voting power to them and sharing in their rewards. Pick a reliable one and you earn; pick a sloppy one and you miss out.
What is native staking?
Native staking means delegating your SOL directly to a validator through a stake account. Your SOL stays on-chain but is locked — you can't use it in DeFi or transfer it while it's staked. Unstaking takes one full epoch (~2.5 days) to cool down. Best for long-term holders who don't need liquidity.
What is a liquid staking token (LST)?
An LST is a token you receive when you deposit SOL into a staking pool. It represents your staked SOL plus accruing rewards, but it stays liquid — you can trade it, use it as collateral in DeFi, or swap it back to SOL any time. Think of it as a receipt that earns yield while you hold it.
What is APY?
APY stands for Annual Percentage Yield — it's how much you'd earn over a year if you left your stake alone and let rewards compound. Solana staking APY currently runs around 7–9% depending on the validator and network conditions. Small differences in APY add up significantly at scale.
What is commission?
Commission is the cut a validator takes from staking rewards before passing the rest to delegators. A 5% commission means the validator keeps 5% of what they earn and you get the other 95%. Lower isn't always better — a validator with 0% commission that's unreliable will cost you more in missed rewards.
What is skip rate / uptime?
Skip rate is the percentage of leader slots (turns to produce blocks) a validator misses. High skip rate = dropped blocks = lower rewards for you. Uptime measures how consistently the validator is online. You want low skip rate and high uptime — ideally skip rate under 2% and uptime above 99%.
How do LSTs work mechanically?
When you deposit SOL into a staking pool, you receive LST tokens at the current exchange rate. The pool stakes your SOL with validators and accumulates rewards. Over time, each LST becomes redeemable for more SOL than you paid — that's your yield. To exit, you either redeem through the protocol or swap on a DEX.
What are some examples of LSTs?
The big ones on Solana: JitoSOL (Jito Labs, MEV-optimized), mSOL (Marinade, multi-validator), bSOL (BlazeStake, SPL-based), jitoSOL, and hundreds of smaller pools via Sanctum. Each has a different validator selection strategy, fee structure, and liquidity profile. SolStake Advisor helps you compare them.
What is pool depth / liquidity for an LST?
Pool depth refers to how much SOL (and paired assets) are sitting in DEX liquidity pools for a given LST. Deep pools mean you can swap in or out of the LST without moving the price much. Shallow pools mean large trades cause slippage — you get less SOL than expected when exiting. It's the difference between a liquid market and a trap door.
What is an organic trading score?
An organic trading score measures how much of an LST's trading volume comes from real users vs. bots recycling volume back and forth. High organic score = genuine demand. Low organic score = the liquidity might look healthy but it's propped up by automated wash trading. We source this from Jupiter's token intelligence layer.
Why does protocol age matter for an LST?
Newer protocols haven't been battle-tested. Smart contract bugs, tokenomics exploits, and validator selection failures tend to surface in the first year. An LST that's been running for 2+ years has survived real market conditions. Age doesn't guarantee safety, but it's one of the better proxies for it.
What is a Sanctum pool vs an SPL stake pool?
The SPL (Solana Program Library) Stake Pool is the official Solana standard for pooled staking. Sanctum is a protocol built on top of it that adds an infinite liquidity router — meaning you can always redeem your LST for SOL through Sanctum's mechanism even if DEX liquidity is thin. Sanctum-based LSTs have stronger exit guarantees.
What is MEV and why does Jito matter?
MEV stands for Maximal Extractable Value — additional revenue validators can earn by optimizing transaction ordering within a block. Jito is the leading MEV infrastructure on Solana. Validators running Jito software earn MEV tips on top of normal block rewards, which they share with stakers. JitoSOL and other Jito-based LSTs pass this extra yield through to you.
Liquid staking vs native staking — how do I choose?
Choose liquid staking if you want flexibility: use your staked SOL in DeFi, swap it any time, or diversify across many validators easily. Choose native staking if you're a long-term holder who wants simplicity, wants to pick a specific validator directly, or is staking a large amount where slippage on LST swaps matters. Many people do both.
How do I pick a validator?
Focus on skip rate, uptime, commission, and whether they're running MEV-optimized software like Jito. Beyond the numbers, look at whether the validator is independent (vs. exchange-run), geographically distributed, and has a track record. SolStake Advisor surfaces all of this and ranks validators based on your priorities.
What does decentralization mean for validators?
Decentralization means stake is spread across many independent validators rather than concentrated in a few large ones. When too much stake is controlled by a small group, the network is more vulnerable to censorship or collusion. Choosing smaller independent validators over large institutional ones directly improves Solana's resilience.
What is a solo validator vs an institutional validator?
A solo validator is typically an individual or small team running their own hardware. They tend to be more community-aligned and contribute to geographic and client diversity. Institutional validators (exchanges, funds) run large operations with more resources but concentrate stake. Both have tradeoffs — this advisor helps you weigh them against your goals.
What is SolStake Advisor?
SolStake Advisor is a data-driven tool for finding the right Solana staking setup for your goals. Answer a few questions and we match you with LSTs or validators that fit your priorities — whether that's max APY, decentralization, liquidity, or ecosystem alignment. We surface the data; you make the call.
How do risk scores work?
Each LST gets a composite risk score based on six factors: TVL size, liquidity depth, program standard, protocol age, validator distribution, and ecosystem trust signals (including on-chain audit data from Jupiter). Each factor is weighted differently — liquidity and TVL carry the most weight. A higher score means lower risk.
Does SolStake Advisor take custody of my SOL?
No. SolStake Advisor is purely informational. We never ask for your private keys, never move funds, and never take custody of anything. Connect your wallet to analyze your existing positions, but nothing gets signed or submitted without your explicit approval in your own wallet.
How often does the data refresh?
Validator and LST data refreshes daily. Liquidity signals from Flipside refresh weekly. Jupiter pool depth and trust data refresh daily. You'll see a freshness timestamp on data-heavy pages. If something looks stale, the refresh cadence shown there is accurate.