Validator scoring system

How the Strategy scores validators

The scoring system is subject to change. Please contact us for an up-to-date version.

The Smart Delegation Strategy distributes the score-based stake among validators in proportion to their scores, which are impacted mostly by the validators' APY and stake concentration rates. In addition, the scoring system takes into account the validators.app score and whether a validator is operated using Smart Validator Toolkit (SVT).

For each of the metrics from 1 through 7 in the table below, all possible values across all validators are aggregated into 10 scores of equal value, and the validator receives a score based on its current actual value.

Example

Your validator runs in a data center that hosts several nodes with a total stake of 1M SOL. The data center with the lowest concentration rate has 500K SOL of stake, and the one with the highest concentration houses validators with the total stake of 4.5M SOL.

The range of stake values is from 500,000 to 4,500,000 SOL. It's divided into 10 scores, each equal to 400,000 SOL. Your data center gets a score of 2 (0.5 adjusted for weight).

Metrics table

#	Metric	Min	Max	Weight
1	ASN concentration score*	1	10	0.25
2	Data center concentration score*	1	10	0.25
3	Country concentration score*	1	10	0.25
4	City concentration score*	1	10	0.25
5	Current APY score**	1	10	0.33
6	Avg APY score for 3 epochs**	1	10	0.33
7	Avg APY score for 10 epochs**	1	10	0.33
8	Validators.app score	1	11	1
9	SVT***	0	2	4
	Total, adjusted for weight	3	39	—

* Validator nodes run on servers in data centers. The more stake a group of validators in a single data center attracts from delegators, the higher the concentration of stake in this specific data center. High rates of stake concentration are bad for Solana's health because they bring down the network's decentralization, which can create a point of failure. This is why stake concentration is an important metric to be taken into account.

** Solana's Top 300 validators are used to determine reference points: the highest APY among all validators is used as a maximum reference point, and 300th validator's APY provides the minimum reference point. This applies to the scores of the current APY, APY for 3 epochs, and APY for 10 epochs.

*** Validators running sv-manager receive 1 point; validators running SVT receive 2 points.

If you are running a validator or plan to bootstrap one, check out SVT. It's a free validator management tool that can improve your node’s performance and make your life easier. It also makes it easier to help you, should you run into any issues with your setup.

Community Good score

JPool offers additional stake to operators who use their validator’s earnings to fund a project that benefits the Solana community. The Good Community score is calculated based on the table below.

Parameter	Points
Base points: monetization
Non-commercial project (no paid services)	3
Free or freemium* project	2
Collects commission or subscription fees	0
Bonus points: tracks (can be multiple tracks)**
DEV	+1
PROJECTS	+1
LIQUIDITY	+1
USERS	+1
Bonus points: other
Open-source project	+1
Code under a free license	+1
Founder(s) verified via Albus Protocol	+1
Large audience (1K+, 10K+ MAU)	+1–2
Media bonus (broad coverage in T1/2 outlets)	+2

* Core features are free, and it is reasonable to expect that at least 50% of users will use the service for free

** A project is assigned to one or several of the following tracks:

• DEV: encouraging developers to build on Solana.

• PROJECTS: encouraging projects to expand or port to Solana.

• LIQUIDITY: bringing additional liquidity (investments or TVL) to Solana.

• USERS: attracting new users to Solana.

The resulting score of 1 to 14 is multiplied by 3,000 to determine the total bonus stake, i.e. a maximum score of 14 means up to 42,000 SOL (depending on the number of validators sharing this bucket and the total SOL in the bucket).

Please note: All parameters in the table are subject to change. Bonus points may be adjusted at the discretion of the reviewing committee.

If you think you are eligible, reach out to us and tell us about your project. We’ll be happy to review it and provide the Community Good stake!