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---
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title: Staking on Solana
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---
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_Note before reading: All references to increases in values are in absolute
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terms with regards to balance of SOL.
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This document makes no suggestion as to the monetary value of SOL at any time._
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Staking your SOL tokens on Solana is the best way you can help secure the world's
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highest-performing blockchain network, and
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[earn rewards](implemented-proposals/staking-rewards.md) for doing so!
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Solana is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network with delegations, which means that
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anyone who holds SOL tokens can choose to delegate some of their SOL to one or
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more validators, who process transactions and run the network.
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Delegating stake is a shared-risk shared-reward financial model that may provide
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returns to holders of tokens delegated for a long period.
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This is achieved by aligning the financial incentives of the token-holders
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(delegators) and the validators to whom they delegate.
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The more stake a validator has delegated to them, the more often this validator
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is chosen to write new transactions to the ledger. The more transactions
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the validator writes, the more rewards they and their delegators earn.
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Validators who configure their systems to be able to process more transactions
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at a time not only earn proportionally more rewards for doing so, they also
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keep the network running as fast and as smoothly as possible.
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Validators incur costs by running and maintaining their systems, and this is
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passed on to delegators in the form of a fee collected as a percentage of
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rewards earned. This fee is known as a _commission_. As validators earn more
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rewards the more stake is delegated to them, they may compete with one another
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to offer the lowest commission for their services, in order to attract more
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delegated stake.
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There is a risk of loss of tokens when staking, through a process known as
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_slashing_. Slashing involves the removal and destruction of a portion of a
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validator's delegated stake in response to intentional malicious behavior,
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such as creating invalid transactions or censoring certain types of transactions
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or network participants.
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If a validator is slashed, all token holders who have delegated stake to that
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validator will lose a portion of their delegation. While this means an immediate
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loss for the token holder, it also is a loss of future rewards for the validator
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due to their reduced total delegation. More details on the slashing roadmap can
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be found
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[here](proposals/optimistic-confirmation-and-slashing.md#slashing-roadmap).
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It is the goal of the network rewards and slashing to align both validators'
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and token holders' financial incentives, which in turn help keeps the network
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secure, robust and performing at its best.
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## How do I stake my SOL tokens?
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In order to stake tokens on Solana, you first will need to transfer some SOL
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into a wallet that supports staking, then follow the steps or instructions
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provided by the wallet to create a stake account and delegate your stake.
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Different wallets will vary slightly in their process for this but the general
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description is below.
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#### Supported Wallets
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Staking operations are supported by the following wallet solutions:
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- SolFlare.com in conjunction with a keystore file or a Ledger Nano.
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Check out our [guide to using SolFlare](wallet-guide/solflare.md) for details.
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- Solana command line tools can perform all stake operations in conjunction
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with a CLI-generated keypair file wallet, a paper wallet, or with a connected
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Ledger Nano.
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[Staking commands using the Solana Command Line Tools](cli/delegate-stake.md).
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- [Exodus](https://www.exodus.com/) wallet. They make the process very simple,
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but you cannot choose a validator: they assign you to their partner validator.
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See their [FAQ](https://support.exodus.com/article/1551-solana-staking-faq)
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for details.
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- [Binance](https://www.binance.com/) and [FTX](https://ftx.com/) exchanges.
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Note that you cannot choose a validator with these services: they assign you
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to their partner validator.
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#### Create a Stake Account
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A stake account is a different type of account from a wallet address
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that is used to simply send and receive SOL tokens to other addresses. If you
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have received SOL in a wallet address you control, you can use some of
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these tokens to create and fund a new stake account, which will have a different
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address than the wallet you used to create it.
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Depending on which wallet you are using the steps to create a stake account
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may vary slightly. Not all wallets support stake accounts, see
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[Supported Wallets](#supported-wallets).
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#### Select a Validator
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After a stake account is created, you will likely want to delegate the SOL
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to a validator node. Below are a few places where you can get information about
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the validators who are currently participating in running the network.
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The Solana Labs team and the Solana Foundation do not recommend any particular
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validator.
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The Mainnet Beta validators introduce themselves and their services on this
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Solana Forum thread:
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- https://forums.solana.com/t/validator-information-thread
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The site solanabeach.io is built and maintained by one of our validators,
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Staking Facilities. It provides a some high-level graphical information about
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the network as a whole, as well as a list of each validator and some recent
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performance statistics about each one.
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- https://solanabeach.io
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To view block production statistics, use the Solana command-line tools:
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- `solana validators`
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- `solana block-production`
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The Solana team does not make recommendations on how to interpret this
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information. Potential delegators should do their own due diligence.
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#### Delegate your Stake
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Once you have decided to which validator or validators you will delegate, use
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a supported wallet to delegate your stake account to the validator's vote
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account address.
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## Stake Account Details
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For more information about the operations and permissions associated with a
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stake account, please see [Stake Accounts](staking/stake-accounts.md)
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