Solana Foundation Ditches Lazy Validators, Replaces Them with New Blood

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In a move that might make some of Solana’s laziest validators sweat, the Solana Foundation has decided to shake things up. The new policy—get this—removes three existing validators for every fresh face they let into their Delegation Program. Ah, the sweet sound of competition.

The mission behind this sudden policy change is to curb the Foundation’s reliance on its own delegation system. In short, they want to get rid of the dead weight and encourage the validators who actually *do* something. A noble cause, no doubt.

The Solana Foundation’s Big, Bold Validator Overhaul

Ben Hawkins, the Head of the Staking Ecosystem (yes, that’s an actual title), broke the news to the Discord masses, while Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius, took his thoughts to X (formerly known as Twitter, but let’s not go there).

“Starting now, for every new validator that gets onboarded into SFDP’s mainnet delegation, we will kindly ask three existing ones to pack their bags—if they meet our oh-so-specific criteria,” he said, in what I imagine was a tone of thinly veiled excitement.

The criteria? Oh, they’re just your basic list of reasons to feel bad about yourself. First, if a validator has less than 1,000 SOL in external stake—goodbye, you’re out. If you’ve been sitting around for 18 months without being helpful in any significant way—yep, it’s time for you to leave. No one wants to be that “VINO”—Validator in Name Only, a term coined by Lily Liu, President of the Solana Foundation. Sounds like a fun title, doesn’t it?

Hawkins, ever the optimist, emphasized that the move is a big step towards true decentralization. The idea is to move away from the Foundation’s cozy centralized nest and make space for those daring enough to contribute to the ecosystem. You know, the kind of validators who don’t just show up to the party, but actually bring something to the table.

“In the long run, this will lead to more efficient network operations,” said Hawkins, probably while dreaming of a world where every validator is a superstar.

“This move towards disintermediation is a huge win for Solana. It’s basically the greatest thing since sliced bread,” commented one enthusiastic user on X, likely wearing a Solana T-shirt as they typed.

The Solana Foundation’s Delegation Program has long been a cornerstone of the network’s validator ecosystem. If you’re new to this, the SFDP aims to support validators who keep the network decentralized and—hopefully—resilient. No pressure, right?

The program offers several perks, including covering vote costs for the first year (with a slow, inevitable decline thereafter), and a matching stake of up to 100,000 SOL from the Foundation. The perks don’t end there! Any remaining SOL within the Foundation gets spread out like a birthday cake to the validators that meet the performance requirements. But of course, you need to prove you’re worth it by running a Solana validator on the testnet. Because, why not make things just a little more complicated?

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2025-04-24 14:42