Goal: See how staking secures the network and pays rewards.

Cover: Stake accounts, delegation, epochs, warmup and cooldown, vote credits, commission, rewards compounding.

Activity: Track a validator’s performance with a simple rubric.

Takeaway: “I can delegate responsibly.”

1) Module overview

Staking on Solana means you move SOL into a stake account and delegate it to a validator’s vote account. Validators earn vote credits by correctly voting; rewards for each epoch are split by stake weight and participation, then shared between validator and delegators (minus validator commission). Rewards post once per epoch (about every 2 days) and auto‑redelegate into your stake.

Helpful background:

• Stake accounts — what they are and how they differ from a wallet
• Staking overview and rewards timing
• Stake delegation and rewards mechanics (vote credits and points)

2) Core talking points

Stake accounts (your staking “container”)

• Created separate from your main wallet address; they hold staked SOL and have two authorities: a stake authority (delegate, undelegate, split, merge) and a withdraw authority (withdraw inactive SOL). One stake account can delegate to one validator at a time; create multiple stake accounts to diversify. See: Stake accounts

Delegation and vote accounts (who you’re backing)

• You point your stake account at a validator’s vote account. That validator’s correct votes accrue credits; rewards are computed from these credits and your stake weight. See: Delegation and rewards mechanics

Epochs and rewards cadence

• Epoch ≈ 2 days. Rewards are calculated over an epoch and issued at the start of the next epoch, automatically compounding into the stake account. See: Rewards timing