Validator Onboarding#

Guide for validators joining Marinade's Stake Auction Marketplace (SAM).

Prerequisites#

Before joining SAM, ensure your validator meets these requirements:

Onboarding Steps#

Step 1: Meet Eligibility Criteria#

SAM has eligibility requirements to protect stakers:

graph TD
    A[New Validator] --> B{Meets Criteria?}
    B -->|Yes| C[Eligible for SAM]
    B -->|No| D[Improve Metrics]
    D --> A

Eligibility factors:

• Performance history
• Commission rate
• Decentralization contribution
• No slashing history

Step 2: Create a Bond#

Validators must post a SOL bond for PSR protection:

Example: To receive up to 1,000,000 SOL, maintain a 100 SOL bond.

Use the Bond Calculator to estimate your requirements.

Step 3: Submit Bids#

Once eligible, participate in SAM auctions:

graph LR
    A[Set Bid Rate] --> B[Submit to SAM]
    B --> C[Auction Runs]
    C --> D{Winning Bid?}
    D -->|Yes| E[Receive Stake]
    D -->|No| F[Adjust Bid]

Bidding considerations:

• Higher bids = more likely to receive stake
• Bid = percentage of rewards shared with protocol
• Balance competitiveness with profitability

Step 4: Maintain Performance#

After receiving stake:

• Maintain high uptime (99%+ target)
• Keep commission stable
• Monitor bond levels
• Respond to performance issues quickly

Bond Management#

Creating a Bond#

# Create bond account
marinade-cli create-bond --amount <SOL_AMOUNT>

Adding to Bond#

# Add more SOL to existing bond
marinade-cli fund-bond --amount <SOL_AMOUNT>

Withdrawing Excess Bond#

# Withdraw bond above requirements
marinade-cli withdraw-bond --amount <SOL_AMOUNT>

SAM Bidding#

Setting Your Bid#

Bids are expressed as basis points (bps) of rewards:

Bid Strategy#

Consider:

• Current market rates - Check what others bid
• Your costs - Ensure profitability
• Target stake - Higher bids attract more stake
• Competition - Adjust based on market

Monitoring Bids#

Track your position:

• Validators API - Get bid data
• Validator Dashboard - Visual overview

PSR Obligations#

As a SAM validator, you're part of Protected Staking Rewards:

Performance Monitoring#

Marinade monitors:

• Vote success rate
• Block production
• Commission changes
• Uptime

Bond Claims#

If you underperform:

1. System detects missed rewards
2. Bond automatically compensates stakers
3. You're notified of bond reduction
4. Top up bond to maintain eligibility

Best Practices#

Infrastructure#

• Redundancy - Multiple nodes, failover systems
• Monitoring - 24/7 alerting
• Updates - Stay current with Solana releases
• Security - Protect keys, secure infrastructure

Communication#

• Announce maintenance - Notify community
• Respond to issues - Quick communication builds trust
• Engage - Participate in Marinade Discord

Optimization#

• Geographic diversity - Help decentralization
• Competitive commission - Attract directed stake
• Quality over quantity - Focus on performance

Resources#

• SAM Documentation
• PSR Documentation
• Bond Calculator
• Validator Bonds Repo
• Discord: #validators channel

Support#

For validator-specific questions:

• Discord: discord.gg/marinade - #validators
• Email: validators@marinade.finance

FAQ#

Next Steps#