How do you become a Solana validator?

To become a Solana validator, you run validator software such as Agave or Firedancer on a dedicated server, create the keys and accounts the network needs, and then persuade SOL holders to delegate stake to you. It takes serious hardware and ongoing work. The role itself is explained in what is a validator.

What are the Solana validator requirements?

Anza's docs, as of November 2026, set out these recommendations for a validator:

• Processor: 12 cores and 24 threads or more, at 2.8GHz or faster, AMD Gen 3 or Intel Ice Lake or newer.
• Memory: 256GB or more, ideally error-correcting (ECC).
• Storage: Separate NVMe drives of at least 1TB for accounts, 1TB for the ledger and 500GB for snapshots.
• Network: A public IPv4 address and at least 2 Gbit/s symmetric for a staked node, with 10 Gbit/s recommended.

The docs say there is no strict minimum SOL balance, apart from a small reserve to keep the vote account open. Firedancer, covered in what is Firedancer, publishes its own, similar list.

How do you run a Solana validator?

Anza's setup guide starts on testnet, which it calls a good place to practice. The main steps are:

1. On a trusted computer, create three keypairs: an identity key, a vote account key and an authorized withdrawer key.
2. Fund the identity and create the vote account.
3. Start the validator and wait for it to catch up.
4. Run it as a system service with log rotation.

The withdrawer key controls the vote account's funds, so the guide says never to keep it on the validator machine. Many operators hold it in a hardware wallet or multisig.

What are Solana vote costs?

This changed in 2026. Under the old TowerBFT system, every vote was a transaction, and Anza's docs still say voting could cost up to 1.1 SOL a day. Under Alpenglow, which went live on October 21, 2026, votes are sent directly between validators and carry no fees.

Instead, each voting validator pays a Validator Admission Ticket of 0.8 SOL per epoch, charged one epoch ahead from the vote account and burned. A validator that cannot pay sits out the next epoch and earns no rewards for it. See what is Solana Alpenglow for the wider change.

How do Solana validator rewards work?

Income comes from three places:

• Staking rewards. New SOL is issued each epoch, and validators keep a commission on what their delegators earn. Helius wrote in 2024 that this commission is most of a typical validator's income.
• Block fees. Half of each base fee is burned, and since February 2025 the block producer keeps all priority fees, The Defiant reported.
• MEV tips. Validators running Jito-Solana can receive tips for bundles of transactions, much of which is passed to stakers.

The Solana Foundation Delegation Program can add stake to smaller validators. As of November 2026, it requires a commission of no more than 5%, an MEV commission of no more than 10% and regular participation on testnet. Delegators choose validators as described in how to stake Solana.