Eligibility and slot allocation

Baseline requirements

Every validator in JPool must meet these requirements:

• Not on any blacklist (Solana Foundation, Jito Foundation, or internal)
• Not in the superminority
• Total stake under 750,000 SOL
• Commission ≤ 10% on inflation and MEV rewards
• Published name and avatar
• No suspicious or poor performer flags
• Active JSOL bond posted (minimum 1 SOL)

The Cascade: how slots are allocated

The total number of available slots in JPool is calculated by dividing Total Value Locked (in SOL) by 10,000. This means one new validator slot for every 10,000 SOL in TVL.

Validator slots are allocated through a cascading priority system. Unused slots from higher-priority tiers flow down to the next:

Priority	Category	Allocation	Who qualifies
1	Community Good (CG)	40%	Validators with approved CG status
2	Direct Stake (DS)	40% + CG overflow	Validators with direct stake delegations
3	Performance	20% minimum + DS overflow	Top-30 APY validators (past 10-epoch average)

CG overflow: If there are fewer CG validators than slots available, unused slots go to Direct Stake.

DS overflow: If there are fewer DS validators than available slots, unused slots go to Performance.

Performance floor: Performance always gets at least 20% of total slots, so high-APY operators are never fully crowded out.

Within-tier ranking

Within each tier, validators compete on merit:

Community Good, ranked by:

1. Ecosystem impact score (CG score assigned by the review committee)
2. Direct stake size
3. APY

Direct Stake, ranked by:

1. Direct stake size
2. APY

Minimum 10 SOL direct stake to qualify for a DS slot. Validators below 10 SOL still receive their direct stake but no matching.

Performance, ranked by:

1. APY-30 (30-epoch average)
2. APY-10 (10-epoch average)
3. APY-3 (3-epoch average)
4. Current APY
5. Validator age

Performance always gets at least 20% of total slots, so high-APY operators are never fully crowded out.

INFO

If you are running a validator or plan to bootstrap one, check out SVT. It's a free validator management tool that can improve your node's performance and make your life easier.

Operations

Rebalancing

Stake changes are gradual, with no sudden large shifts:

• Maximum 2.5% total pool change per epoch
• Full rebalance every 2 epochs (migration period), then every 5 epochs
• Up to 10 new validators per epoch
• Direct stake delegation available instantly

Hot standby

10 standby validators are always ready to fill any slot that opens from removal or suspension, ranked by 10-epoch APY and promoted automatically.

Suspension and recovery

Bond health below 50% triggers suspension (delegation zeroed). Standard validators have 5 epochs to recover; DS-protected validators get 10 epochs. Failure to recover means permanent removal.

Instant removal

The following conditions trigger instant removal from the program:

• Commission > 10%
• Total stake > 750K SOL
• Added to a blacklist
• Entering the superminority
• Missing name or avatar

INFO

If you believe your validator was unfairly removed from the Program, please contact us and we will help you solve the problem.