Solana tightens validator funding rules: participation term set at 12 months, exit once external stake exceeds 300,000 SOL

November 10: Solana Foundation Vice President of Technology Jacob Creech published a post responding to recent controversy over changes to the Solana Foundation Delegation Program (SFDP). He explained that the new rules mainly involve four changes: validators' stay in the program is set at 12 months; validators will automatically "graduate" and exit the program when their external stake reaches 300,000 SOL; the program supports at most 100 validators; and project teams are encouraged to run validators independently on their own.

Creech said that as the Solana network has grown in scale, the community has fed back that SFDP is no longer flexible enough. He believes SFDP has completed its early mission, and that the program will enter its next phase, focused on continuing to improve network health and reward ecosystem contributors. SFDP will continue to be reserved for new validators, while the Foundation will also, through delegations outside the program, reward validators that have made significant contributions to network health.