WEN SOL $1000?
Yes, that’s the question we ask ourselves every day — actually, more like “what can I do to make it happen”, but it wouldn’t make an equally great headline.
So, what does the team behind JPool do for the Solana blockchain? Our main goals are to improve its stability and decentralisation, as well as promote the mass adoption of Solana.
To achieve these goals, the blockchain needs more validators, better validators, and efficient distribution of stake among them.
jFactory, the team behind JPool, has dedicated years to building solutions contributing to Solana’s success. Apart from JPool itself, we have created several other projects that make the chain stronger.
Smart Validator Toolkit (SVT)
SVT is a free-to-use set of tools for the validator community that not only helps node operators quickly launch a new validator, but also offers valuable tools for monitoring, alerting, performance analysis, as well as bookkeeping and financial reporting.
Validators running SVT win in both efficiency and reliability. There is no fee for using it, and the core features will remain free forever; the SVT team also runs a Telegram support group helping Solana validators with their technical issues. One of the side benefits of bootstrapping your node with SVT: it ensures uniform server configuration, making troubleshooting much easier both for the operator and our friendly support group.
There are currently 310 nodes registered with SVT, and we sincerely hope this number grows to at least 50% of all Solana validators.
Staking.Kiwi
Staking.Kiwi, a Solana delegator’s dashboard, helps SOL holders select the best validator for their staking needs, track and manage their staked portfolio.
With its user-friendly, clear and informative interface, the dashboard supports both validators and stake pools. It includes a number of handy features such as built-in stake performance tracking and analysis tools: browse and filter validators, manage your stake, and more. There are also integrated DeFi instruments: liquidity pools, lending solutions, and more.
Both validators and delegators will find a useful financial reporting feature to assist with their tax accounting needs.
Check it out if you haven’t already.
JPool’s fees go towards supporting Solana
A significant share of the fee revenue is spent to partially cover the further development and maintenance of the above solutions. We believe that the efforts going into strengthening the blockchain ultimately benefit our own projects and our bottomline.
The strategy so far
Up to now, JPool’s strategy was focussed on delegating to highest APY nodes, with the exception of “supermajority” validators. The validator distribution in terms of geography and data centres was of course also taken into account.
Basically, the APY metric represents the node’s performance and contribution to the functioning of the Solana blockchain; it is also, obviously, one of the most important parameters our delegators are looking at.
However, with our overarching mission of making Solana great again in mind, it is time to update that strategy to align it with the team’s goals.
JPool’s stake distribution strategy going forward
Adding validators to the Pool
Validators running SVT are automatically considered for the pool (conditions apply — see below); we believe that using SVT on a validator node is good for the blockchain, and JPool provides an incentive to do so.
If you are already running a validator or plan to bootstrap one, take a look at https://svt.one: once again, it’s free, it can improve your node’s performance while making your life easier — and it also makes it easier to help you, should you run into any issues with your setup. And you will get some stake from JPool. A no-brainer, really.
JPool will also keep adding validators that make it into the Top 30 by APY (looking at the 10-epoch indicators). High APY reflects several important metrics, such as the node’s uninterrupted operation, sufficiently powerful server hardware and a strong connection, as well as dedication of the operator running the validator.
The following conditions must be satisfied before a validator is added to JPool, be it a node running SVT or a high-performance node:
- Validator may not belong to the supermajority (Top 20 by total stake)
- Validator must not be operated by a person running one of the supermajority validators
- Validator must have a logo and a website
- Validator must have been active for at least 10 epochs
The algorithms for stake distribution between the validators in the pool remain unchanged so far as described in the JPool docs.
Validator support: TVL is not everything
Providing stake to validators is great, but there are several other opportunities of helping them out that we see and intend to take.
One of the interesting new features currently in the works: a stake-to-support option. Do you want to support validators run by women? or perhaps the zero carbon footprint nodes? The choice is yours. We will set up several such categories and use Zero Knowledge–based Web3 identity management offered by Albus Protocol to make sure your SOL are going to the right validators.
Another feature envisions special increased delegation to ‘common good’ validators: if you are running a project that benefits the community, and your validator’s earnings go towards funding that project, you can take advantage of additional stake from JPool. Reach out to delegation@jfactory.ch and tell us about the project, we’ll be glad to review and provide additional stake to eligible validators.
We appreciate your feedback
Whether you are running a validator of your own, or hodl and stake SOL, or just want to share your ideas on how we could improve JPool or any of jFactory’s other solutions, we’d love to have you in the jFactory Telegram community: https://t.me/jpoolsolana.
See you there!
