Where your Staking Rewards come from

When you use a crypto staking calculator to estimate your potential earnings, it’s important to understand where your rewards actually come from. In the case of SOL, your earnings are generated mainly through inflation rewards and MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) rewards. Keep in mind that most validators take a commission, which reduces the total payout. Choosing the best staking crypto platform can help you maximize your returns while keeping fees transparent and fair.

The Truth Behind 0% Commission

Inflation rewards are the base layer — they’re paid out by the Solana network to anyone who delegates SOL to help secure the chain. Then there’s MEV: extra rewards that validators earn by producing blocks and optimizing how transactions are ordered inside them. Think of MEV as the “premium yield” — harder to access, but worth it.

Some validators set high commissions (5%, 8%, even 10%) to boost their own profit. Others, like Vladika, take 0% — because we believe in fair distribution. Every single lamport your SOL earns — both from inflation and MEV — is yours. We don’t touch it.

You might be wondering: how do 0% validators stay afloat? The answer is simple — from block production rewards. As long as the validator performs well, stays online, and produces blocks reliably, they’re rewarded directly by the network. In other words, good validators don’t need to take a cut from their stakers to stay profitable.

Why You Should Always Check Commission History

But not all 0% commissions are what they seem. Some validators start at 0% just to attract delegators — and then increase the commission a few epochs later. That’s why it’s important to check the validator’s commission history before staking.

One easy way to do this is through validators.app

Find your validator, go to their profile, and look for the “See commission changes” link in the Validator Details section. This gives you a full history of how often they’ve changed their rates.

If a validator has slowly reduced their commission over time — say, from 10% to 5%, then to 0% — that’s a healthy trend. It shows long-term alignment with stakers and adherence to principles promoted by the Solana Foundation Delegation Program (SFDP).

On the other hand, if you see sudden jumps up and down — going from 0% to 5%, then back to 0%, then up again — that’s a red flag. That validator is playing games with your income. And that’s a game you don’t want to be a part of.

At Vladika, we’ve 0% commission from 2025-04-01, and we don’t plan to change that. What you earn is what you keep — with no fine print, no funny business.