Tiered Delegation
Our Delegation strategy follows a tiered system.
The AeroPool Tier System prioritizes smaller, early-stage validators while fostering Solana’s decentralization and ecosystem growth. With four distinct tiers, this system ensures targeted support for a range of validators. Stake amounts are dynamic and may change over time to adapt to the evolving needs of the ecosystem.
Tier re-ranking will be decided every other Friday. Rebalancing and delegation is an ongoing process with a target to be executed with updated tiers bi-weekly at maximum.
Stake Allocation Model
Tier 1: 15,000 SOL + Residual Stake
Tier 2: 10,000 SOL + Residual Stake
Tier 3: 5,000 SOL
Tier 4: 2,500 SOL
Tier 1
Reserved for specific use cases that directly align with Aero's mission of supporting ecosystem contributors. This level of delegation can provide a maximum amount of impact for a new/newer validator, act as a source of liquidity for a startup, or support ecosystem initiatives. It provides the resources necessary to become profitable and grow.
New/newer/small validators
Specific goals which increased delegation can be met
Pre-funded/bootstrapped Solana startups
Validators with specific ecosystem missions (new validator clients, infrastructure)
No minimum or maximum stake required, delegation is at the discretion of Aero team
Tier 2
Supports new/newer validators in addition to existing ecosystem contributors. Provides initial stake to operators who specifically were onboarded with Aero while they grow, contribute, and achieve operational confidence. This tier is meant to be temporary while operators find ways of attracting outside stake through various means.
New/newer/small validators
SFDP Participants who have not maxed out their match
Ideal maximum stake of ~127,000 SOL at time of delegation (50K outside SFDP)
Actively working towards increasing outside stake including but not limited to: JPool, Jito, xSHIN, The Vault, Marinade, etc
Contribute to Aero through asking questions and helping answer them in Telegram, updating Aero profiles, attracting stake to the pool, suggesting/implementing improvements to Aero as a whole
Tier 3
Provides stake to validators and operators who contribute to the Solana ecosystem. Aims to be a longer-term tier for contributors and active community members.
Solana Ecosystem Contributors
Active and engaged Aero community members
Ideal maximum stake of ~220,000 SOL (100% SFDP matched) at time of delegation
Onboarding tier for rebalancing
Tier 4
Entry-level and long-term support stake tier which has various goals
Geographic delegation
Decentralization
Longer-term support of larger, self-sufficient validators
Public goods, charitable causes, fundraising etc
Onboarding tier for rebalancing
Residual Stake
Stake that remains after delegating the base amount from the tiers will be split evenly amongst the Tier 1 and Tier 2 validator set.
We reserve the right to use discretion when delegating, we take performance, software version, recent uptime, and other operational qualities into consideration.
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