Solana Foundation Program Requires Validators to Run Their Own Nodes
The program’s 12-month term starts when a validator first qualifies for Foundation stake on mainnet. Its published exit rules still give conflicting thresholds for outside stake.

The Solana Foundation Delegation Program requires participating validators to operate their own nodes, placing responsibility for running the infrastructure on each operator. Solana Foundation Vice President Jacob Creech described the program’s limits and its continuing role in supporting newer validators.
The program, known as SFDP, provides Solana (SOL) stake to eligible validators. Its 12-month membership term begins with the first mainnet epoch in which a validator qualifies for Foundation stake. Creech has described the 100-validator cap as an existing program rule.
The published rules contain conflicting outside-stake exit thresholds.
SFDP was designed to help new validators join the Solana network, support testnet operations and let operators try network updates before deployment. The Foundation plans to expand separate stake delegations for validators that make major contributions to the ecosystem.