🎯 Directed Staking
Directed Staking lets jagSOL holders decide where part of JagPool's stake goes. You hold jagSOL, you point it at the validator you want to support, and the pool backs your choice with real SOL delegation — at no cost and no risk to you.
⚡ TL;DR
- If you stake with JagPool: point your jagSOL at your favorite validator. It costs nothing, changes nothing about your yield, and you can switch anytime.
- If you run a validator: every jagSOL pointed at you attracts real stake from the pool's regional budget. The fewer validators participating, the bigger your share — early movers get the best rates.
💡 The idea in one picture
jagSOL holders JagPool regional budget
────────────── ───────────────────────
Alice (2 jagSOL) ──► Validator A 100 SOL
Bob (1 jagSOL) ──► Validator A │
Carol (1 jagSOL) ──► Validator B ▼
shared every epoch,
Validator A: 3 jagSOL ──────────► in proportion to the
Validator B: 1 jagSOL ──────────► jagSOL behind each one
Result: A receives 75 SOL · B receives 25 SOL
Each supported region (LATAM, APAC) has a stake budget reserved for community choices. Every epoch, the budget is delegated to the validators the community points at, in proportion to the jagSOL backing each one — up to a maximum per validator. That's the entire mechanism — no formulas needed.
Budget no community has claimed yet simply stays with the pool's regular delegation strategy until more communities join. And when a budget is fully claimed, governance can grow it — so early regions keep expanding as adoption proves itself. The live numbers (budget, claimed, per-validator maximum) are always visible on jagpool.xyz/direct-stake.
🙋 For stakers
Three steps
- Hold jagSOL — your voting weight equals your balance.
- Pick one validator on jagpool.xyz/direct-stake.
- Sign one message with your wallet — a plain sentence, not a transaction.
What does not change for you
- Your SOL never moves. You keep holding jagSOL exactly as before; the pool redirects its own delegation.
- Your yield is unchanged. Directing is not a trade-off — it's free influence.
- No lock, no fee. Sign again to switch validators anytime (one wallet backs one validator at a time).
When it takes effect
Your directive activates at the next epoch (roughly 2–3 days). From then on, your weight is your jagSOL balance, re-checked every epoch — if you sell your jagSOL, your support fades with it.
🛡️ For validators
How matching reaches you
Get your community to hold jagSOL and point it at your validator. Every epoch, the regional budget is split among pointed validators by jagSOL weight — your share of the community's conviction becomes your share of the budget.
Your recruiting pitch fits in one line: "Hold jagSOL, point it at us, and the pool matches it with real stake — the earlier, the stronger."
Why early pays
Early communities fill their validator's maximum with the least jagSOL — while slots are free, a small community can claim a full slot. Once enough communities join, shares drop below the maximum and everyone competes purely by jagSOL weight: the easy fills are gone. Check each region's claimed budget and maximum on jagpool.xyz/direct-stake.
One thing worth knowing before you do the arithmetic yourself: the budget is fixed, so every jagSOL added to a region lowers the rate for everyone — including the community that just added it. Multiply today's rate by the jagSOL you plan to rally and you'll come out short, because that rate won't survive your own arrival. The figure below does the calculation properly.
Track where you stand
Guessing is expensive here, so the pool publishes the numbers:
api-v2.jagpool.xyz/api/directed-stake/validators
For every validator in the pool, you'll find:
demand_jagsol | what your community holds that counts — wallets below the minimum are already excluded |
matched_sol | the stake you're receiving from the budget right now |
jagsol_to_reach_cap | how much more jagSOL would fill your slot — 0 if you're already there |
capped | whether your slot is full |
incoming_demand_jagsol | directives that activate at the next epoch, not yet counted |
min_jagsol_per_wallet | the minimum each supporter's wallet must hold |
region_demand_jagsol | what your whole region holds today — the yardstick for the next line |
cap_holds_until_region_demand_jagsol | how far your region can grow before your slot stops being full |
cap_holds_beyond_probed_demand_jagsol | set instead when your region's current communities can't reach you however they grow; it carries how far we looked |
jagsol_to_reach_cap is the number to build a campaign on. It accounts for the dilution above and for what every other community is doing, and it moves as they move — so check it again before you set a target.
If your slot can't be filled at all — the region is closed, or its budget is smaller than the per-validator maximum — the response says so rather than handing you a number that no amount of jagSOL would satisfy.
A full slot is not a finished job
Once your slot is full, jagsol_to_reach_cap reads 0. On its own that looks like you're done — and for the validator with the thinnest margin in a region, it's the opposite of true.
Your slot stays full only while your share of the region's budget stays above the maximum, and your share falls as the rest of the region grows. So compare two numbers:
region_demand_jagsol— where your region is todaycap_holds_until_region_demand_jagsol— where it stops being enough
A validator reading 240 against a region already at 236 is holding its slot by a margin one community can erase. More jagSOL won't earn it another lamport today, but it moves that threshold out — it's what keeps the slot next month.
That is not a hypothetical. Six APAC validators held full slots on the day this figure was published, all six reading jagsol_to_reach_cap: 0, and the spread between them was enormous:
| Its community holds | Its slot survives until the region reaches |
|---|---|
| 4.5 jagSOL | 240 — 2% growth away |
| 8.5 jagSOL | 260 — 10% |
| 11.8 jagSOL | 280 — 18% |
| 40.0 jagSOL | 479 — 103% |
| 49.7 jagSOL | 560 — 137% |
| 107.1 jagSOL | 1,169 — 395% |
The one reading 2% lost its slot that same afternoon. Its own community hadn't sold a single jagSOL — four other validators gained about 10 between them, and that was the whole story.
Read cap_holds_beyond_probed_demand_jagsol instead and the answer is the other one: nothing the region's current communities can do will reach you, so spend the effort elsewhere.
Neither field appears if your slot isn't full — there's nothing to defend yet, and a 0 there would read like you were about to lose something.
What the number does and doesn't cover
It measures one thing: the communities already in your region growing. That's the pressure you can see coming, and it's the one your own recruiting answers.
Two things it deliberately leaves out, both worth holding in mind:
- jagSOL pointed at a validator whose slot is already full does nothing — that's the anti-whale rule below, and it means growth only squeezes you when it lands on validators below the maximum. A region where everyone's slot is full can't dilute anyone; that's why those validators read "comfortable".
- A new validator joining your region is a different event. It arrives below the maximum, so it dilutes from day one — and no figure published today can anticipate it.
Which is why a comfortable answer in a region with spare budget is comfortable because of that spare budget. Filling it is exactly what recruiting is for. The day your region fills, the thinnest margins go first — and yours moves without your community doing anything at all.
The anti-whale rule
No validator can receive more than the per-validator maximum of the current budget. Once your slot is full, extra jagSOL pointed at you attracts nothing more — a large treasury can't buy a region's budget by piling onto one validator. Spreading support across several validators is the winning move, and that's by design: directed staking rewards genuine, distributed communities.
🧮 A simple example
Say a region's budget is 100 SOL, with a maximum of 20 SOL per validator:
| Situation | Stake received |
|---|---|
| Validator A alone | A: 20 — the rest of the budget waits |
| Three communities | 20 each — 60/100 claimed |
| Five communities | 20 each — budget fully claimed 🎉 |
| A sixth community joins | shares drop below 20 — everyone competes by jagSOL weight again |
The maximum is a ceiling, not a reserved seat: arriving early means claiming a full slot with little competition; after the budget fills, only your community's jagSOL weight defends your share — and governance can then grow the budget for the next round.
⚖️ The rules that keep it fair
- One wallet, one validator, full weight — no splitting, no percentages, one clear choice.
- Weight is a verified balance, snapshotted every epoch. Splitting funds across wallets gains nothing; selling your jagSOL removes your weight at the next snapshot.
- A minimum jagSOL balance per wallet — and it's all-or-nothing. A wallet below the minimum counts for zero, not for a smaller share. Ten supporters just under the line bring nothing at all; one supporter above it brings its full weight. If you're rallying a community, make sure each wallet clears the minimum.
- Per-region budgets and caps are set by governance and adjustable at any time — regions can open, grow, or close without code changes.
❓ FAQ
Does my SOL move when I direct? No. Your jagSOL stays in your wallet. The pool re-arranges its own delegation to honor your choice.
Can I split my weight between two validators? No — by design. One wallet backs one validator with its full weight. Use a second wallet if you truly want to support two.
What happens if I sell my jagSOL? Your weight follows your balance: at the next epoch snapshot, your directive carries whatever you still hold.
What does it cost? Nothing. No transaction, no fee, no yield impact — just a signed message.
Where do I see the current matching rate? On the Direct Stake page — each open region shows its live rate, budget, and community demand.
(Validators) How much more jagSOL do we need to fill our slot?
Read jagsol_to_reach_cap for your vote account at api-v2.jagpool.xyz/api/directed-stake/validators. Don't compute it from the rate: adding demand lowers the rate, so that estimate always falls short.
(Validators) One of our supporters holds a little under the minimum. Does it help a bit? No — it counts for zero. Getting that one wallet above the line is worth more than adding several below it.