Solana staking comes with a lot of vocabulary. Here is what the terms you will see on our site and in the app actually mean.
APY
The annual percentage yield: what your stake earns over a year, expressed as a percentage, including the effect of rewards compounding. Marinade does not pay a fixed APY. See What APY Does Marinade Pay?
Atomic exchange
A swap that happens in a single transaction: either every part of it succeeds, or none of it does. You cannot end up half-way through with your funds in limbo.
Commission
The cut a validator takes from the staking rewards it earns before passing the rest to its delegators.
Commission rugging
When a validator suddenly raises its commission to capture rewards that would have gone to stakers. Marinade monitors for this and moves stake away from validators that do it.
DCA (dollar cost averaging)
Buying a fixed amount of something at regular intervals rather than all at once, to smooth out the price you pay. With Marinade Recipes, your staking rewards arrive steadily in a token of your choice, which has a similar effect.
Delegation
Assigning your stake to a validator so it helps secure the network and earns rewards. Delegating does not transfer ownership. Your SOL stays yours.
Epoch
Solana's reward cycle, roughly 2 days. Staking rewards are paid out at the end of each epoch, and most staking timings are measured in epochs rather than days.
KYB-verified (Know Your Business)
A validator operator whose legal identity and business details have been verified, rather than being anonymous. Marinade Select validators are KYB-verified.
LST (liquid staking token)
A token that represents staked SOL and can be moved or traded while the underlying SOL stays staked. mSOL is Marinade's LST.
MEV (maximal extractable value)
Extra value validators can capture from the order in which transactions are placed in a block. Some of it is legitimate revenue that gets shared with stakers, and Marinade factors it into validator selection. Some of it is harmful to ordinary users, such as front-running and sandwiching, which is why Marinade Select validators commit to not doing it.
mSOL
Marinade's liquid staking token. Instead of new tokens appearing in your wallet, each mSOL gradually becomes worth more SOL as rewards accrue. See mSOL Explained: Staking Made Liquid
Protected Staking Rewards (PSR)
A system where validators post a SOL bond that can compensate stakers for rewards lost to validator downtime or unexpected commission changes. See What Happens to My Rewards If a Validator Goes Down?
Slashing
A network-level penalty that takes a portion of stake from validators that misbehave. Solana does not have slashing today, though it has been proposed.
Stake account
The on-chain account that holds your staked SOL. With Marinade Native, these are owned by your own wallet.
Stake Auction Marketplace (SAM)
Marinade's system where validators compete for stake by bidding, so that stake goes to the validators offering the most back to stakers.
TVL (total value locked)
The total value of assets held in a protocol. Used as a rough measure of size.
Vote credits
What a validator earns for voting correctly on Solana. Rewards depend on them, so a validator that stops voting earns less and its delegators earn less that epoch.