Field notes
Pages written after the chairs were pushed in.
Hana and Minjae write up the explanations that keep returning to the oak desk: the epoch as a clock, warmup and cooldown, commission read beside skip rate, and the two folders that keep stake accounts apart from vote accounts.
How a Solana epoch frames validator work
An epoch is the clock the reading room uses to explain why a validator’s votes and a delegator’s rewards arrive together, and not on the afternoon you click delegate.
Warmup and cooldown on a stake account
Delegation and deactivation are epoch-paced. A Stake Reading Hour often exists because someone expected the balance to move the same afternoon.
Reading commission beside skip rate
A low commission can still pay a delegator poorly if the validator misses the slots it was given. The Saturday exercise puts both numbers on the same sheet.
Stake accounts and vote accounts, side by side
Delegation points your stake account at a validator’s vote account. The identity key that signs blocks is a third address, and mixing the three is how careful people still paste the wrong one.