Identity & staking

Mapping vote accounts to your identity keypair

By Yuna Park · Updated March 2026 · 8 min read

New operators often paste their validator identity pubkey into a staking dashboard and wonder why delegators cannot find them. The pubkey that appears in block explorers for staking is almost always your vote account, not the identity that signs shreds during leader slots.

Two keys, two jobs

Your identity keypair runs the validator process. It signs gossip messages and produces blocks when scheduled as slot leader. Your vote account is a separate on-chain account that accumulates vote credits and receives delegated stake.

The vote account stores a reference to the identity pubkey authorized to vote on its behalf. Delegators stake to the vote account address because rewards and commission flow through that account's state.

Verify the link on-chain

Query your vote account with solana vote-account <VOTE_PUBKEY>. The output lists the authorized voter pubkey — that should match your running identity. If you recently rotated identities, confirm the new key appears and the old one is removed.

Common mistake: updating the identity in the start script without submitting the on-chain vote-authorize transaction. The node may run, but votes stop crediting until authorization catches up.

What delegators actually see

Explorers and staking UIs index vote accounts. Commission percentage, activated stake, and recent vote credits all attach to the vote pubkey. Your identity pubkey may only appear in leader-slot tables when you are actively producing blocks.

Rotation checklist

1. Generate and fund the new identity keypair on offline media.
2. Submit vote-authorize-voter with the vote account keypair.
3. Update the validator flag --identity and restart during a low-stake-activation window if possible.
4. Confirm tower advancement on the new identity within ten minutes.

See also: Glossary — Vote account and our Validator Operations Intensive for a guided walkthrough.