> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.chainstack.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Delegating SOL with solana-web3.js

> Delegate SOL to a validator using solana-web3.js to interact with the Solana stake program, covering account creation, delegation, and transaction signing.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Overview">
    solana-web3.js (`@solana/web3.js`) is among one of the most popular ways of connecting to and interacting with the Solana blockchain.

    Included within the functionality of solana-web3.js is the ability to interact with Solana's `StakeProgram`, enabling programmatic delegation.

    Today, we'll be **delegating 0.02 SOL with solana-web3.js**.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Environment setup">
    If you haven't already, ensure node.js is installed.

    For this task, you'll need to install two main dependencies.

    1. `@solana/web3.js`, this is what you'll be using to interact with Solana.
    2. `bs58` for converting a traditional string private key to a `Uint8Array` in the account definition process.

    ```js JavaScript theme={"system"}
    const solanaWeb3 = require('@solana/web3.js');
    const bs58 = require("bs58");
    ```
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Connecting to Solana">
    To begin, you'll need to initialize a connection with the Solana blockchain. Like any other Web3 application, you'll need to create a master variable with an RPC endpoint to achieve this.

    In this script, we've defined this within a variable called `connection`, and passed in a Chainstack Solana [Global Elastic Node](https://docs.chainstack.com/docs/global-elastic-node) HTTPS and WSS endpoint.

    To launch a Solana Global Elastic Node, do the following:

    <Steps>
      <Step>
        Navigate to the Chainstack console
      </Step>

      <Step>
        Deploy a standard-configuration Solana mainnet node
      </Step>

      <Step>
        Open the newly deployed node
      </Step>

      <Step>
        Copy the corresponding HTTPS & WSS endpoints
      </Step>

      <Step>
        Paste them into your `Connection` constructor
      </Step>
    </Steps>

    ```js JavaScript theme={"system"}
    const connection = new solanaWeb3.Connection("https://solana-mainnet.core.chainstack.com/AUTHENTICATION", {wsEndpoint:"wss://solana-mainnet.core.chainstack.com/ws/AUTHENTICATION"});
    ```
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Importing a wallet">
    We'll need to import a funded Solana wallet because we'll be spending SOL (0.02) for the delegation. (If you'd like to generate a fresh wallet, you can do so with `solanaWeb3.Keypair.generate()`)

    For importing an existing wallet, you'll need to leverage the `fromSecretKey` function on `Keypair`. `fromSecretKey` takes a `Uint8Array` as a parameter, so you'll need to convert your string private key with `bs58.decode`.

    ```js JavaScript theme={"system"}
    const walletKeyPair = solanaWeb3.Keypair.fromSecretKey(new Uint8Array(bs58.decode(process.env['PRIVATE_KEY'])));
    ```
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Creating the stake account">
    The first half of the delegation process involves creating a stake account. We'll do this with `StakeProgram.createAccount`.

    You'll first need to generate a fresh wallet with `solanaWeb3.Keypair.generate()`, this will represent the keypair for the stake account.

    With the keypair generated, you'll then need to create the transaction instructions; in this case, we'll call this `createStakeAccountInstruction` and pass the following parameters:

    1. `fromPubkey`, the public key of our funded wallet (the delegator).
    2. `stakePubkey`, the public key of the stake account we just generated.
    3. `authorized`, the authorities of the new stake account. We'll have this set to the funded wallet we previously imported.
    4. `lamports`, the value of the delegation.

    With the instructions created, we can then build the transaction in `createStakeAccountTransaction`, then sign it and push it to the network.

    ```js JavaScript theme={"system"}
      // Create Stake Account
      const stakeAccount = solanaWeb3.Keypair.generate();
      const createStakeAccountInstruction = solanaWeb3.StakeProgram.createAccount({
        fromPubkey: walletKeyPair.publicKey,
        stakePubkey: stakeAccount.publicKey,
        authorized: new solanaWeb3.Authorized(walletKeyPair.publicKey, walletKeyPair.publicKey),
        lamports: solanaWeb3.LAMPORTS_PER_SOL * 0.02,
      });

      let createStakeAccountTransaction = new solanaWeb3.Transaction().add(createStakeAccountInstruction);
      createStakeAccountTransaction.recentBlockhash = (await connection.getRecentBlockhash()).blockhash;
      createStakeAccountTransaction.feePayer = walletKeyPair.publicKey;
      createStakeAccountTransaction.partialSign(stakeAccount);
      await solanaWeb3.sendAndConfirmTransaction(
        connection,
        createStakeAccountTransaction,
        [walletKeyPair, stakeAccount],
      );
    ```
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Delegating the stake">
    With the stake account successfully initialized, we can move on to actually delegating the 0.02 SOL.

    First, we'll need to define the public key (`PublicKey`) of the validator we'd like to delegate to, we can define this in `votePubkey`.

    From there, similar to the stake account creation, we'll need to build the delegation instructions. We can do this in a variable called `delegateInstructions` and pass the following parameters:

    1. `stakePubkey`, the public key of the previously generated stake account.
    2. `authorizedPubkey`, the public key of the stake authority.
    3. `votePubkey`, the public key of the validator you'd like to stake with. We already defined this, so we'll just pass it directly.

    Finally, with the instructions created, we can move onto building, signing, and pushing the delegation transaction to the network.

    ```js JavaScript theme={"system"}
      // Delegate Stake
      const votePubkey = new solanaWeb3.PublicKey('beefKGBWeSpHzYBHZXwp5So7wdQGX6mu4ZHCsH3uTar');
      const delegateInstruction = solanaWeb3.StakeProgram.delegate({
        stakePubkey: stakeAccount.publicKey,
        authorizedPubkey: walletKeyPair.publicKey,
        votePubkey,
      });

      let delegateTransaction = new solanaWeb3.Transaction().add(delegateInstruction);
      delegateTransaction.recentBlockhash = (await connection.getRecentBlockhash()).blockhash;
      delegateTransaction.feePayer = walletKeyPair.publicKey;
      delegateTransaction.sign(walletKeyPair);
      await solanaWeb3.sendAndConfirmTransaction(
        connection,
        delegateTransaction,
        [walletKeyPair],
      );
    }

    main();
    ```
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<RequestExample>
  ```js JavaScript theme={"system"}
  const solanaWeb3 = require('@solana/web3.js');
  const bs58 = require("bs58");

  async function main() {
    const connection = new solanaWeb3.Connection("https://solana-mainnet.core.chainstack.com/AUTHENTICATION", {wsEndpoint:"wss://solana-mainnet.core.chainstack.com/ws/AUTHENTICATION"});
    const walletKeyPair = solanaWeb3.Keypair.fromSecretKey(new Uint8Array(bs58.decode(process.env['PRIVATE_KEY'])));

    // Create Stake Account
    const stakeAccount = solanaWeb3.Keypair.generate();
    const createStakeAccountInstruction = solanaWeb3.StakeProgram.createAccount({
      fromPubkey: walletKeyPair.publicKey,
      stakePubkey: stakeAccount.publicKey,
      authorized: new solanaWeb3.Authorized(walletKeyPair.publicKey, walletKeyPair.publicKey),
      lamports: solanaWeb3.LAMPORTS_PER_SOL * 0.02,
    });

    let createStakeAccountTransaction = new solanaWeb3.Transaction().add(createStakeAccountInstruction);
    createStakeAccountTransaction.recentBlockhash = (await connection.getRecentBlockhash()).blockhash;
    createStakeAccountTransaction.feePayer = walletKeyPair.publicKey;
    createStakeAccountTransaction.partialSign(stakeAccount);
    await solanaWeb3.sendAndConfirmTransaction(
      connection,
      createStakeAccountTransaction,
      [walletKeyPair, stakeAccount],
    );

    // Delegate Stake
    const votePubkey = new solanaWeb3.PublicKey('beefKGBWeSpHzYBHZXwp5So7wdQGX6mu4ZHCsH3uTar');
    const delegateInstruction = solanaWeb3.StakeProgram.delegate({
      stakePubkey: stakeAccount.publicKey,
      authorizedPubkey: walletKeyPair.publicKey,
      votePubkey,
    });

    let delegateTransaction = new solanaWeb3.Transaction().add(delegateInstruction);
    delegateTransaction.recentBlockhash = (await connection.getRecentBlockhash()).blockhash;
    delegateTransaction.feePayer = walletKeyPair.publicKey;
    delegateTransaction.sign(walletKeyPair);
    await solanaWeb3.sendAndConfirmTransaction(
      connection,
      delegateTransaction,
      [walletKeyPair],
    );
  }

  main();
  ```
</RequestExample>