The Solana Foundation's Tour de Sun 22 initiative is set to wrap up on March 31, 2024. Following its conclusion, a more focused testnet incentive program will take its place, with the foundation continuing to collaborate with validators supporting the Solana network to ensure its development and security.

Participants in the current program will remain eligible for incentives until the end of March, with the final incentive distribution scheduled for April 8. The aim of this program is to establish incentives for recent validator operators contributing to the testnet. This participation has historically been a requirement for operators seeking delegation of stakes from the Foundation for their mainnet beta validators.

To further incentivize validators and enhance the decentralized network, the Solana Foundation has improved its Delegation Program for Mainnet Validators. This latest program offers support for a specified duration to nodes covering the voting costs of new validators, along with potential delegations from the Foundation based on external investment attracted. This encourages operators to explore external investment opportunities through intermediaries and stake pools.

Under this delegation program, deserving participants in future testnet incentives will receive monthly bonuses of up to $250 for six months, locked for one year of SOL. Payments will be processed once the operator has operated a functional node on the mainnet for a minimum of ten epochs and has been deemed eligible for a mainnet delegation from the Foundation.