voteSubscribe – Solana

The voteSubscribe RPC Solana method allows clients to subscribe to notifications whenever a new vote is observed in gossip.

These votes are pre-consensus, meaning there is no guarantee they will enter the ledger. This method enables real-time monitoring of voting activity on the Solana network, making it useful for tracking validator behavior and network governance.

Unstable Method

This subscription is unstable and only available if the validator was started with the --rpc-pubsub-enable-vote-subscription flag. The format of this subscription may change in future Solana updates.

Supported Networks

• Mainnet

• Devnet

Parameters

None: This method does not require any parameters.

Result

Returns an integer representing the subscription ID, which is required for unsubscribing.

Result Format

• integer: The subscription ID.

Request Example

API Endpoints

wss://go.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/

JSON-RPC Request

wss

wscat -c "wss://go.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/" --exec '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "voteSubscribe"
}'

Response

A successful request returns a subscription ID.

Example Response

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": 0,
  "id": 1
}

In this response:

• result: 0 represents the assigned subscription ID.

Notification Format

Upon vote updates, clients receive notifications containing vote details.

Example Notification

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "voteNotification",
  "params": {
    "result": {
      "hash": "8Rshv2oMkPu5E4opXTRyuyBeZBqQ4S477VG26wUTFxUM",
      "slots": [1, 2],
      "timestamp": null
    },
    "subscription": 0
  }
}

Notification Fields

• hash (string): The vote hash.

• slots (array): The slots covered by the vote, represented as an array of u64 integers.

• timestamp (i64|null): The timestamp of the vote. It may be null if unavailable.

• signature (string): The signature of the transaction that contained this vote.

• votePubkey (string): The public key of the vote account, encoded in base-58.

Error Handling

Common voteSubscribe error scenarios:

• Network issues: Problems with the Solana JSON-RPC API endpoints.

• Invalid WebSocket connection: Issues maintaining a stable connection.

• Subscription failure: If the validator was not started with the required flag.

Example Error Response

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "error": {
    "code": -32000,
    "message": "WebSocket connection error"
  },
  "id": 1
}

Use Cases

The Solana voteSubscribe method is useful for:

• Tracking real-time validator votes in the Solana network.

• Monitoring voting behavior for governance and security purposes.

• Analyzing vote distribution across slots.

• Building dApps that require real-time voting updates.

• Ensuring applications stay in sync with validator activities.

Code voteSubscribe Example – Web3 Integration

JavaScript

const WebSocket = require('ws');

const ws = new WebSocket("wss://go.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/");

ws.on('open', () => {
  const payload = {
    jsonrpc: "2.0",
    id: 1,
    method: "voteSubscribe"
  };
  ws.send(JSON.stringify(payload));
});

ws.on('message', (data) => {
  console.log("Vote Notification:", JSON.parse(data));
});

ws.on('error', (error) => {
  console.error("WebSocket error:", error.message);
});

ws.on('close', () => {
  console.log("WebSocket connection closed");
});

Integration with Web3

By integrating Web3 voteSubscribe into Solana's Core API, developers can:

• Monitor validator votes in real-time.

• Improve blockchain tracking systems.

• Enhance dApps with live vote updates.

• Ensure applications remain synchronized with validator activities.

• Optimize governance tools by tracking consensus formation.

This method is a critical component of the Core API that enables efficient vote tracking, request handling, and transaction validation in Solana-based applications.