Performance and security data related to proof of stake (PoS) validators and their operators is mission-critical. In the competitive landscape of securing Ethereum, it's imperative for stakers to be confident in the proficiency of their chosen service providers. The stakes are high—both in terms of ETH staked and the potential risks of participation, including slashing and extended underperformance during an incident. Currently, assessing the security measures and performance of node operators is challenging at best, and often not possible at all.

The Ethereum ecosystem has lacked a uniform set of metrics and methodologies to objectively assess the performance of and risks associated with node operators (NOs). A common language for understanding and evaluating these aspects is essential not only for clarity and consistency but also for assessing the long-term viability of a service provider's effective network reward rate, comparative risks associated with a NO’s infrastructure management, and more. Common in traditional finance, this shared metric to evaluate participation through a risk-adjusted lens is critical for PoS' continued growth and maturity.

In response to this need, Rated Labs, a web3 infrastructure and data company working on “Reputation for Machines”, and Liquid Collective, the broad and dispersed community of industry participants building the Liquid Collective liquid staking protocol, announced a collaborative initiative in July 2023 to define and develop the first open validator performance and security standards for the Ethereum ecosystem, along with industry-wide benchmarks for evaluating professional node operators.

Liquid Collective will use these methodologies to monitor NO performance against network-wide benchmarks, evaluate and mitigate risks, and to establish service level agreements (SLAs). These methodologies will also play a vital role in defining future validator onboarding management processes, setting Liquid Collective apart as a pioneering protocol in offering such performance requirements and SLAs.

Liquid Collective’s planned application of the performance and risks standards represents just one example of how they can be used across the ecosystem. Our aim is for this important effort to have an impact far beyond Liquid Collective's stakers. We encourage feedback from the community and hope that this effort will include broad support from those supporting Ethereum's security at large.

• Transparency: Transparency into a node operator’s performance and risk mitigation posture fosters better market outcomes due to enhanced accountability for operators.
• Security: What gets measured gets managed. Objective and open performance and risk measurements shift the focus from just offering stakers the highest possible reward rate, to allowing protocols and service providers that promote strong and transparent practices to measurably differentiate their offerings.
• Adoption: A shared understanding of how to evaluate risk-adjusted participation enables the tooling required to unlock adoption by performance- and risk-conscious market participants, along with the development of new products including indices, fixed rate derivative products, and more.

• Improved security: Open and objective standards for evaluating risk factors increase security by creating a common framework of best practice to measure operators against.
• Informed decision-making: Transparency into a node operator’s historical performance and risk profile promotes better market outcomes by enabling stakers to make fully informed decisions about who they stake with.
• Enterprise-grade performance: By maintaining a high level of performance, node operators contribute to the stability and reliability of the network, ultimately leading to optimal risk adjusted rewards for all stakers.

• Enhanced reputation: Operators can benefit from the opportunity to objectively showcase their performance, reliability, and adherence to enterprise-grade security practices.
• Market differentiation: By excelling in the evaluation criteria, NOs can establish themselves as industry-leading providers.
• Risk mitigation: Via self-assessment, shared methodologies can help operators proactively identify and address potential weaknesses or vulnerabilities.

• Performance v1.0: An open framework to objectively determine whether an Ethereum node operator maintains an enterprise-grade standard for validator performance.
• Risk: The working group will define risk evaluation categories, and establish benchmarks for risk assessments.
• Issues: To provide input or feedback on these standards, please open a new issue in this section, or, use this form.
• License: The CC BY-SA license that the contents of this repository have been made public under.

The development of the open performance and risk standards is an iterative and collaborative project, with phases advancing in parallel. As the risk evaluation methodologies, additional performance measurement methods, and benchmarks are completed, they will be made open under this repository.

To stay up-to-date with the latest updates to this repository please star it on Github, or follow Liquid Collective on X, LinkedIn, and in monthly updates.