Frequently asked questions

It's FAQs all the way down.

What is the definition of "effectiveness"?

The effectiveness rating (RAVER) is a methodology Rated has proposed for evaluating validator performance in a concise way. The methodology has been through a number of iterations with the community and is widespread by now. For more information on the specifics, please refer to our documentation.

Why is there a difference between the effectiveness ratings on the Leaderboard page and the Pools, Operators, and Validators pages?

This is because of a difference in data refresh frequency. The effectiveness ratings on the Leaderboardpage get refreshed on a daily basis while the data on the Pools, Operators and Validators pages get refreshed on an hourly basis.

I'd like to list an entity to the Rated Network Explorer to track our performance. How does the onboarding process work?

As of Q2 2023, we have a streamlined way for Node Operators and Pools to onboard their sets to the Rated Network Explorer. See here for Node Operators and here for Pools.

Ethereum

Is there a minimum number of validators an entity must have in order to build good ratings?

No, we do not require a minimum. The way we track overall effectiveness has more weight on attestation duties—which validators are called to carry through every single epoch. Therefore, the fact that proposals do not happen all that frequently for a pubkey does not have a pronounced effect on the rating. Read about the effectiveness rating here

Does the missed rewards calculation compare different MEV relayers?

No, not by default. You can read about the four approaches we take to calculate missed rewards here.

When Rated shows a metric (e.g. inclusionDelay) for a specific date, what is the exact time frame?

We index 24 hour increments from genesis. So for example if the date is 28/01, the metric will include all epochs from ~12:00 on 27/01 to ~12:00 on the 28/1. The startEpoch and endEpoch can be seen in the API.

Solana

How does Rated calculate delegator and validator APYs?

The annual percentage yield (APY) for the returns of delegators and validators on their stake is calculated using a rolling time window calculation of total stake-weighted rewards. For a more detailed look, check out our documentation Annual Percentage Yield (APY).

Why does Rated use annual percentage yield (APY) on Solana but annual percentage rate (APR) for other networks?

The reason is that rewards in Solana are auto-compounded, meaning rewards from staking are added to the delegated stake immediately after they are distributed. The exception to this is the rewards received from MEV extraction through Jito. Nonetheless, a significant majority is compounded hence the use of APY.

How are slots and blocks counted on Solana?

In a given epoch in Solana, there will always be 432,000 slots and they are numbered accordingly since genesis. However, not all slots will contain blocks as validators chosen to produce blocks (i.e. leaders) can fail to do so at their turn. Despite this, blocks are not counted based on blocks that have been produced. Instead, they always refer to the slot where that block was produced.

Example: Block 200001 will refer to the block produced at Slot 200001. If there is no block produced on the next Slot (200002) and there is a block produced on the slot after (200003), this next produced block is referred to as Block 200003 as opposed to 200002. This is one of the reasons why it is acceptable to refer to slots and blocks interchangeably.