Mintscan is the official Cosmos block explorer for exchanges and everyday users. Cosmostation serves the Cosmos community with node operations, wallet services, and the leading block explorer (Mintscan). The philosophy of Cosmostation is to deliver services that are not only stable but also developed with heavy focus on the end-user’s convenience.
Staking Rewards is forging a new partnership with Cosmostation to help stakers in the Cosmoverse to make confident decisions when choosing a validator to stake with. Cosmostation will now feature the Staking Rewards Verified Provider logo on their validator detail page to help increase trust and transparency in the staking industry and to help investors when choosing between thousands of staking Providers.
“The Staking Rewards VPP program can be seen as an objective guide to help users better understand the validators they stake with. Starting with this addition, we plan to add more useful information on Mintscan that could be helpful to the user.”
David Park | Mintscan
How will the Verified Provider Program help Cosmos Stakers?
The Verified Provider Program (VPP) is an initiative to increase trust, transparency, and reliability in the staking industry by verifying that Providers meet a set of criteria relating to risk management, longevity, and security measures. With the Verified Provider Program, we help investors make confident decisions about Staking Providers by performing in-depth due diligence.
Blockchains are trustless systems. All (trans)actions are verifiable on-chain. However, in the staking space, investors can only verify the on-chain performance of Validators. Staking Providers won’t share more detailed information about their operations and security set up due to its sensitive nature.
Staking Rewards’ Verified Provider Program provides a self-regulated platform for providers to securely share information about their operations and security setup. We then assess and verify – on-chain where applicable – the provided information based on predetermined standards and best practices for the staking industry.
The Cosmos ecosystem has more than a thousand validators to choose from, where do stakers begin when choosing a validator? The VPP checkmark will help stakers to make confident decisions when doing their due diligence on Staking Providers. Staking Rewards only verifies Providers that meet the strict requirements of the program and are considered sufficiently trustworthy by Staking Rewards to provide reliable, secure staking services.
How does Staking Rewards Verify Providers?
Due diligence is conducted on the following areas of the Provider’s operations:
- Compliance
- Security setup
- Accountability
- Liability
- Reliability
- Governance participation
- Decentralisation ethos
- Value added services
Investors and stakers enjoy the additional verification layer that makes it easy for them to pick a Provider vetted by the No.1 authority in the staking industry. Our users will save hours of their own personal time spent conducting due diligence by simply outsourcing that burden to us to vet Providers based upon the above criteria. Read more about the details of the checks in the documentation here. You can also view the verification questionnaire here.
How can I find Verified Providers on Mintscan?
Mintscan tracks validator statistics on their staking page, validators that pass the program can be identified with the VPP Official checkmark:
Follow the steps below to find Verified Staking Providers on Mintscan:
- Go to Mintscan’s home page
- Click on the network you want to see validators for (i.e. Cosmos)
- Click the “Validator” page
- Select a validator by clicking on their name
- Identify the Staking Rewards VP checkmark under “Additional Info“
Conclusion
The Staking Rewards Verified Provider Program helps investors when choosing between thousands of staking Providers and brings new levels accountability to validators. To learn more about Cosmostation, view their provider page on our website!