Today we are pleased to announce the launch of our Verified Provider Program.



The Verified Provider Program is an initiative to increase trust and transparency in the staking industry by verifying that Providers meet a set of criteria, including but not limited to, risk management, longevity, and security measures.&nbsp;



The program helps investors make quicker and more confident decisions when choosing between thousands of staking Providers.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“Investors who stake with unreliable staking providers risk missing out on rewards or even losing their funds. We have launched the Verified Provider Program to help investors make smarter decisions by verifying that providers meet certain criteria before staking their funds. Don’t trust, verify!”&nbsp;<cite>Mirko Schmiedl, CEO at Staking Rewards</cite></blockquote>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Easiest Way to Find Reliable Staking Providers</h2>



Staking is a way to earn interest on crypto assets. Investors can pledge their crypto assets with a staking provider and earn rewards without having to directly participate in the validation process.



The challenge of choosing a staking provider is twofold: First, it is difficult to determine which providers will be trustworthy in the future. Secondly, in most cases its not transparent whether or not a given company follows industry best practices.



Our 2021 Ecosystem Study revealed that branding and reputation currently are key decision factors for most investors. However, this approach does not provide a complete picture of the provider&#8217;s reliability or security.



With the Verified Provider Program, we help investors make confident decisions about Staking Providers by performing in-depth due diligence.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“Choosing between different validators can be difficult, especially since the process is intransparent and very technical. We are excited to join the first batch of the Staking Reward&#8217;s Verified Program as it will provide a verifiable methodology to distinguish high-quality validators and help us build trust with the staking community.”<cite>Florian Liss, CTO at Staking Facilities</cite></blockquote>



Staking Rewards’ Verified Provider Program saves time and allows you to stake confidently.&nbsp;



You will find an overview of all verified providers on our <a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/verified-staking-provider/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">website</a>.



Watch out for this badge to spot Verified Providers:



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Hcu9Ad6Ofs8sOStugu3B9S1Rtj-MhOBtjKa9qrUPGavpMnDfFkXLN_GvbOU6ecAxEZDhq0RpkzVmNVYINJhmBG-_u2pZ_zKzIVmhgs-XLnFiQ6UahLi1ms_Hg_foFVa0qNwkI0yY71OECD7uuw" alt="" width="434" height="108"/></figure>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Standards and Best Practices for the Staking Industry</h2>



Blockchains are trustless systems. All (trans)actions are verifiable on-chain. Thus we encourage all investors: “Don’t trust, verify!”



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&#8217; 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 &#8211; on-chain where applicable &#8211; the provided information based on predetermined standards and best practices for the staking industry.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“Staking Rewards is to Ethereum what Bloomberg is to fixed income. So Launchnodes is proud to be part of their Verified Provider Program.“<cite>Jaydeep Korde, Co-Founder and CEO at Launchnodes</cite></blockquote>



Providers who pass the program will be considered sufficiently trustworthy by Staking Rewards to provide reliable, secure services.



Due diligence is conducted on the following areas of the Provider&#8217;s operations:



<ul><li>Reliability</li><li>Security</li><li>Accountability</li><li>Liability</li></ul>



Other areas of consideration include Decentralization Ethos, Value Added Services, Customer Service, and Governance Participation. These count toward a separate “Value-Added Score” but are not required for verification.



Please read more about the details of the checks in the documentation <a href="https://docs.stakingrewards.com/verified-provider-program/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">An Ecosystem of Staking Platforms</h2>



Our ultimate goal is to bring transparency into the free, largely unregulated staking industry. We acknowledge that staking has a much wider scope in the cryptocurrency field than simply participating in Proof-of-Stake block validation, and we intend to address that.



Some crypto exchanges and lending platforms offer a combination of staking and institutional lending, which can be opaque and even more intransparent.



Proof-of-Stake Staking itself is getting further abstracted via Liquid Staking and ultimately may be offered as fixed income products for investors.



DeFi protocols (stands for Decentralized Finance) are providing lending services as an alternative to staking (&#8220;staking&#8221; in the sense of allowing a network to use your resources for the network&#8217;s benefit). Yield aggregators may eventually provide a mix between both.



Thus, we define staking as “putting your assets to work and earning rewards for doing so.” Providers are a layer of abstraction that allows users to put assets to work. They each have different risk profiles.



To provide a comprehensive list of ways to earn passive income on cryptocurrencies, we categorize providers into the following four types: staking-as-a-service providers, custodial providers, Liquid Staking and Defi Protocols.



<ol><li>Non-Custodial Staking Provider&nbsp;</li></ol>



Non-Custodial Staking Providers participate in Proof-of-Stake block validation on behalf of the user, or provide whitelabel solutions (validators). They often accept public delegations and are permissionless by design.



<ol start="2"><li>Custodial Staking Provider&nbsp;</li></ol>



Custodial Staking Providers are cryptocurrency exchanges, crypto banks, and institutional lenders that often provide a mix of strategies between staking, and lending to their users.



<ol start="3"><li>Liquid Staking</li></ol>



Liquid Staking Solutions are services that participate in the PoS block validation on behalf of their users and issue tradeable tokens (Staking Derivatives) as a representation of their staked position. These tokens may be further utilized in certain ways of yield generation. Users benefit from liquidity on their staked positions.



<ol start="4"><li>DeFi Protocols</li></ol>



DeFi Protocols are sets of smart contracts that provide financial infrastructure for the blockchain space. Protocols include lending marketplaces, yield aggregators and decentralized exchanges that allow users to earn yield for providing liquidity.



In the first batch of the Verified Provider Program, we start out with the category of Staking-as-a-Service providers. Soon be followed by the other categories.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Verified Provider Batch 1</h2>



The following six verified providers make up the first batch of the Verified Provider Program, with several others in the pipeline.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/cWS_OAv6Nvj92dQdLiFEAIAfAMNVlbwOtmDL_wCKtClqZ6cBS7arUy5hIuCTPDhK_BAT-BtppHDZYdTAqPaa-gPqo-o4E6cj5Frnk_SftfhOAX55CULCbfWPTm8BXn-H72QkvYhtwTpG-2IF-A" alt=""/></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Chorus One</h3>



Chorus One is one of the earliest and most reputable Staking Providers in the market. They maintain high standards for their infrastructure setup and support numerous other initiatives in the ecosystem, such as the Liquid Staking Working Group and podcasts. They recently launched an investment fund, too. Chorus One is an active governance participant dedicated to improving the staking experience for investors.



<a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/chorus-one/">Learn more about </a><a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/chorus-one/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chorus</a><a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/chorus-one/"> One</a>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Launchnodes</h3>



Launchnodes provides ETH 2.0 Beacon and Validator nodes as a product through the AWS marketplace. They provide investors with nodes-as-a-service at a fixed annual cost running the latest prismatic clients.&nbsp;



By staking ETH with Launchnodes, you can avoid counterparty risk and remain in full control of your setup. By using the Launchnodes concierge service, investors can easily configure their nodes and maximize returns.



<a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/launchnodes/">Learn more about </a><a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/launchnodes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Launchnodes</a>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Staking Facilities</h3>



Staking Facilities is a Munich-based infrastructure and service provider that has been operating in the space since 2017. They run multiple other initiatives in the PoS space including:



<ul><li>Solana Beach: a block explorer for Solana</li><li>Staking Facilities Ventures: their venture arm&nbsp;</li><li>Staking Academy: a platform for educational content on the PoS space</li></ul>







<a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/staking-facilities/">Learn more about Staking </a><a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/staking-facilities/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facilities</a>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Stakin</h3>



Stakin is a validation service provider for various Proof-of-Stake blockchain networks. They have been operating since December 2018. Stakin is an active governance participant on 18 of the 38 networks that they provide services on. They also have a Ventures arm that invests in protocols and bridges.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/stakin/">Learn more </a><a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/stakin/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">about</a><a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/stakin/"> Stakin</a>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“Staking Rewards provides the most reliable staking data and we are glad to be recognized as one of the early Verified Providers on the platform. As Proof-of-Stake becomes the leading consensus mechanism and staking matures, we hope to see more verified staking providers. You can now stake with us assured that Stakin is a compliant operator with a strong track-record in both uptime, dedicated customer support and governance.”<cite>Edouard Lavidalle, Founder and CEO at Stakin</cite></blockquote>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">stakefish</h3>



stakefish provides staking services for some of the biggest Proof-of-Stake networks, many since their inception, including Cosmos, Tezos, and Ethereum 2.0. Their founder is Chun Wang, co-founder of F2Pool, a mining pool that has mined the most Bitcoin blocks in the world and is the second largest Ethereum mining pool. They also operate grantfish, a Cosmos ecosystem grants validator. 



<a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/stake-fish/">Learn more about</a><a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/stake-fish/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> </a><a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/stake-fish/">stakefish</a>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“There are numerous new chains and validators entering this growing market. We as validators need someone who provides multiple data points and understands delegators to make their lives easier. Staking Rewards launching their Verified Provider Program adds immense value to the space. We are happy and honored to get verified. &#8220;Do not trust! Verify first!&#8221;<cite>Dasom Song, CMO at stakefish</cite></blockquote>







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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">HashQuark</h3>



HashQuark, a member of HashKey Group, is a staking service provider based out of Hong Kong and has been operating since January 2019. As one of Asia’s largest Staking Providers, they provide staking services on 31 networks and also operate KLAYportal, a staking tool built on Klayton Network.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/hashquark/">Learn more about </a><a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/savings/hashquark/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HashQuark</a>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“We&#8217;ve been developing along with Staking Rewards and have witnessed its great growth. It is a reliable data provider for staking users and institutions. The new Verified Provider Program helps token holders to know more about staking service providers based on their team&#8217;s comprehensive research on the providers.It&#8217;s a great honor for us to be among the first batch of Staking Rewards Verified Providers.”<cite>Chen Li, CEO at HashQuark</cite></blockquote>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Our goal is to develop a comprehensive navigator of trust and transparency for an emerging decentralized system.</h2>



We are already working on the second batch of providers.&nbsp;



Our goal is to assess and verify the legitimacy of all staking providers in the cryptocurrency market.



Staking Rewards&#8217; mission is to increase trust and transparency in the staking industry while fostering decentralization as a core value.&nbsp;



Healthy Proof-of-Stake systems rely on the decentralization of their networks. Unfortunately, most systems tend to centralize over time. Staking Rewards is committed to supporting smaller providers equally to foster decentralization. Thus we verify both large-scale service providers, as well as smaller providers who follow relevant industry standards.



We are a trusted data provider with no affiliation to any stakeholder in the industry. We provide transparent information to help stakeholders work together efficiently. We act as an enabler between investors, providers and protocols.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">&#8220;Staking Rewards is the trusted source for staking-related data. The new, innovative Verified Provider allows token holders to gain more confidence in the providers they are staking based on comprehensive, independently conducted due diligence by one of the most knowledgeable teams in Proof-of-Stake.”<cite>Felix Lutsch, Chief Commercial Officer at Chorus One</cite></blockquote>



If you are a Staking Provider and want to be assessed for verification, please contact us by filling out this <a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/get-listed-providers/"> </a><a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/get-listed-providers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">form</a>.



If you are a user and want your favorite provider to be verified, please reach out to them to contact us.



For more information please check the following resources:



<ul><li><a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/verified-staking-provider/">Overview of all Verified </a><a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/verified-staking-provider/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Providers</a></li><li><a href="https://docs.stakingrewards.com/verified-provider-program/">Gitbook Documentation for the full </a><a href="https://docs.stakingrewards.com/verified-provider-program/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">verification</a><a href="https://docs.stakingrewards.com/verified-provider-program/"> process</a></li></ul>

Announcing the Staking Rewards’ Verified Provider Program – Batch 1