What this module covers
- What “ready” means in practice
- How to review your performance as a CSM operator & best practices
- ICS requirements and application
- Next steps after testnet (including mainnet)
What “ready” means
You are ready when you have:
- Successfully brought validators online
- Operated them for a sustained period
- Encountered and handled issues
- Understood the responsibility of participating in CSM
Occasional issues are expected.
Reviewing your performance
As a CSM operator, you are expected to regularly review your performance.
You should be able to:
- Check whether your validators are meeting performance thresholds
- Understand when keys are eligible or ineligible for rewards
- Detect early signs of underperformance
Performance can be reviewed via:
- CSM widget & linked dashboards at csm.lido.fi/monitoring
- Local monitoring, such as Grafana, if you run it
You can read a detailed walkthrough in
🚨 Alerts & Monitoring | Lido Docs
This section helps you stay on top of your validator’s health, performance, and responsiveness through alerts and monitoring tools.
docs.lido.fi
Best practices
Good CSM operators tend to:
- Monitor validator health proactively
- Read to improve their validator’s uptime, performance and security.
✅ Best Practices | Lido Docs
Beyond staying online, there are certain actions you can take to make sure your node runs without issues.
docs.lido.fi
Understanding ICS expectations
Identified Community Stakers (ICS) are evaluated across three dimensions:
- Proof of Experience (5–8 points)
- Proof of Humanity (4–8 points)
- Proof of Engagement (2–7 points)
To obtain ICS status, operators must:
- Reach at least 15 points in total
- Meet the minimum required points in each category
You can read more about the system and apply here:
Community Staking Module | Lido
The Community Staking Module is a permissionless staking module aimed at attracting community stakers to participate in the Lido on Ethereum protocol as Node Operators.
csm.lido.fi
Next steps: from testnet to mainnet
After operating successfully on testnet, the natural next step is mainnet.
Before moving to mainnet, make sure you:
- Are consistently meeting performance thresholds
- Are comfortable monitoring and reacting to issues
- Understand the higher stakes and stricter expectations
Mainnet key generation follows the same principles as testnet, but with stricter security requirements (e.g. air-gapped setups).
Read more here
- Alerts and monitoring (CSM) https://docs.lido.fi/run-on-lido/csm/alerts-and-monitoring/
- CSM best practices https://docs.lido.fi/run-on-lido/csm/best-practices/
- Identified Community Staker system https://csm.lido.fi/type/ics-system
- Mainnet validator key generation (CSM) https://docs.lido.fi/run-on-lido/csm/generating-validator-keys/key-generation-for-mainnet/
End of the module
You should now be able to explain:
- How to review your performance as a CSM operator
- Where and how to monitor validator health
- What best practices matter over time
- What the path from testnet to mainnet looks like
🎉 End of the cohort
Congrats! Now you’re one of the hundreds of home stakers helping keep Ethereum secure and decentralized.