How to interpret your blockchain's analytics

For professional validators and blockchain network operators, a few missed blocks or moments of downtime can lead to lost rewards, or worse, punishment (the so-called slashing). Analytics aren't optional. They're your early warning system.

This guide helps you read, understand, and interpret your blockchain’s analytics. It covers key metrics to track and how explains advanced metrics on Moonlet’s dashboard.

Read on to gain complete visibility, ensure 24/7 operational security, and grow your infrastructure.

Key concepts for validator performance 

Uptime & Missed Blocks

High uptime is critical: frequent downtime can directly lead to missed rewards and even slashing in some networks.

Uptime measures the percentage of time your validator is online and responsive. But there’s more to it. A node might show 99% uptime and still miss key block signatures. Missed blocks (or missed signatures) are the instances when your node failed to produce or validate a block when it was supposed to. 

Track both:

• Uptime %: Aim for consistent 99.9%+
• Missed blocks: Spot small spikes early—these could signal hardware, network, or configuration issues.
  

Annual Percentage Rate (APR) & Net Rewards

APR is the annualized staking return (often a percentage) that delegators earn with your validator. Net rewards refer to the actual amount of tokens earned over a period (after validator commissions). 

These metrics reflect the financial performance of your validator. If your APR trends below the network average, it may indicate slashing events, excessive missed blocks, or a fee misalignment.

Epoch Progress & Staking Distribution 

In Proof-of-Stake networks, operations align with epochs: fixed time intervals that affect reward payouts and validator set updates.

Moonlet’s dashboard shows:

• Epoch progress: Useful for planning maintenance or updates. It indicates where you are in the current cycle (e.g., 80% through the epoch). 
• Stake distribution: Understand how your validator ranks in the network.

Tracking epoch progress is useful for operational timing. For instance, on Solana and NEAR, changes in stake only take effect at epoch boundaries. Knowing the epoch schedule helps you plan restarts or updates to avoid mid-epoch interruptions. It’s also crucial for understanding when pending stake changes (delegations or withdrawals) will materialize. 

Meanwhile, understanding stake distribution gives context to your validator’s role: Are you in the top 10% by stake, or a smaller validator? Is the network stake highly concentrated in a few validators? If one validator controls an outsized share, that’s a decentralization warning sign.

Validator Health & Performance Comparisons

Beyond raw metrics, it’s important to benchmark your validator’s health against peers and track internal performance indicators. This includes comparing your missed block rate, latency, or memory usage to network averages or specific competitors. 

If your performance metrics are lagging behind the network average or a key competitor on the leaderboard, it’s a signal to optimize. For example, if your blocks-per-epoch count is 5% lower than similar stake validators, you might have a networking issue to address.

RPC Node Availability

Many validators also provide RPC (Remote Procedure Call) endpoints or full nodes. This is infrastructure parallel to validation, and it needs monitoring too. 

• RPC node availability measures how reliably your nodes respond to requests (uptime and response times for your API endpoints). 
• A high-availability and low-latency RPC service is crucial for user experience and for any applications relying on your infrastructure. 
• Track metrics like uptime %, request success rates, and average latency for your RPC nodes. 

Moonlet’s analytics dashboard for blockchains: Advanced metrics

Moonlet helps you monitor all essential numbers and supports your analysis with advanced metrics. Powered by AI, the dashboard consolidates metrics across networks. Blockchain teams and institutional providers can identify anomalies before they escalate.

The dashboard provides:

• A user-friendly interface to stake, monitor rewards, and manage delegations
• Access to secure, high-performance validator nodes run by Moonlet
• Compatibility with various self-custodial wallet solutions
• Real-time network and validator performance insights

Consensus & Protocol-Level Metrics

• Slot Vote Rate & Delinquent Status: Measures how frequently your validator casts votes for blocks or slots when expected (typical in Solana and NEAR). Missed voting can reduce rewards or mark you as delinquent.
• Voted Credits: Represents the total number of votes your validator has successfully cast over time (used in Solana). High numbers signal good validator participation.
• Skip Rate: The percentage of leader slots your validator failed to fill (Solana-specific). A high skip rate reduces your actual block production, even if uptime looks fine.
  

Proof-of-History & Time Synchronization Metrics

• TPU / RPC PoH Drift: Measures how far your validator’s internal clock has drifted from the network’s Proof-of-History time source. Clock misalignment affects block scheduling.
• Slot-Leading Lag: The delay between when your validator should lead a slot and when it actually does. Directly impacts block production, rewards, and network performance.
  

Network Health Metrics

• Packet Loss: The percentage of network packets that fail to transmit successfully. Losses cause missed votes or slow gossip propagation.
• UDP Round-Trip Time (RTT): Measures how long it takes for a network packet to make a round trip via UDP. High RTT means poor performance in fast-moving chains.
• Gossip Peer Count: Number of other validators your node is gossiping with. Low peer count can isolate your node, delaying block propagation and vote visibility.
  

System Resource Metrics

• CPU Usage (%): Measures how much of your processor is currently in use. Constantly high CPU usage can delay participation. Evaluate if you need to scale up to a more powerful machine.
• RAM Usage (%): Shows how much memory is being consumed. Memory exhaustion leads to crashes or slower responses.
• NVMe I/O Throughput: Indicates how much data is being read/written to disk (relevant for fast blockchains like Solana). Low throughput or I/O bottlenecks can hinder ledger access.
• GPU Load: Usage percentage of GPU resources. Some chains use GPU acceleration for specific processes. 

Security & Host Integrity Metrics

• SSH Login Anomalies: Detects suspicious login attempts or locations. Unauthorized access can compromise your validator or funds. Catch intrusion attempts early.
• Unsigned Kernel Modules: Checks if your OS is running code not verified by the operating system. Unsigned modules are a major attack vector.
• Validator Identity Mismatch: Occurs when your configured identity doesn’t match your blockchain key or registration. Indicates misconfiguration or spoofing, which can lead to slashing.

Blockchain API & RPC Health Metrics

• RPC Node Health: Measures if your RPC endpoint is responding as expected. Downtime or unresponsiveness disrupts dApps and developer tooling.
• Rate-Limit Errors: Counts how often clients hit throttling limits on your RPC. High error rates indicate overuse or undersized infrastructure.
• Block-Commit Times: Measures how long it takes your node to commit blocks to the ledger. Long commit times mean delayed finality and degraded network performance.

How to interpret badges in the Moonlet dashboard: 

Moonlet uses a visual badge system to provide an at-a-glance health status for blockchain teams and institutional validators. These indicators help you quickly spot performance issues, resolve them, and keep growing.  

Green “Healthy” Badge

• Your validator’s vote credits are at or above 99% of the cluster average.
• Your skip rate is at or below the median for the network.
• Your validator is operating optimally, fully participating in consensus and producing blocks as expected. No action is needed. 

Yellow “Degraded” Badge

• A momentary issue has been detected (e.g., a brief vote drop, latency spike, or partial missed slot).
• Self-healing is already in progress via automation or configured fallback. Your validator had a minor performance dip, but it’s likely auto-resolving.
• No immediate action required, but monitor in case it escalates.
• Rewards are typically unaffected unless the condition persists into the next epoch.
• Use this as a heads-up signal. Review uptime, CPU load, or network latency to confirm things are stabilizing.

 Red “Action” Badge

• Your validator shows a persistent drop in performance, typically for more than 2 epochs.
• Metrics like vote credits, skip rate, or missed blocks are below operational thresholds.
• Delegators will receive a warning via in-app banners and email.
• Priority incident: Immediate attention needed as your validator is underperforming. 
• Rewards are being impacted and may be below expectations.
• If unaddressed, you may lose delegations and risk falling out of the active set (depending on the network).

At Moonlet, we’re committed to giving each user the tools they need to grow safely. Analytics that empower, infrastructure built to scale, and a security-first approach: Start using Moonlet now and enter the Web3 universe with confidence.