At a Glance
- Uptime: 99.97–100% (average)
- Blocks Produced: 870
- Validator Weight: ~2M CSPR
- Total Rewards Received: 531.6 CSPR
- Network Version: v2.0.4 (upgraded in September)
- OS Upgrade: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
- Downtime: None
Casper is one of the few Layer-1 networks built specifically with enterprise-grade use cases in mind: smart contracts that businesses can securely and predictably run at scale. The Testnet is where every network upgrade is trialed before it goes live. That’s why professional validators like Everstake actively participate: to ensure the network remains secure, fast, and ready for real-world adoption.
We’ve been validating the Casper Testnet since its earliest eras, supporting network resilience, tooling, and uptime through every upgrade cycle.
Validator Performance Overview
Our Casper Testnet validator delivered high availability throughout the quarter, maintaining near-perfect uptime and completing all required liveness and finalization duties.
| Metric | Result |
| Uptime | 99.97–100% |
| Blocks Produced | 870 |
| Validator Stake | ~2M CSPR (avg) |
| Validator Weight | ≈0.19% of Testnet stake |
| Rewards Received | 531.6 CSPR (testnet rewards) |
We observed no downtime, no missed blocks, and no protocol penalties during the quarter. You can verify our validator activity on the public block explorer: CSPR live.
What We Upgraded
Everything continued to run on the same bare-metal infrastructure without any hardware issues.
- Casper Network Upgrade: moved to version 2.0.4 in September (Era: 19267). No post-upgrade issues reported from our validator.
- Server OS Migrated: transitioned to Ubuntu 24.04, the version now officially supported in the Casper ecosystem. The transition was tested in advance using a staging node to ensure compatibility.
- Monitoring Stack: expanded alert coverage and rolled out more accurate performance triggers to keep response times tight.
Monitoring, Alerts & Metrics
We track live state and performance via:
- Grafana (era-level charts and validator metrics)
- Zabbix (system observability + process health)
- EraGuardian (consensus-level alerts + finality status)
Automated alerts are triggered if:
- Uptime drops below 99%
- Performance flags occur at end-of-era
- System health indicators breach thresholds (CPU load, RAM usage, peer count, disk health)
All alerts trigger Telegram notifications to the operations team for immediate action.
Metrics monitored include:
- Validator auction/bid data
- Block signature participation
- Systemd unit state
- Disk IO + NVMe wear
- Peering events and P2P traffic
- Network reachability status
Infrastructure Snapshot
Our Casper Testnet validator operates on bare-metal infrastructure in a dedicated datacenter optimized for uptime and isolation.
| Component | Spec |
| CPU | Intel Xeon E3-1270v6 |
| RAM | 64 GB ECC DDR4 |
| Storage | 2× 2 TB NVMe SSD (single config) |
| Network | 1 Gbit/s |
| OS | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS |
This spec continues to deliver excellent latency, storage throughput, and peer connectivity, while staying cost-efficient for long-running testnet operations.
Reflection & Takeaways
The quarter was operationally smooth, with no incidents, downtime, or penalties recorded. The upgrade to Casper v2.0.4 and the migration to Ubuntu 24.04 were completed without disruption, confirming the stability of our configuration and monitoring setup. The validator continued to perform consistently, maintaining near-perfect uptime and block production.
The main lesson reinforced this quarter is that disciplined update testing, minimalistic server configuration, and proactive alerting remain the most reliable path to long-term validator performance.
Everstake Best Practices for Casper Nodes
Drawing from ongoing operational experience, we’ve refined several principles that consistently strengthen validator performance and reliability:
- Account Management: Perform administrative actions through sudo rather than logging in as root. This prevents accidental system-wide modifications and enhances overall system security.
- Validator Key Safety: Keep multiple encrypted backups of validator keys in secure, separate locations. Reliable key management is fundamental to maintaining validator integrity.
- Minimal Software Policy: Only install trusted, essential software. Reducing unnecessary packages lowers both security risks and potential instability.
- Design for Simplicity: Keep infrastructure configurations lean and transparent – fewer layers mean fewer failure points.
- Operational Rigor: Always double-check before deploying updates, rely on verified developer guidance (since community chats can be ambiguous), and maintain clear internal documentation tailored to your setup.
These practices help ensure consistent performance, improve security posture, and contribute to the overall resilience of the Casper Testnet.
Contribution to the Casper Community
Everstake currently supports 2,250+ delegators across our two mainnet Casper validators. Beyond uptime, we invest in education and accessibility, maintaining a public Casper staking page with:
- Real-time reward calculator
- Staking and delegation guides
- FAQ for new users and token holders
We believe that validators aren’t just infrastructure but touchpoints for user trust and network adoption.
What’s Next in Q4
Looking ahead to Q4 2025, our priorities are focused on continuation rather than reinvention. We will:
- Maintain current infrastructure while reviewing cost-to-performance efficiency.
- Prepare for the next expected network upgrade cycle.
- Expand internal monitoring dashboards for deeper validator insights.
- Continue supporting delegators and the Casper ecosystem through public tooling and documentation.
Thank you for reading our Casper Testnet Q3 report and for helping build this ecosystem with us. If you’re a delegator, builder, or just curious about Casper, we’re here to help you take part in the network with confidence.
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Everstake, Inc. or any of its affiliates is a software platform that provides infrastructure tools and resources for users but does not offer investment advice or investment opportunities, manage funds, facilitate collective investment schemes, provide financial services or take custody of, or otherwise hold or manage, customer assets. Everstake, Inc. or any of its affiliates does not conduct any independent diligence on or substantive review of any blockchain asset, digital currency, cryptocurrency or associated funds. Everstake, Inc. or any of its affiliates’s provision of technology services allowing a user to stake digital assets is not an endorsement or a recommendation of any digital assets by it. Users are fully and solely responsible for evaluating whether to stake digital assets.
