This is probably a topic for a future Temp Check but I want to share my point of view here.
Now that I’m in the new OC, I started looking at the overall situation and challenges of the public operator marketplace. I think the main issue with the SSV public marketplace is a systematic one, how the system is designed and how things work today.
I agree, we should move forward with urgent fixes like making fees depend on ETH effective balance (not validator count) and allowing operators to adjust fees more freely. But currently, we’re seeing that not enough stakers are choosing public SSV operators and over time I realized there are valid reasons for that.
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In general, most medium and small stakers don’t want to deal with the technical side of staking so they use custodial or turnkey staking services like Kraken or Lido. Those services use SSV for DVT within private setups to maintain control over pricing and operations.
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There’s also the SLA (Service Level Agreement) angle between pro operators like P2P or A41 and the medium-sized staking services that pool smaller stakers. SLAs set clear expectations for operators, like staying online and performing well. If they don’t, they can be penalized or replaced.
Reason #2 is a big reason justifying why these staking services tend to go with private operators running the SSV infrastructure. At the end of the day, staking providers want guarantees if something goes wrong, they want someone responsible. That’s a lot harder to get that with anonymous public (verified or not) operators who don’t really have skin in the game and could just vanish without any real consequences.
In my opinion, these two reasons explain grossly why more than 85% of operators on SSV are on private setups. This is the systemic reality and the core issue with public SSV operators. It’s good for SSV overall, but if we want the public side to survive, we have to improve some things.
A potential improvement would be to bring a systematic solution to a systematic issue. The Trusted Cluster model proposed by @alonmuroch could be a meaningful step in that direction. By offering cost predictability, off-chain payments and reduced operational friction, it has the potential to make public SSV operators more competitive with private setups.
When combined with accountability features similar to SLA potentially structured between the Trusted Cluster and the Foundation and adopted by already verified operators, Trusted Clusters could help attract more stakers to the public marketplace.