About NORS
The Node Operator Risk Standard: collectively and collaboratively defined by industry experts.
Vision
Enhance the reliability & transparency of staking infrastructure with a standard for excellence and trust.
Mission
Provide enterprise-grade risk mitigation criteria and institutional certification for professional node operators.
The Node Operator Risk Standard (NORS) defines criteria to objectively evaluate and certify whether a node operator has professional-quality best practices in place for Ethereum validator risk management, including implementing slashing prevention measures, validator diversity factors, responsible private key management, operational security, and more.
NORS enables the overall performance of node operators to be evaluated through a risk-adjusted lens. By establishing a clear, objective, and measurable standard for professional ETH node operators, NORS encourages the promotion and adoption of resilient, secure, and transparent validation practices.
NORS was collaboratively developed and hardened by a working group of expert teams, led by Alluvial, who together saw the need to align on a comprehensive certification of validator risk management that could be accepted and adopted by leading enterprises and institutions.
Collaborators in NORS Development Working Group, facilitated by Alluvial
- Alluvial
- Aaron Henshaw / Ambush Capital
- AON
- Blockdaemon
- Chainproof
- Coinbase
- Eigen Labs
- Figment
- Galaxy
- Robert Christensen / Laminated Labs
- Liquid Collective
- Nexus Mutual
- DV Labs
Key NORS elements
The Node Operator Risk Standard (NORS) is an enterprise-grade certification framework designed to ensure the operational security and reliability of Ethereum validator infrastructure.
Developed by a working group of industry leaders and experts, NORS establishes rigorous, objective criteria for risk management in the Ethereum staking ecosystem.
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The core of the NORS certification is the Risk Control Matrix (RCM), an open standard outlining specific control objectives to address relevant risks, illustrative control activities, testing procedures, and examples of evidence documentation. The controls are categorized into key areas such as slashing prevention, private key management, operational security, and business continuity.
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To ensure objectivity and credibility, NORS certification requires receiving a passing custom assurance report completed by a NORS Qualified Assessor. Node operators may choose to complete readiness separately with a NORS Qualified Readiness Assessor, or may choose to complete both readiness and attestation with a NORS Qualified Assessor.
NORS docs