Analyze Missed Rewards

Overview

Missed rewards represent potential earnings your validators could have received if they had performed perfectly. Tracking missed rewards helps you identify issues, optimize performance, and quantify the cost of downtime or misconfigurations.

API Endpoint: This guide uses /api/v2/ethereum/validators/rewards-list for per-epoch missed reward breakdowns.

See Also: The APY & ROI Metrics endpoint also provides missed reward data as part of its return calculations. Use this document for detailed per-epoch analysis; use APY & ROI for aggregated impact on your returns.

Why Track Missed Rewards?

Diagnose Issues

Identify which duty types (attestations, proposals, sync) are causing losses.

Quantify Downtime Cost

Calculate the exact ETH lost during outages or maintenance windows.

Optimize Setup

Compare missed rewards before/after configuration changes to measure improvements.

Client Reporting

Show customers transparent breakdowns of actual vs. potential earnings.

Impact on Returns

See how missed rewards affect your overall APY & ROI using aggregated metrics.

Understanding Missed Rewards

This workflow focuses on diagnosing which duties contributed to lost earnings over time. See the Rewards List API reference.

Missed vs Penalty: Missed rewards are potential earnings you didn’t receive. Penalties are actual deductions from your balance. Both reduce your net rewards, but penalties are more severe.

Quick Start: Fetch Missed Rewards

Get missed rewards for a specific epoch:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://beaconcha.in/api/v2/ethereum/validators/rewards-list \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_KEY>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '
{
  "chain": "mainnet",
  "validator": {
    "dashboard_id": 123
  },
  "epoch": 414000,
  "page_size": 10
}
'

Response

{
  "data": [
    {
      "validator": {
        "index": 123456,
        "public_key": "0xabc..."
      },
      "total": "9103000000000",
      "total_reward": "9103000000000",
      "total_penalty": "0",
      "total_missed": "250000000000",
      "attestation": {
        "total": "9103000000000",
        "head": {
          "total": "2348000000000",
          "reward": "2348000000000",
          "penalty": "0",
          "missed_reward": "0"
        },
        "source": {
          "total": "2364000000000",
          "reward": "2364000000000",
          "penalty": "0",
          "missed_reward": "0"
        },
        "target": {
          "total": "4391000000000",
          "reward": "4391000000000",
          "penalty": "0",
          "missed_reward": "0"
        }
      },
      "sync_committee": {
        "total": "0",
        "reward": "0",
        "penalty": "0",
        "missed_reward": "0"
      },
      "proposal": {
        "total": "0",
        "missed_cl_reward": "0",
        "missed_el_reward": "0"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Common Causes of Missed Rewards

Cause	Affected Duties	Solution
Network latency	Head votes	Reduce latency to beacon node, use local execution client
Node downtime	All duties	Implement redundancy, monitoring, and failover
Missed proposals	Proposals	Ensure MEV-boost and execution client are responsive
Sync committee offline	Sync committee	Keep validators online during sync committee periods
Clock drift	Attestations	Use NTP synchronization

Use the Notifications system to get alerts when validators miss duties. Early detection minimizes losses.

Best Practices

Monitor Regularly

Track missed rewards weekly to catch degradation before it becomes significant.

Set Thresholds

Alert when missed rewards exceed a percentage of total rewards (e.g., >0.1%).

Compare to BeaconScore

Use BeaconScore for relative comparison; use missed rewards for absolute ETH impact.

Investigate Spikes

When missed rewards spike, check node logs, network status, and duty assignments.

See Missed Rewards Impact on APY & ROI

For a high-level view of how missed rewards affect your overall returns, use the APY & ROI API. This endpoint provides aggregated missed reward data as part of its return calculations:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://beaconcha.in/api/v2/ethereum/validators/apy-roi \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_KEY>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "chain": "mainnet",
    "validator": { "dashboard_id": 123 },
    "evaluation_window": "30d"
  }'

The following example uses the APY & ROI API:

{
  "data": {
    "execution_layer": {
      "roi": { "total": 0.0012, "missed": -0.0001 },
      "apy": { "total": 0.0146, "missed": -0.0012 }
    },
    "consensus_layer": {
      "roi": { "total": 0.0008, "missed": -0.00005 },
      "apy": { "total": 0.0097, "missed": -0.0006 }
    }
  }
}

When to use which endpoint:

Use rewards-list (this document) for detailed per-epoch missed reward breakdowns by duty type
Use apy-roi for aggregated impact on your overall returns as a percentage

Monitor Validator Performance — BeaconScore and efficiency metrics
APY & ROI Metrics — Calculate return on investment
Custom Range Rewards — Calculate rewards for any date range
Notifications — Set up alerts for missed duties

Introduction

V2 API Docs

V1 API Docs

Overview

Why Track Missed Rewards?

Diagnose Issues

Quantify Downtime Cost

Optimize Setup

Client Reporting

Impact on Returns

Understanding Missed Rewards

Quick Start: Fetch Missed Rewards

Response

Common Causes of Missed Rewards

Best Practices

Monitor Regularly

Set Thresholds

Compare to BeaconScore

Investigate Spikes

See Missed Rewards Impact on APY & ROI

​Overview

​Why Track Missed Rewards?

Diagnose Issues

Quantify Downtime Cost

Optimize Setup

Client Reporting

Impact on Returns

​Understanding Missed Rewards

​Quick Start: Fetch Missed Rewards

​Response

​Common Causes of Missed Rewards

​Best Practices

Monitor Regularly

Set Thresholds

Compare to BeaconScore

Investigate Spikes

​See Missed Rewards Impact on APY & ROI

​Related Resources

Overview

Why Track Missed Rewards?

Understanding Missed Rewards

Quick Start: Fetch Missed Rewards

Response

Common Causes of Missed Rewards

Best Practices

See Missed Rewards Impact on APY & ROI

Related Resources