# Keepers

Keepers play a crucial role in maintaining the health of Ion Protocol by acting as incentivized parties who take advantage of arbitrage opportunities to boost the overall health of the protocol. 

Ion's mechanisms are designed to economically align the financial incentives of the keepers and the health of the protocol. 

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"Incentivized Parties" can include anyone from individual users to institutions who want to maintain and operate off-chain programs that target profitable on-chain opportunities. 
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## Liquidations

When the Loan-to-Value ratio of a lending position exceeds the liquidation threshold of a given asset, a keeper can trigger its liquidation process and also participate in the auction if they wish. 

Ion Protocol takes a fixed liquidation bonus approach, meaning that all liquidators will be able to transparently preview the benefit of bringing the position's LTV back to a predefined target.

Keepers can interact with the on-chain priority queue maintained per collateral asset to effectively monitor for loans that are close to liquidation. 

Promptly triggering and participating in liquidations allows the keeper to outcompete other incentivized parties. It also helps the protocol prevent potential accumulation of bad debt in a black swan event.   

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It's important to note that the value of collateral in Ion Protocol is not measured by DEX/CEX prices, but rather by the full redemption value assessed by Proof-of-Reserve Oracles that monitor the consensus layer state. 

This means liquidations do not become possible by volatile price action but rather by consensus layer slashings and penalties. See more details on the [Proof-of-Reserve Mechanism](https://docs.ionprotocol.io/liquidations/broken-reference).
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