That’s great!
Dappnode is pretty well positioned to start offering access to Node Operators to the CSM via the deployment of an easy to use GUI in already existing Node Operators that might be running their own validators or validating on other chains (if they didn’t have access to 32 ETH).
A full UI integration with as little steps as possible is the end of the game for Dappnode: Click on “become a Lido Node Operator”, follow the steps (choosing how many validators and specifying the bond + key creation), submit transaction and all the infrastructure (EL+CL+Web3Signer+MEV Boost) gets deployed in the backend if not already existing in the machine. We have the existing setup to make this experience quite seamless.
Seems like Lido is worried -and it’s a perfectly reasonable worry- about Node Operators being unable to reliably run their nodes to the standard that it’s desired. Dappnode helps its users providing automatic updates of nodes and support channels to minimize downtime and optimize performance. Thousands of mainnet validators can attest to this, and we are happy to put our existing “decentralized DevOps” expertise to help N.O. reliably run their nodes.
For those not already having an existing setup, we see the hardware piece as a key aspect of it. We can provide plug-and-play hardware (that also looks sexy) to go from zero to Node Operator.
It seems that this first CSM favors bond in detriment of DVT setups. This is conceptually similar to Rocket Pool, an experience and UX already existing in Dappnode. We are also strong believers in “Community Staking” - where communities get together under DVT setups to offer strong performance and reliability and can present themselves as valuable operators to Liquidity providers like the Lido Staking Router. This seems to be out of scope for this first CSM, but we would be very keen on participating on the design of such an option.