Node Operator Admission: ContributionDAO as stVault Professional Operator

Node Operators stVaults Identification
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1.Identification

ContributionDAO is an institutional-grade validator and staking service provider, delivering secure and compliant infrastructure for professional and regulated participants.

Headquartered in Singapore, the company is directly backed by Kasikornbank, Thailand’s largest commercial bank, reinforcing its long-term focus on institutional reliability and operational excellence.

Founded in 2023, ContributionDAO brings over three years of experience in validator and staking operations, operating production-grade infrastructure across more than 20 blockchain networks with over USD 200 million in AUM.

The company operates under ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II standards, maintains slashing insurance coverage (Compliance), and has its controls independently audited by A-LIGN.

Within the Ethereum ecosystem, ContributionDAO participates in 3 Lido DVT clusters and is actively developing a DVT-based ETH staking platform powered by SSV technology (DVT-Staking platform).

2.Business Case

Request: ContributionDAO seeks to participate as a Tier-1 stVault Professional Operator to support the growing demand for institutional-grade ETH staking across the Southeast Asia region.

Institutional Client Access (SEA-focused Demand Expansion)

ContributionDAO is positioned to onboard ETH into stVaults from multiple institutional channels in Southeast Asia, including:

  • ETH ETF-related flows, as regional financial institutions and asset managers prepare for regulated ETH exposure.

  • Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies seeking to hold and stake ETH as part of long-term corporate treasury strategies.

  • Centralized exchanges exploring non-custodial, risk-managed staking solutions for institutional clients.

Custodian Integration

ContributionDAO plans to integrate directly with institutional custodians, enabling seamless and compliant staking workflows for clients who require segregated custody, operational transparency, and risk controls.

High-Net-Worth Individuals & Venture Capital Clients

In addition to institutional entities, ContributionDAO supports high-net-worth individuals and venture capital firms seeking Ethereum exposure backed by institutional-grade infrastructure, operations, and risk management. This segment represents an additional source of long-term ETH aligned with stVaults’ objectives of stability and sustainable participation.

3.Ops & Decentralization

Client Diversity

ContributionDAO supports a diversified Ethereum client stack across execution, consensus, and DVT layers to reduce correlated risk and promote client-level decentralization:

  • Execution Layer (EL): Nethermind, Geth, Reth

  • Consensus Layer (CL): Lighthouse, Prysm, Teku

  • DVT: SSV, Obol

Client selection and rotation are managed to align with network health, performance, and protocol recommendations.

Infrastructure Footprint

ContributionDAO operates a globally distributed infrastructure spanning Asia and Europe, designed to maximize geographic and infrastructure diversity.

The platform follows a multi-region hybrid architecture, combining cloud and bare-metal deployments across providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and OVH.
This approach mitigates single-provider and single-region failure risks while maintaining performance and redundancy.

High Availability & Fault Tolerance

High availability is achieved through:

  • DVT-based validator operations using both SSV and Obol.

  • Redundant signer and validator resources maintained for rapid failover.

  • Pre-provisioned standby capacity to support incident recovery and maintenance operations.

Monitoring & Alerting

ContributionDAO operates a 24/7 monitoring and alerting framework covering both infrastructure performance and validator operations.

  • Infrastructure monitoring: System performance metrics (CPU, memory, network, storage etc) are continuously monitored, with thresholds triggering alerts via internal communication channels.

  • Validator monitoring: Dedicated validator uptime and consensus health monitoring is integrated with incident escalation workflows, including notifications via Discord, email, and PagerDuty.

Security & Access Control

  • Network security: All servers are protected by firewall policies, with access restricted exclusively through the company’s VPN (NordLayer). Public internet access is not permitted for operations.

  • Authentication: Password-based authentication is disabled. Validator nodes are accessed using certificate-based authentication, while signer infrastructure uses tightly scoped cloud credentials.

  • Audit & logging: Operational logs are retained for a minimum of 90 days to support audit, compliance, and forensic requirements.

  • Device security: All operations team devices are managed under internal security audits, equipped with MDM tooling and endpoint protection.

MEV Posture

ContributionDAO follows a secure, ethical, and MEV strategy, prioritizing network health and client transparency.
MEV exposure is managed through a diversified MEV relay set, designed to reduce centralization risk while maintaining competitive execution performance.

4.Governance & Compliance

  1. Operates under ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2 Type II, with annual third-party audits.
  2. Maintains slashing insurance coverage as part of an institutional risk-management framework.
  3. Based in Singapore and Thailand, with operational coverage across Southeast Asia.

5.Links

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ContributionDAO’s proposal appears well aligned with Lido’s goals of attracting institutional capital without compromising security or decentralization. The backing of a major banking institution, combined with ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II compliance, adds strong regulatory and operational credibility.

The focus on DVT (SSV and Obol), diversified EL/CL client usage, and geographically distributed infrastructure is particularly positive, as it helps mitigate correlated and systemic risks.

The ability to onboard institutional ETH flows from Southeast Asia (ETFs, corporate treasuries, and custodians) could represent a meaningful growth vector for stVaults, provided there is continued rigorous evaluation of performance, slashing history, and alignment with Lido’s decentralization principles.