Node Operator Admission: Luganodes as stVault Professional Operator

Node Operators stVaults Identification
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1. Identification

Luganodes is a Swiss-operated, institutional-grade, non-custodial staking provider. Born out of the Lugano Plan B Program (an initiative by Tether & the City of Lugano), we have scaled into one of the world’s fastest-growing AAA-rated providers.

  • AUM & Reach: We currently manage $2.5 Billion+ in staked assets across 40+ Proof-of-Stake networks.

  • Ethereum Footprint: Luganodes operates an active stake of 300,000 ETH with a consistent 100% validator participation rate and zero slashing incidents to date.

  • Team: Our team has grown to a global workforce including dedicated Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) and Software Engineers providing 24/7 coverage across all major time zones.

2. Business Case

Luganodes is applying for the stVault Professional Operator status to provide our institutional clients with the highest level of capital efficiency via Lido V3.

  • Institutional Gateway: We serve a broad base of institutional clients, including exchanges (e.g., Bitfinex), Tier-1 VCs, Digital Asset Treasuries, Custodians, and large Blockchain foundations, with active integrations across leading custody providers including BitGo, Anchorage, Hex Trust, FalconX, and Ledger Enterprise. By transitioning these partners to stVaults, we aim to deepen stETH liquidity while maintaining strict compliance standards.

  • Proven Ethereum Track Record: Having maintained 99.9% uptime and perfect security since Ethereum genesis, our firm provides the battle-tested operational maturity necessary to meet Professional tier standards.

  • Ecosystem Commitment: We are an active participant in Lido’s Simple DVT Module, operating clusters across both Obol and SSV Network to enhance the protocol’s decentralization.

  • Target Efficiency: We intend to start at Tier 1 to offer our clients a competitive ~3.5%–5% Reserve Ratio, aligning with our “Efficiency-First” product philosophy for initial institutional cohorts.

  • Integrated Operator Stack: Beyond validator operations, Luganodes delivers a unified institutional platform encompassing staking APIs, dedicated single-tenant RPC, white-label validator services, and custom compliance reporting, enabling institutional clients to onboard stVaults within existing workflows with minimal friction.

3. Ops & Decentralization

Our infrastructure is designed for “Safety-over-Liveness,” ensuring zero slashing through rigorous engineering and multi-layered redundancy.

  • Infrastructure Mix: We utilize a hybrid of Bare Metal and Cloud across geographically diverse regions.

  • Client Diversity:

    • Execution Layer: Geth, Nethermind, Besu, Reth.

    • Consensus Layer: Prysm, Lighthouse, Teku, Nimbus.

  • Key Management: We utilize remote signers (Web3Signer/Dirk) with keys stored in secure KMS/Safe environments; no validator keys are stored on the validator hosts themselves.

  • MEV Posture: We strictly adhere to the Lido Relay Maintenance Committee’s allowlist, using non-censoring relays like Flashbots and bloXroute. We also utilize Commit-Boost to optimize relay routing and proposer effectiveness.

4. Governance & Compliance

Luganodes operates at the highest level of regulatory and technical security, meeting the stringent requirements of global financial institutions.

  • Certifications: We are fully compliant with ISO 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type II, and GDPR, with continuous automated evidence collection to maintain audit readiness.

  • External Audits: Our infrastructure and internal controls undergo regular third-party security assessments, including comprehensive audits by Quantstamp.

  • Slashing Insurance: We provide Chainproof insurance as a core feature for institutional clients. This policy is backed by Sompo and reinsured by Munich Re, covering both smart contract and slashing risks.

  • DAO Participation: We are active participants in Lido governance, contributing to strategic discussions regarding V3 stVaults, the GOOSE-3 execution plan, and the expansion of the Community Staking Module (CSM).

5. Links

  1. Website: luganodes(dot)com
  2. Security & Trust Portal: security(dot)luganodes(dot)com
  3. Ethereum Staking APIs: docs(dot)luganodes(dot)com/apis/ethereum
  4. GitHub: Luganodes
  5. Twitter/X: @luganodes
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