Node Operator Admission: Pier Two as stVault Professional Operator

Node Operators stVaults Identification
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1. Identification

About Pier Two

Established in 2018, Pier Two is an institutional-grade infrastructure provider focused on delivering non-custodial staking services. We operate highly performant hybrid infrastructure, utilising a mix of bare metal and cloud environments with zonal redundancy to ensure uptime and security. We currently service approximately ~$6B in delegated assets and serve a diverse wholesale client base.

Pier Two is deeply involved with the Ethereum and broader digital asset ecosystem, not only as a node operator but as a builder. Complementary to our core business, we are building a Lean Chain consensus client, called Lantern, in C, demonstrating our commitment to client diversity and network accessibility. We have also been a verified Chainlink node operator since 2019.

Further, we maintain the following information and operational security certifications, namely (a) ISO27001:2022; (b) SOC 2 Type I; (c) SOC 2 Type II; and (d) are the first in the world to achieve the Node Operator Risk Standard (NORS) certification. We take our role of supporting and providing non-custodial infrastructure in this emerging digital economy seriously. We are objectively one of the most performant non-custodial ETH staking service providers globally and are natively integrated with major custodians.

Motivation to join stVault as a Professional Operator

Pier Two humbly submits its intention to participate in the stVault framework to bring institutional-grade reliability and geographic diversity to the Lido V3 ecosystem. As a long standing participant in the Lido Simple DVT module (across SSV, Obol, and SafeStake clusters) and the Curated Set (following the acquisition of Numic), we view stVaults as the next logical step in offering flexible, compliant, and secure staking solutions to the market.

2. Business Case

Operator Type Requested: stVault Tier 1 Professional Operator

Rationale: The introduction of stVaults allows for a more modular and tailored staking architecture. Pier Two is uniquely positioned to support this model due to our extensive experience with institutional clients who require bespoke reporting, strict compliance, and high-performance guarantees. Our business model is predicated on “Your Keys, Your ETH, Always,” ensuring a non-custodial approach that aligns neatly with Lido’s security principles and stVault’s trust minimised approach.

Key Value Propositions:

  1. Geographic and Jurisdictional Diversity (APAC), Pier Two provides true geographic diversity by operating our infrastructure directly out of Australia. By hosting validators physically within the APAC region, we offer the Lido validator set critical redundancy and protection against geopolitical risks, a vital counterweight to the majority of validators currently concentrated in North America and Europe.

  2. Compliance and Security, Institutions entering the stVault ecosystem require assurance regarding security standards. Pier Two’s ISO 27001:2022, NORS and SOC 2certifications provide a verifiable trust layer that reduces compliance friction for institutional clients performing due diligence on node operators powering the stVault framework.

  3. DVT Leadership, we have been active contributors to Lido’s DVT initiatives, running validators in the Simple DVT Module across multiple implementations (SSV, Obol). We are prepared to leverage this expertise to operate DVT-based stVaults, further reducing single-point-of-failure risks.

  4. Ecosystem Contribution, beyond validation, we are enhancing Ethereum’s resilience by developing the C implementation of the light client Lantern. Our work on this light client underscores our technical depth and commitment to the Ethereum network’s long-term health.

3. Operations and Decentralisation

Infrastructure: Pier Two utilises a hybrid infrastructure model to balance performance with resilience. We operate our own bare metal hardware for core validation duties while leveraging cloud infrastructure for redundancy and specific non-validating services. This setup is managed via Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Ansible and Terraform to ensure reproducibility and minimise manual error. Our hosting and location approach is highlighted below:

  • Pier Two has taken a hybrid approach, utilising both OVH (bare metal) and GCP (cloud), ensuring provider diversity and failover redundancy in the event of outages; and

  • Australian geographic distribution (with multi-jurisdictional failovers for redundancy) mitigate against correlated outages.

Client Diversity: Pier Two applies client diversity best practices to prevent correlated events and client-specific bugs. At the Consensus Layer, we operate Lighthouse and Prysm, and at the Execution Layer, we run Nethermind and Geth.

MEV Posture: Pier Two utilises commit-boost to optimise performance. We connect to a diversity of relays to ensure a competitive and fair block production posture. We monitor relay performance and compliance to ensure alignment with Ethereum’s neutrality.

Security: Our security posture and signing infrastructure prioritise high availability and built-in security, featuring:

  • Key Management: Validator private keys are securely stored in HashiCorp Vault, preventing them from being exposed in memory or in software. Access is restricted to Web3Signer instances, which utilise a Postgres database to track signed messages and provide automated slashing protection against double-signing.

  • Network Segregation: We deploy infrastructure for each blockchain protocol in isolated subnets with dedicated resources, ensuring no shared infrastructure between chains to minimise the “blast radius” of potential incidents.

  • Audits and Assurance Pier Two maintains ISO 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type I and Type II, and NORS certifications, validated by annual independent assessments. These are complemented by regular third-party penetration testing of our web applications and APIs.

  • Monitoring and Alerting: We utilise Prometheus and Grafana for 24/7 automated monitoring of system health and validator performance, tracking metrics such as uptime and missed blocks.

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