Node Operator Admission: RHINO as stVault Basic Operator

Node Operators stVaults Identification
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Node Operator Admission: RHINO as stVault Basic Operator

1. Identification

RHINO (Rhinostake, LLC) is a US-based enterprise blockchain infrastructure provider operating since 2020. Over five years, we have built one of the industry’s most comprehensive infrastructure portfolios, operating validators and RPC services across 60+ blockchain networks with approximately $250 million in assets under management.

We serve as genesis validators for major protocols including Aptos, Sei, Berachain, Initia, Nillion, and Monad, and operate critical infrastructure for Chainlink (Decentralized Data Feeds and CCIP). Our global infrastructure processes over 30 billion RPC requests monthly, supporting 100+ Web3 development teams with enterprise-grade reliability.

Within the Lido ecosystem, RHINO is an active Lido DVT validator operating in the top 5% performing pool (Insightful Ibex cluster) and a certified SSV operator.

RHINO is led by two senior technical leaders with over 60 years of combined enterprise infrastructure experience. Our CEO/CTO brings 30+ years building distributed systems for Fortune 500 companies, while our CISO brings 30+ years specializing in cryptography and threat detection. We are actively pursuing ISO 27001 certification (expected Q1 2026), reflecting our commitment to institutional-grade operational standards.

Our track record speaks for itself: zero security incidents and zero slashing events across five years of continuous operations.

2. Business Case

RHINO seeks to participate as a Tier-1 stVault Basic Operator to extend our proven enterprise infrastructure capabilities to the Lido ecosystem, bringing institutional-quality operations and North American market access.

ETH Sourcing Strategy:

  • Institutional Partnerships: We currently provide staking services for venture capital firms and institutional clients. Our relationships with investors like Figment Capital and our institutional-grade compliance framework position us to onboard regulated capital seeking compliant Ethereum staking exposure.

  • Enterprise Treasury Clients: Our enterprise SLA-backed services and ISO 27001 certification process make us an attractive partner for corporate treasuries requiring rigorous security and operational accountability.

  • Existing Delegator Network: Our validator operations across multiple networks have built a substantial community of delegators who trust our operational excellence. We will introduce our stVault to this existing base as our flagship Ethereum staking offering.

Commitment: We will seed the vault with our own capital to demonstrate alignment and commitment to the stVault’s success.

3. Ops & Decentralization

RHINO operates a globally distributed, security-first infrastructure with strong client, geographic, and provider diversity.

Client Mix & Versions:

  • EL: Geth, Nethermind
  • CL: Lighthouse, Prysm

DVT Experience: RHINO is a certified SSV operator and actively participates in the Lido SimpleDVT Module, operating within the Insightful Ibex cluster ranked in the top 5% for performance. Our DVT operations demonstrate production-ready experience with distributed validator technology at scale.

Infrastructure Footprint & Geography:

  • 100+ bare metal nodes across five major global clusters: Eastern US, Western US, Germany, Japan, and Singapore, with additional presence in India and Australia
  • Hybrid architecture: RHINO-managed data centers in the US combined with enterprise bare metal providers and strategic AWS deployments for security-critical functions
  • Multi-provider strategy within each region eliminates single-provider dependencies
  • All infrastructure deployed in Tier-3+ data centers with enterprise-grade power, cooling, and network redundancy

Key Management & Security:

  • Enterprise-grade vault infrastructure for all keys and secrets with comprehensive audit trails
  • Hardware security key requirements for vault access and SSH authentication
  • Horcrux-based MPC/RAFT signing for distributed validator security where supported
  • Nebula overlay networking for secure node communication with certificate-based access controls
  • No public SSH endpoints; all administrative access traverses our secure Nebula framework

Monitoring & Incident Response:

  • Multi-layered monitoring: Graylog (centralized logging), Wazuh (security monitoring with CVE detection), Zabbix (infrastructure monitoring)
  • 24/7 alerting through PagerDuty with immediate escalation for critical issues
  • Comprehensive incident response procedures aligned with ISO 27001 framework

MEV Posture:

  • Neutral, safety-first MEV stance prioritizing network health and validator liveness
  • Full PBS adoption with reputable, non-censoring relays aligned with Ethereum values
  • Strict monitoring for reorg risks and slash-risk minimization

Jurisdiction:

  • Headquartered in Pennsylvania, United States
  • US-based legal structure provides institutional-grade governance and regulatory clarity

4. Links

Notable Endorsements:

  • “RHINO is highly technical, consistently reliable, and always available to provide top-tier support.” — Philip Su, Engineering Manager, Sei Labs
  • “Eric and the RHINO team have been an important part of the Aptos Network.” — Sherry Xiao, Founding Engineer, Aptos
  • “With unparalleled technical expertise… RHINO delivers exceptional reliability and industry-leading uptime.” — Rob Pellecchia, Partner, Figment Capital
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Hi! Thanks for applying, it’s great to see you moving forward with onboarding as a stVaults Node Operator.

The stVaults Committee has started the assessment process, and we’ll keep you updated as things progress.