Proposal: Pier Two remains as successor of Numic
Summary of Proposal
Pier Two acquired Numic Validator Services (Numic VS) (infra+team). Pier Two is proposing to Lido DAO to approve of Pier Two and Numic, as a newly merged entity, remaining in the curated set. Pier Two and Numic VS believe this is in the best interest of Lido DAO for a variety of reasons, as explained below.
The Rundown
Numic VS was voted into the Lido Curated Operator Set in onboarding Wave 5 in August/September 2023. Numic VS scaled up to 8991 keys early this year before a security incident that was reported to the DAO and is currently being resolved. Following this incident, Numic VS withdrew all validators for precautionary measures. Currently, Numic VS has no keys and is awaiting being reinstated after providing evidence for an increased security position.
The current Numic VS team will continue to work with Pier Two to ensure that the validator infrastructure is being effectively managed.
In responding to your questions:
There are no Material Changes to Validator Operations (People) or Meta Properties (Geo). There are changes which propose that Pier Two’s infrastructure is used instead.
We read comments in the recent Lido DAO post regarding Galaxy’s acquisition of CryptoManufaktur and have laid out our considerations regarding whether there are any “Material Changes” that should be considered in relation to this proposal:
Validator Operations (People): Pier Two has acquired the Numic Validator infrastructure and the Numic team will be working alongside Pier Two to ensure that validator infrastructure continues to be managed appropriately.
Validator Operation (Infrastructure): The newly merged entity (which currently has no keys) will use Pier Two’s infrastructure instead of the old Numic Infrastructure which was compromised.
Meta Properties: Numic is based in Queensland, Australia, Pier Two is based in Queensland, Australia, with a global team that has 24/7 monitoring, alerting, and pager duty rosters. The infrastructure itself will still be run in Australia.
Why Pier Two
Pier Two is an Australian based blockchain infrastructure operator focused on servicing the APAC region’s funds, exchanges, custodians, and networks. As an ISO 27001 certified operator, Pier Two has been staking since the Beaconchain launched in 2020. Why Pier Two is capable and adds value to Lido:
- Existing DVT Operator and Lido Contributor: Pier Two has been playing a leadership role in Lido’s DVT efforts with SSV (Blazing Basilisk cluster and Delightful Dolphin cluster), Obol (Whistling Wolf cluster and Covert Cougar cluster), and SafeStake (Agile Anteater testnet). Worthy of mention is that Pier Two participated in onboarding Wave 5 but was unsuccessful in its application.
- Further Decentralisation: Numic VS is based in Queensland, Australia, and as it happens, so is Pier Two. Providing the same credible geographic decentralisation. From a client diversity perspective, we happily run Lighthouse, Teku, Nethermind, and Besu. We have a hybrid bare metal and cloud setup, running our nodes on bare metal and managing key infrastructure on cloud. We use our own IAC (Infrastructure as Code) to manage deployments, which incorporates tools such as Ansible and Terraform.
- Performance: Pier Two is a consistent performer on Rated, consistently appearing in the top 10 validators globally in terms of performance.
- Security: Key backups with secure offline backups in secure storage, ISO27001:2022 certification alongside Information management, and security software.
- Educator: In addition to this, we’ve written numerous educational pieces on topics such as DVT, client diversity, and many more. (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 as examples).
- Ethereum Client Builder: Pier Two is also building a light client for Ethereum in C# called Lantern. Pier Two’s inclusion in Lido will enable the business to continue to provide accessibility for Ethereum in the coming years.
Other Acquisitions and Likeness
This isn’t the first merger or acquisition that has occurred within Lido - there are precedents of acquisitions regarding Certus One, Anyblock Analytics, and Prysmatic Labs. More recently, on 17 July 2024, Galaxy Digital acquired CryptoManufaktur. In this case, Pier Two and Numic is similar to the Galaxy and CMF, with the caveat that Pier Two has also been a contributor to Lido and will continue to contribute to the DVT onboardings.
Next Steps
We believe that, based on the information provided above, Pier Two and Numic, as a newly merged entity, should remain in the curated set.
If there are any community members or LDO holders who would like to discuss finer details - Pier Two would be grateful for any discussions. Please reach out to our Discourse inbox or our websites to get in touch.