Running a validator during the mainnet launch of Sui was a big moment for H2O Nodes – our first mainnet launch of a major L1 blockchain! We are overjoyed to have the opportunity, and committed to demonstrating great performance on an ongoing basis.

Image source: Twitter

After being onboarded by Mysten Labs, we ran a validator during Sui’s third incentivized testnet.

Image source: Mysten Labs blog

After many months of running Obol’s first testnet DVT cluster, we joined another cluster as part of Lido’s 2nd round of DVT-testing efforts. This time, the cluster has 10 participants. (and Lido is organizing 10 clusters!) We’re very impressed with the progress that the Obol team is making.

Image source: Twitter.com

Reaching the top-10 rank on StakeWiz was a sign that we’ve achieved what we set out to do: run a high performing validator out of a minority datacenter, in order to increase the decentralization of the Solana network.

Image source: StakeWiz.com

After migrating to v2 of Lido on Solana, we were able to run a public validator on Solana for the first time. A number of epochs later, Marinade’s delegation strategy began to delegate to our high-performing validator.

Image source: Marinade.finance

With 99% effectiveness, Rated Network ranks our validator at the “Absolute Top”.

With most of the Ethereum validators already running MEV Boost, we joined the party and began running MEV Boost, using the flashbots relay.

Image source: Rated.network

After spending time with the Obol team during Berlin Blockchain Week, we participated in a decentralized key generation (DKG) ceremony and participated in the launch of their first DVT cluster on testnet.

Image source: Twitter

We were onboarded to Lido on Solana during the third onboarding wave. Until then, we had only run on testnet due to the non-trivial voting costs associated with running a mainnet Solana validator. We’re very grateful to Lido for giving us the chance to stake their delegation given our lack of history up to that point, and we didn’t let them down.

Image source: Blog.Lido.fi

After forming our team and putting the company founding process in motion, it was time to see whether we could achieve higher performance on Solana testnet, Ethereum testnet, and eventually also Ethereum mainnet. We had a lot to learn, but each obstacle taught us more about the networks and best practices.