Nethermind → Twinstake Validator Operations Migration

Description

TL;DR

This proposal seeks the community's support on whether Nethermind’s active validators in the Lido on Ethereum Curated Set should be migrated to infrastructure operated by Twinstake.

The full proposal, including motivation, security model, operational continuity plan, and migration milestones, is detailed in the original forum post.

Original forum post summary

Node operator Nethermind and staking provider Twinstake (founded by Nethermind in 2022 as a joint venture with WebN) jointly submit a proposal to migrate all the active Nethermind-run validators (~7000 as of publication) in the Lido on Ethereum Curated Set to infrastructure operated by Twinstake.

Delegating validator operations to Twinstake ensures clearer accountability, deeper specialization, and reliable day-to-day management backed by its experience across 20+ proof-of-stake networks and dedicated real-time monitoring tools, while allowing Nethermind to remain focused on core initiatives.

Nethermind still retains a significant shareholding in Twinstake and remains closely aligned with its team, sharing engineering practices, infrastructure, and security frameworks. Nethermind will also remain an active member of the Lido Node Operator community, keep submitting client-team feedback, relevant discussions and proposals, and contributing to broader initiatives related to the Lido protocol.

Operational continuity will be ensured through ongoing involvement of Nethermind senior site reliability engineers during the migration and beyond, onboarding Twinstake personnel to Lido protocol’s specific workflows, and first-line monitoring handled by Twinstake’s established 24×7 Network Operations Center, with escalation paths involving Nethermind engineers.

Operational Migration Plan

1. Amazon Web Services Account with encrypted keys ownership transfer & signer deployment
2. Rest of validator infrastructure migration in four sub-units (Lido0–Lido3), 2-3 epochs downtime each
3. Nethermind infra decommission
4. On-chain vote to update node operator’s name & reward address

LNOSG Conclusion

The Lido Node Operator Subgovernance Group (LNOSG) conducted a review of Twinstake’s proposed operational methodology and met with the Twinstake team to discuss the transition. No major outstanding concerns were raised during this process. The LNOSG found no reason to cease collaboration with this operator, as Twinstake’s operational practices were reviewed and assessed to be on par with Nethermind’s high standards. The detailed conclusion was published on the forum and may offer further help to voters in their consideration.

Voting Options

A vote "Approve the migration" indicates agreement with this proposal. If "Approve the migration" wins, all active Nethermind’s validators in the Lido on Ethereum Curated Set will be migrated to Twinstake’s infrastructure, following the proposed operational migration plan.

A vote "Reject the migration" indicates disagreement with this proposal. As the range of dispute options is extensive, a vote "Reject the migration" entails a discussion to identify which options should be considered and brought to a subsequent vote.