Validator Intro - Cosmostation

Validators
1

Gm everyone, Mikey from Cosmostation here.

Cosmostation is a globally trusted enterprise-level crypto infrastructure company operating validator nodes and building user interfaces for 60+ networks & 500k+ users with a strong emphasis on Cosmos Interchain ecosystem since 2018. On top of its secure node operation, Cosmostation offers a comprehensive suite of end-user products including Mintscan block explorer, Cosmostation browser extension wallet and Cosmostation mobile (iOS & Android) wallet in order to support the communities and contribute to the ecosystem.

dYdX has been a leading & constantly-innovating DeFi frontier within the Ethereum ecosystem providing users an intuitive, powerful trading platform. As one of the most enthusiastic builders/contributors in the Cosmos ecosystem, Cosmostation believes that the launch of dYdX appchain will bring significant benefits to all. We are very excited for the upcoming launch and looking forward to supporting & contributing to the dYdX community with our products suite.

Here are some brief introductions of our end-user products:
Mintscan is the go-to block explorer for Cosmos Interchain ecosystem. (Interchain Explorer by Cosmostation) Mintscan displays various types of useful data of ~60 blockchain networks including smart contracts, IBC relayers, validators, assets and much more, in a user-friendly UI/UX.
Mintscan Hub is the Cosmos Interchain data analytics platform. Mintscan Hub aggregates & visualizes data to provide users, developers and exchanges a series of useful statistics and analytics to help them navigate through the ecosystem.

Cosmostation Browser Extension non-custodial wallet (Cosmostation Wallet - Chrome Web Store) natively supports ~60 Cosmos Interchain networks, 13 major EVM networks and Move-based blockchains including Sui and Aptos - users can manage their fragmented assets across multiple ecosystems within one single wallet interface.
Cosmostation Mobile non-custodial wallet(iOS & Android) supports all the fundamental features of on-chain activities such as send, IBC send, stake, vote and more. Also, with the integration of various dApps on “DAPP” section, users of Cosmostation Mobile are able to interact with on-chain applications anywhere they go, anytime they want.

Looking forward to supporting dYdX community in a variety of aspects & taking parts as a long-term contributor to the ecosystem!

7 Likes
2

Hey @Mikey_Lee ,

Appreciate you posting your profile! It’d be helpful if you could fill in your details and answer the relevant questions listed in the Validator Introduction Framework.

Please note that using the above intro format is encouraged but optional. We view this as an effective way for community members to evaluate the potential validators of dYdX v4 using a consistent, standardized framework. Many thanks!

1 Like
3
  1. Entity name and location
  • Cosmostation, based in Seoul, South Korea.
  1. Infrastructure location
  • Cosmostation Validator node servers are globally distributed in multiple countries including South Korea, France, Singapore, Canada, and the US, France, etc.
  1. What kind of hardware do you run? Baremetal, cloud-based…? In what geographic regions?
  • Cosmostation primarily uses bare metals and also public clouds when it’s needed for setting up duplicated infrastructure environments.
  1. Technical make-up of team (elaborate on no. of dev ops engineers, experience, etc.)

  • Cosmostation has a total of 18 developers with the lead of Jeonghwan Park - Head of node operations at Cosmostation. Jeonghwan is head of DevOps and node operations at Cosmostation, spearheading research and development for our back-end team and node operation team. He is responsible for keeping our validator node operations to its highest standard, and administers research and implementation of new protocols at Cosmostation.

  • Yong (CTO) is Chief Technology Officer at Cosmostation. With his 10+ years of experience as a developer at Naver and Kakao Corp, he is equipped with an in-depth understanding of software engineering. Yong specializes in payment and mobile development.

  1. Years of experience
  • 5 years - Cosmostation has been operating validator nodes and building user interfaces for 70+ networks & 500k+ users with a strong emphasis on Cosmos Interchain ecosystem since 2018.
  1. What other networks are you running validators for?
  1. Based on your participation in any previous testnets, mainnets, are there any best practices to be aware of? What are some things that made previous testnets, mainnet launches successful and/or things to avoid that have gone poorly?
  • Cosmostation believes operating validator nodes is taking full responsibility for the security of partner protocols, without depending on centralized services. To achieve that, we established our own escalation policies with monitoring systems. Also, setting up a backup environment where we could respond to any kind of potential issues is very important. To achieve better diversity and prevent single point failure, Cosmostation seeks to provide validator service in environments that are different from other validators, to an extent that it doesn’t deter the performance of the networks.
  1. Do you have a validator voting framework and process?

  • Cosmostation is operating validator nodes on 70+ protocols, most of which have their own governance process and mechanism. The nature of each governance proposal varies drastically depending on the protocol, ranging from weekly LP pool reward adjustments to network upgrades and community pool funding proposals.

  • We have an internal committee of 3 that monitor all proposals and engage in active discussions before voting. Once one member of the committee summarizes an important proposal, the 3 committee members will discuss then vote on the proposal internally to come to consensus.

  • While it is difficult to have a clear cut standard on how we vote on proposals due to the sheer amount of protocols we are currently validating on, we believe that it is the validator’s duty to act on behalf of its delegators and act in their best interest. Neutrality is not always to best choice, and we tend to act on these few principles: 1) Against authoritarianism - we are against centralization of stake within PoS ecosystems 2) For community growth - we are open to funding proposals and initiatives that will bring an advantage to the ecosystem although it may come at an initial cost (i.e. community funding, etc.) 3) Protocol sustainability - vote for any parameter change / initiative / upgrades that can attract more users to the protocol, and vote against changes that will affect the protocol negatively.

  • Voting examples:
    Cosmos Governance Proposal #103 // confio public goods funding - we voted yes because Confio is the company behind CosmWasm. they have been providing services related to CosmWasm for a long period of time, and many Cosmos chains are using their codebase to implement CosmWasm in one iteration or another. We believe that teams like Confio must be funded for the sustainability of development and acknowledgement they deserve.
    Cosmos Governance Proposal #799 // On-board the Stride blockchain for ICS - Stride is an LSD app chain built with the Cosmos SDK. They have been detrimental in advancing areas previously unexplored before ICA became active - Stride being onboarded as a Cosmos Replicated Security chain will not only benefit Stride but also Cosmos Hub to easily onboard more users to the ecosystem.

  1. Are you planning to play any additional roles in the dYdX ecosystem (e.g. market maker, trader, indexer, front-end, other)?
  • Validator - Running validators on Testnet and Mainnet
  • Block explorer service - Mintscan (for Public Testnet and Mainnet)
  • Indexer service - Mintscan RPC/API
  • Mobile wallet - Cosmostation Wallet (iOS/Android)
  • Extension wallet - Cosmostation Extension (both EVM, Cosmos support)
  • Dashboard - For asset management and governance
  1. Are there other products or services you want to highlight that could be relevant for dYdX?

  • On top of its secure node operation, Cosmostation offers a comprehensive suite of end-user products including Mintscan block explorer, Cosmostation browser extension wallet and Cosmostation mobile (iOS & Android) wallet in order to support the communities and contribute to the ecosystem.

  • Here are some brief introductions of our end-user products:

  • Mintscan is the go-to block explorer for Cosmos Interchain ecosystem. Mintscan displays various types of useful data of ~60 blockchain networks including smart contracts, IBC relayers, validators, assets and much more, in a user-friendly UI/UX. Mintscan Hub is the Cosmos Interchain data analytics platform. Mintscan Hub aggregates & visualizes data to provide users, developers and exchanges a series of useful statistics and analytics to help them navigate through the ecosystem.

  • Cosmostation Browser Extension non-custodial wallet (Cosmostation Wallet - Chrome/Firefox/etc.) natively supports ~60 Cosmos Interchain networks, 13 major EVM networks and Move-based blockchains including Sui and Aptos - users can manage their fragmented assets across multiple ecosystems within one single wallet interface.

  • Cosmostation Mobile non-custodial wallet(iOS & Android) supports all the fundamental features of on-chain activities such as send, IBC send, stake, vote and more. Also, with the integration of various dApps on “DAPP” section, users of Cosmostation Mobile are able to interact with on-chain applications anywhere they go, anytime they want.

  1. Any notable contributions in other ecosystems that you would like to highlight for the community?

  • As a validator since 2018, we’ve been helping our partner networks bootstrap their launch and onboard users, by providing third-party dev toolings, and end-user products as above. Cosmostation node operation team, marketing team, and CS team monitor various channels including Discord, official Twitter, E-mail & Telegram 24/7, actively communicating with the networks and users to secure the network and provide a better user experience.
    Our research and marketing team also regularly publishes content to help distribute information across the broader Asian market and assist our partners in educating users/retail. We plan to expand our research team in the near future and create high quality research content more often.

  • Cosmostation has always been active on various social media platforms including Twitter, Telegram, Medium, KakaoTalk, and more.
    On top of that, Cosmostation team has hosted and participated in our partners’ local events in Seoul, South Korea, helping our partners communicate with Korean builders and users.

4 Likes