Entity name and location
Meria. We’re base in Metz, France 
Infrastructure location
95% in France
What kind of hardware do you run? Baremetal, cloud-based…? In what geographic regions?
All our validators run either on cloud-based dedicated server or on cloud instance. 100% of our validators run are hosted in France.
Technical make-up of team (elaborate on no. of dev ops engineers, experience, etc.)
Meria node team has 3 dedicated members and 3 backups.
Skills :
- 1 sysadmin / automation lover / dev
- 1 additional junior sysadmin / automation
- 1 monitoring expert
- 1 devops expert
- 2 sysadmin enjoyers + cyber-security experts
#Years of experience
Since 2017, we have been supporting many blockchain projects around the world on the operation of nodes and validators ensuring the proper functioning of their network.
What other networks are you running validators for?
Our dedicated node operation team is capable of working across different ecosystems.
We are currently validating on 14 cosmos-based networks (Cosmos, Osmosis, Juno, Axelar, Humans, … full list at https://hub.mintscan.io/validators/stats/justmining).
Also validating on Ethereum (175+ validators), MultiversX (224 validators), Polygon, Near, Chiliz, Aleph.im, Ternoa
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?
There is no single rule: every project is different and does not necessarily have the same needs.
On the other hand, there are certain good practices that contribute significantly to the success of this type of operation:
Clean and complete documentation : having a poor documentation or poorly explained tech components is always a struggle since all operators do not run the same infrastructure. Also, it is a key for us to understand what we are building
Communication channels between validators : it allows operators to discuss about some struggles we face, to share knowledge and some tips. Also, it is important for coordination on governance votes or on upgrades, as well as for onboarding new validators
Do you have a validator voting framework and process?
The subject of voting and participation is very important to us. Current regulations impose standards that are sometimes incompatible with active participation. It’s a real challenge for us to enable all delegators to participate in the life of the ecosystems. We have already setted up to put in place processes that allow the majority of proposals to be voted on.
Are you planning to play any additional roles in the dYdX ecosystem (e.g. market maker, trader, indexer, front-end, other)?
In reality, our participation in the DYDX ecosystem is much broader than the ‘simple’ operation of nodes. Meria is also an investment platform with nearly 100,000 investors who will be able to benefit from native token staking through a fiat on-ramp and off-ramp regulated in Europe.
Meria is also the hub for an entire ecosystem with a wide range of skills (Hasheur, HashConsulting, etc.), all of which are helping DYDX to expand into French-speaking territories.
Are there other products or services you want to highlight that could be relevant for dYdX?
We want to be able to offer DYDX native token staking to all Meria users as soon as possible.
