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Turning validator best practice into an auditable standard
$35B
secured through node operations standards
01 — Problem
Lido spreads one of the largest pools of staked ETH across many independent node operators. Each ran its own security, key custody and incident-response practices, and no shared, auditable bar existed.
Nobody could easily answer the question an institution asks before staking: how do I know this operator is safe?
02 — What we did
- Supported the community effort to define operator best practice, from the earlier DUCK initiative through to ValOS, over roughly three years.
- DUCK produced a risk framework, a mitigation and controls library, and a communications toolkit. ValOS builds on it with governance and organisational structures, so the standard can be used in professional audits.
03 — Result
- ValOS went live in August 2026, funded by Lido DAO through its LEGO grants programme.
- Lido set aside a $60K grant pool (DUCK FLAP) that covers up to 50% of assurance-review costs for node operators who adopt it early.
- The standard is aligned with ISO 27001 and SOC 2 and published open source, so any operator can be assessed against it.
04 — Why it matters for you
If you stake at institutional scale, ValOS gives your risk committee a recognised standard to hold operators to. We know it from the inside.
Scope this with usSources — Public record