The decentralization of the Bitcoin network garners significant attention in the crypto community. It’s widely believed that Bitcoin miners should diversify their operations across different jurisdictions to mitigate the risk of regulatory capture. This belief was further emphasized following China’s 2021 crypto ban, which resulted in mining operations spreading to other continents, fostering a more decentralized network.
However, this discourse is less common in the context of Proof-of-Stake networks such as Ethereum and Solana. This is where staking firm SenseiNode steps in. The company aims to bolster the resilience of such blockchains by establishing validator infrastructure in Latin America.
“When we started, 99% of nodes were located in Europe, the US and some in Asia,” Pablo Larguia, CEO of SenseiNode, told CoinDesk. “We were the first to bring geographic and jurisdictional decentralization to Latin America.”
With approximately $800 million in assets staked through its platform, SenseiNode ranks as the 15th largest staking firm globally. The leader, Kiln, manages over $7 billion. SenseiNode operates in several Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, and Colombia, with additional nodes in the U.S. and Germany. Across all these jurisdictions, SenseiNode utilizes local and regional data centers.
“The majority of nodes in the US and Europe are hosted in Amazon Web Services, which is essentially a point of centralization,” explained Larguia.
However, data centers in Latin America aren’t as advanced as their Western counterparts, prompting SenseiNode to assume an educational role in some instances, helping to develop the necessary infrastructure to run staking services.
The requirements for running nodes differ from one protocol to another, according to Larguia. For instance, projects with an extensive blockchain history may require larger storage capacities. The costs associated with running nodes also vary. An Ethereum validator costs roughly $300 per month to run, while a Solana validator comes in at $800 per month.
However, there are no restrictions on the number of tokens that can be delegated to a single Solana validator, unlike Ethereum validators, which are capped at 32 ETH each. Consequently, Ethereum staking is more costly for SenseiNode to manage than Solana staking.
“For Polkadot and Avalanche, we operate two or three nodes, but for Ethereum, we have around 9,000,” Larguia revealed.
The pioneering work of firms like SenseiNode in promoting decentralization and resilience in Proof-of-Stake networks highlights the evolving dynamics of the crypto industry. As geographic and jurisdictional diversity become strategic priorities, the role of regional service providers in establishing a truly decentralized network becomes increasingly vital.
