Stakely

Stakely is a leading provider of non-custodial staking nodes, enabling its users to earn rewards for staking their cryptocurrency holdings. Stakely currently supports over 40 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain networks and offers low fees for its customers, whilst maintaining a secure and high-quality node infrastructure.

Being based on PoS protocols, Stakely offers a much more sustainable staking solution compared to those that use Proof-of-Work (PoW) methods. With PoW, users validate blocks and earn rewards using energy-intensive hardware to solve cryptographic puzzles. However, with PoS, users simply need to own cryptocurrency, which they can stake in exchange for validation and rewards. As no expensive or powerful hardware is required for PoS, this makes it more energy-efficient and accessible to a wider range of people.

To host its complex infrastructure - whilst also providing a consistent service to its customers - Stakely required dedicated servers with high availability. As blockchain technology is based on decentralisation, it consists of various nodes (devices with an IP address connected to the blockchain network) distributed across several locations, so Stakely also needed a provider with multiple global datacentres. The company had explored several options but found that many providers had a limited product range and simply couldn’t deliver on performance.

"We required a powerful and reliable platform to host our staking services - and OVHcloud servers delivered in every way. Other providers simply couldn’t match OVHcloud in terms of cost, performance, support or geolocation, and we were delighted to find a partner that shared our sustainability values. We look forward to our continued partnership with OVHcloud as we strive to offer more services to our customers and take Stakely to the next level of growth."

Jose Antonio Hernandez, CEO at Stakely

OVHcloud was able to meet all of Stakely’s technical requirements, offering a diverse range of servers with the capabilities required for blockchain innovation. This - coupled with a strong commitment to sustainability - made OVHcloud the perfect choice for Stakely.

Stakely employs multiple architectures to support its operations across a variety of blockchains, including Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solutions such as Rollups, Solana and Substrate-based networks. In addition, Stakely operates on a significant number of networks built with Cosmos SDK, an open-source framework for building PoS blockchains that comprises of sentry nodes (which contain the whole blockchain and isolate validators from the public) and signer nodes (for writing data into the blockchain and validating the contents of each block). Stakely chose to host its Cosmos SDK sentry nodes on OVHcloud Advance Servers, whilst the signer nodes were hosted on virtual machines using OVHcloud Public Cloud Instances.

Based on the latest AMD™ and Intel® processors and super-fast SSD NVMe disks, Advance Servers deliver the performance required to host complex databases, such as the blockchain contained within sentry nodes. Advance Servers feature cutting-edge security technology, such as AMD Infinity Guard, which shields data from attacks to the system memory and hypervisor layer. They also contain Anti-DDoS Protection, which mitigates distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks up to 1.3 Tbit/s. This is especially useful for blockchain networks, as they can be susceptible to ‘transaction flooding’ attacks. Advance Servers also include Link Aggregation for improved availability and feature a burst option to increase bandwidth and ensure performance during peak traffic. To facilitate decentralisation and distribute the nodes, Stakely housed its servers at OVHcloud’s datacentres in France, Germany, Poland and Canada.

Using Public Cloud Instances, the signer nodes were hosted on several virtual machines. Public Cloud Instances retain the same availability and Anti-DDoS features as dedicated servers, but offer increased scalability and simplicity, as resources can be customised and scaled at the click of a button. This was ideal for hosting the signer nodes, as they contain the private keys from the validators and perform signatures, which are then broadcast to the network via the sentry nodes. Each virtual machine was hosted via OVHcloud’s datacentres in the UK, France and Germany, and connected to the Advance Servers using the vRack Private Network, which isolates data from the internet via a stable high-speed connection.

Finally, OVHcloud delivers eco-friendly technology, and this aligned with Stakely’s mission as a PoS blockchain provider. All OVHcloud servers use water-cooling solutions to reduce energy consumption and are assembled in-house using recycled components to eliminate complex supply chains, which often hide unethical or unsustainable practices. Not only does this deliver more sustainable technology, but it also lowers the cost of OVHcloud’s solutions, as there are no third-parties involved or import fees to be paid.

Thanks to its partnership with OVHcloud, Stakely gained a powerful yet energy-efficient platform to host its blockchain infrastructure. Both the Advance Servers and Public Cloud Instances deliver the speed and performance required to support blockchain technology, with multiple security and bandwidth features to protect transaction data and ensure high availability for Stakely and its customers. In addition, OVHcloud’s global datacentres support the distributed infrastructure required by blockchain, whilst its eco-friendly servers deliver peace of mind for companies like Stakely, who are building a more sustainable future for the blockchain industry.

Going forward, Stakely anticipates further collaboration with OVHcloud, as it plans to grow its business and build a range of PoS solutions for enterprise customers.