The ADAvault founders have worked in information and cyber security for many years, and bring deep software and infrastructure development experience, gained from protecting some of the worlds largest insurers, banks, exchanges, and payment services.

We run a limited number of pools, and our fees will always be fair. As the Cardano system grows we will extend our services to include non-custodial vaulting and escrow options. We participate and contribute to the Cardano community.

Pool Details

ADAvault is an independent operator focused on delivering highly secure, decentralised and reliable Stake Pool infrastructure.

Design

ADAvault uses bare metal servers, linux hardened builds, dedicated secure racking, low latency fiber optic connectivity, hardware firewalls, fault tolerant design and UPS protection. Infrastructure is built in line with the Cardano reference architecture with multiple relay nodes, separate Block Producing Nodes (BPNs), and cold storage for keys.

Power

All ADAvault components are powered by 100% carbon neutral renewable energy from a certified green energy supplier tariff. We also pay for trees to be planted each year each of which will absorb >300kg of carbon as they grow as well as providing a habitat for wildlife.

In September 2021 we also donated 5,000 trees to the Cardano Forest.

Security

We are very focused on privacy and security. System operations and design is aligned to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. We use Qualys for vulnerability scanning and Cloudflare as our Web Application Firewall. Our SSL Labs security scan passes with rating ‘A’.

Resilience

We operate using a resilient topology with a cluster of relays connected to active Block Producing Nodes (BPNs), with passive BPNs in warm standby (replicating but not producing blocks). We swap the active nodes for maintenance (security patching, node upgrades, and hardware changes).

We have a secure Disaster Recovery site, approx 160 kilometres from the main site which can be used in the event that the main site is affected for a prolonged period. This site has a replica infrastructure installed, and is configured for warm standby. We regularly test failover to the DR site, and ensure that the process operates as designed.

Software versions

The relays and BPNs are running Node 8.1.2. All hardened builds used for ADAvault infrastructure are based on the latest stable (long term support) operating system versions. We use a combination of Ubuntu, FreeBSD & Rocky Linux.

Why Cardano?

We have watched closely over the last 10 years as the crypto world has grown through 1st and 2nd generation technologies. As a relative latecomer Cardano has been able to take the best aspects of Bitcoin (UTxO, Decentralisation, Strong Security Guarantees) and Ethereum (Smart Contracts) and bring them together with a highly energy efficient proof of stake design.

These technical choices combined with the decentralised approach and open source, community first philosophy of Cardano is a big part of its attraction, and increases confidence in the likelihood of long term success and wide adoption. Some of the major competitive differentiators include:

• A research driven scientific and mathematical basis to the design with academic peer review
• The proof of Stake protocol (with no lock in or slashing) uses game theory to guarantee a minimum level of decentralisation and is environmentally sound
• Base Smart contract language supports formal verification (based on Lambda calculus) and can be made widely accessible through high level interpreters
• Interoperability via side chains and bridges will help Cardano act as an inter-network of blockchains, with Layer 2 isomorphic scaling technology such as Hydra heads permitting high transaction throughputs.
• Transparent and scalable governance mechanisms encourage ongoing development and innovation

To date we have found the Cardano community are very focused on positive outcomes, embrace newcomers, and willingly share knowledge. The leadership and vision from the founding entities is very strong. We believe this will be a really important factor in the next 5-10 years to nurture the decentralised ecosystem to the point where it is self sustaining.