Who is WhisperNode?
WhisperNode 
is a grassroots validator team thatās 100% focused on decentralization, security, and the Cosmos ecosystem. We started with just one validator on Secret Network and have now grown to supporting 20+ networks. We love the Web3 space and consider ourselves blessed to be able to do what we do everyday. We strive to be incrementally better at what we do every single day, and thus reinvest a lot of our resources from delegators into improving WhisperNode (more on this below). WhisperNode works 24/7 to ensure that delegators can sleep peacefully, knowing their funds are #SAFU.
Team:
Brendan Kittredge is a core community member and contributor at Secret Network where he runs the community program for Secret Agents. He started WhisperNode and learned the basics of validating Proof of Stake chains on Secret Network. He is now focused primarily on the forward facing business relationship aspects of the Whispernode validator and has much smarter technical people to answer his dumb questions. In a previous life he was a Contracting Officer with 12 years of professional experience in Government contracting, procurement, and acquisition for Nuclear Aircraft Carriers, Radar Systems, and complex IT Systems.
Nick Hagianis is a Software developer with 10 years of experience building customer facing software for startups and small businesses. He has expertise in systems development and design utilizing Python, JavaScript, and SQL among many other tools and has been involved in the successful sale of software company Perch Security and currently works a Rewst.
Gh0stā¦wellā¦Gh0st likes to stay anon, but he is our workhorse, main sys-admin, and most trusted technical partner. Gh0st can largely be credited with our expansion across the cosmos. We couldnāt do it without him, nor would we want to.
LinkedIn:
Brendan Kittredge
Nick Hagianis
Gh0st - Super Sysadmin
GitHub:
WhisperNode
Nick Hagianis
Gh0st
What Networks do we Support?
Cosmos, Secret Network, Axelar, JUNO, Osmosis, Sentinel, Comdex, Evmos, Stargaze, Kuji, Nomic, Chihuahua, Cerberus, Asset Mantle, Cheqd, Desmos, DIG, Echelon, LUM, Terra, and more on testnet coming soon.
How long has your validator been active on the Cosmos Hub?
Whispernode joined the Cosmos active set in April 2022:
What is your infrastructure set-up?
Whispernode currently rents bare metal servers in multiple locations around the world. We are not reliant on one provider OR one geographic location.
For our architecture we have a validator and multiple sentry nodes for each network. We use the TMKMS Key Management System to separate key management from Tendermint nodes, improve security, ensure high quality access to validator keys, and prevent double-signing.
How do you approach alerting?
We are actively testing new monitoring & alerting solutions. Currently we run multiple Tenderduty/Pagerduty instances, which monitor our nodes 24/7/365. If we miss 10+ blocks, weāre immediately alerted via SMS/push notifications. After 3 mins, it spam calls us (not fun when youāre sleeping!)
In addition weāre running PANIC (node alerts via Telegram), HalfLife (realtime Discord node alerts), and UptimeRobot.
These give a clear picture of every single node at ALL times, & massive redundancy in case 1 or more fail to alert us (for any reason).
How do you engage with your delegators?
WhisperNode team members are very active and engage frequently on our twitter accounts:
https://twitter.com/whispernode
https://twitter.com/gh0stdotexe
Weāre also actively pushing delegators to join our Discord Server (WhisperNode š¤) and have plans in the near-term to really ramp up community engagement there to include things like weekly AMAs, contests and prizes.
How do you make governance decisions? What is your process for deciding how to vote on proposals, and how do you ensure that you keep delegatorsā best interests in mind?
We strive to be well-informed of all governance proposals prior to voting. Our process includes external discussion with other validators, delegators, and an internal discussion in our discord.
As a fully independent company, we have no external influences when it comes to governance participation, NOR do we vote on things with our own financial interests in mind. We try to be unbiased and vote based on a strong set of ethics.
Ecosystem Contributions:
- RPCās (available in chain directory - cosmos.directory
- REST endpoints (available in chain directory - https://cosmos.directory/](https://cosmos.directory/)
- P2P Peer IDs (available in chain directory - cosmos.directory)
- Seed nodes (soon, after Tenderseed server is built)
- REStake for every chain AuthZ is enabled on (including our own REStake frontend)
- Snapshot / state-sync servers (planned for future)
- Community Programs like the Secret Agents
- Testnets for a lot of supported networks
What are your hopes and goals for the Cosmos Hub?
Interchain Security will lower the barrier to launching and running secure sovereign decentralized public blockchains and as such being a validator on the Cosmos Hub will be vital in securing the future of Web3. The low marketcap of new PoS blockchains makes them more vulnerable to attackers and we see the Cosmos Hub and Interchain security being the solution to this problem and bringing utility and value accrual to the $ATOM token (not investment advice).
How can I delegate my ATOM to WhisperNode?
Where can you find WhisperNode?
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WhisperNode
Website: https://whispernode.com
Discord: WhisperNode š¤
