Following Enzo’s and my announcement regarding the acquisition of nodes from DFINITY and our intention to become node providers, we have observed numerous questions and speculations from community members on the forums. While formal transparency guidelines are still pending, we want to proactively address these concerns to dispel speculation and garner support for our resubmitted node provider proposals.
First, some background on us. We left the DFINITY foundation with one clear objective: make DeFi happen on ICP. We operate under a few key principles, to build products users love, to ship fast, get feedback and iterate. We first built a stablecoin backed by Bitcoin and ICP, which we eventually sunset. Next we built WaterNeuron, the first and only liquid staking protocol on the IC, which now boasts 2.3M ICP TVL, holding 68% of all ICP in DeFi. Now we are also building Yusan, the IC’s first borrow/lend protocol, which is the next big missing piece in ICP DeFi. We will also release OneSec, IC’s first multi-chain bridge/swap aggregator.
We start this post with that short overview on us since a select few in the community have made ad hominem attacks on us, and our motivations, all of which are completely unfounded. We have spent the past few years of our lives dedicated to building applications on the Internet Computer.
Like many in the community, we aspired to become ICP Node Providers, attracted by the potential for stable, recurring revenue and strong returns. In October 2024, DFINITY announced a silent auction for surplus nodes, following the introduction of a new rule capping each provider’s ownership at 42 nodes. We saw this as a unique opportunity, not only to become node operators but also to secure the capital needed to fund our broader development efforts on the Internet Computer. The biggest hurdle, then, was raising enough capital to submit a compelling offer. As we searched for potential backers, we realized that the only people with both the expertise and confidence to invest in this opportunity were the existing node providers themselves.
Node providers needed to be “independent”, but no clear definition of independence existed. In our minds, independence means full control and ownership of both the legal entity, the nodes, and the data center access. As engineers ourselves we wanted to manage the servers independently ourselves, contributing back to the community in the process. Where the money came was less relevant, as long as the financing didn’t come with strings attached or any ownership claims in case of default.
We connected with David Fisher, an existing ICP investor and node provider, who agreed to finance the loans. David has been incredibly supportive with both his time and money in the ICP ecosystem since he met Dom back in 2017 in Palo Alto. To maintain our independence, David agreed he would put up the money, but would not be the legal owner or retain any managerial rights.
A couple key dates are listed below.
October 2024:
DFINITY announced a silent auction for their extra nodes, after the new rule limiting the ownership of each provider to 42 nodes. In the announcement, it is stated that “You will be permitted to onboard them under the terms of NNS proposal 132553.”
November 15th, 2024:
BlueAnt LLC won 42 nodes:
- financed with a loan provided by David
- Enzo is the sole Ultimate Beneficial Owner (100% UBO)
- Public disclosure
Zarety LLC won 42 nodes:
- Financed with a loan provided by David
- Léo is the sole Ultimate Beneficial Owner (100% UBO)
- Public disclosure
January 24th, 2025:
DFINITY Stiftung handed over the nodes to Zarety LLC. These nodes were moved from Atlanta, USA, and Boston, USA, to the Isle of Man to further increase ICP’s geographical decentralization.
February 12th, 2025:
DFINITY Stiftung handed over the nodes to BlueAnt LLC. These nodes were moved from Marseille, France, and Atlanta, USA, to the Isle of Man to further increase ICP’s geographical decentralization.
March 2025:
A conversation started to discuss a new set of rules and guidelines on what it means to have independent node providers, which was not as clearly defined beforehand. With these new rules that will be voted on, the previous loan financing will become a problem, as David is also a node provider with Rivonia Holdings LLC. In parallel, a hunt began in earnest to find bad actors who had lied about their identity. It is our understanding that several fake identities were discovered, denting the reputation and security of the network.
That said, the hunt which had good intentions, also took an ugly turn, and became a witch hunt. People started being accused of nefarious activity and intent. We were accused specifically of colluding with David to attack the network. Given the environment of fear and intimidation that took over, we did not feel compelled to disclose our source of funding. We had nothing to hide, but no one else was required to disclose their funding so why should we? We had operated within the rules of the game.
April 14th, 2025:
Zarety LLC submitted a proposal to join the network without disclosing that David has provided a loan.
BlueAnt LLC submitted a proposal to join the network without disclosing that David has provided a loan.
DFINITY decided to reject our application to become a Node Provider. Dfinity felt that since we collaborated closely with the team in Zurich, we had an extra obligation to be transparent to the community. Our relationship with Dfinity is quite literally the most important thing to us, and in that spirit, we are writing this forum post to you today.
As we understand it, it seems unlikely that node providers financing other node providers will be permitted by the community. While we disagree that an unsecured loan removes independence, we of course respect the decision of the community - if that is indeed what is decided.
May 2025:
As a result, we have endeavored to re-organize the node provider entities along the following lines. This plan has been discussed with Dfinity who is supportive and believes it will likely be compliant under the new rules.
Following discussions with the DFINITY Foundation, we agreed that the current setup will not be compliant with the forthcoming independence rules. Therefore, we would like to outline the desired outcome:
- BlueAnt LLC, owned by Enzo, will be sold to Sisyphus AG, a Swiss-based entity we use to develop protocols on the IC, where David is a minority investor (less than 25%).
- Zarety LLC, owned by Léo, will be sold to David so he owns it outright.
- Rivonia Holdings LLC sells its 42 US-based nodes to a third-party. David is in what is hopefully the final stages of negotiation with an institutional investor to take over the nodes.
The reorganization must happen all at once. Steps 1 and 2 cannot proceed without Step 3, as compliance with the 42-node ownership limit depends on it. We propose, after consultation with DFINITY, for Blue Ant LLC and Zarety LLC to be accepted as node providers with the current setup, with Enzo and Leo as their respective legal owners. David will work diligently to finalize the sale of Rivonia Holdings to this institutional investor as soon as possible, ideally before mid June, although this is not entirely in his control.
Why This is a Serious Problem