Q&A with Lavender Five: RPC & Validator OGs of the dYdX Chain

Introduction:

Lavender Five is one of the most recognizable infrastructure providers in Cosmos, and one of the earliest supporters of the dYdX Chain. From validator operations to a robust RPC setup, they’ve helped build and sustain networks from the ground up. With deep roots in Cosmos and a reputation for shipping solid infra with minimal noise, they’re the quiet force behind many mission-critical systems.

We sat down with Gijs from the Lavender Five team to talk about what drives them, how they think about decentralization, and what it really takes to operate RPC and validator services at scale.

Disclaimer: This interview was conducted over a live call and has been edited for clarity and flow. While we’ve done our best to capture the key points and tone of the conversation, some details may differ slightly from the original discussion.

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Q: Can you give us a quick overview of what Lavender Five does and how you contribute to dYdX?

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Sure. Lavender Five is a Web3 infrastructure firm that focuses on two core areas: validator services and RPC infrastructure. We’ve been operating since around 2020 - 2021, starting with early Cosmos chains like Osmosis and Secret, and now run infra for more than 60 networks - including Solana, Aptos, Celestia, and of course, dYdX.
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We’re a small but tight-knit team of three - myself, James, and the founder Dylan. All three of us are technical, and although we each have different focus-aread, we all work hands-on across every chain we support. That means all of us  understand the stack, run infra directly, and take part in every upgrade and issue.
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On dYdX specifically, we’ve been contributors since the early testnet days, running a validator and offering public and commercial RPC endpoints. We’ve seen the chain grow from a technical idea to a live network with serious adoption, and we’re proud to be a part of that.

Q: You run infrastructure for a huge number of chains — how do you manage the technical load?

A lot of it comes down to having a solid architecture. We have a consistent way of operating the machines, and a proxy/cluster layer that sits on top. Once that’s in place, adding new networks becomes fairly trivial - you just need to handle the quirks of each binary.

We also don’t split things up across big teams. All three of us know every single network we work with - which RPCs are running, how the contracts work, and so on. That gives us a kind of depth that’s hard to match in larger orgs where things are more siloed.

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Q: What originally drew you to the dYdX Chain?

When dYdX v4 was announced, it was one of the few products in crypto that was actually making money. Back then, most chains were just handing out tokens and hoping something stuck. dYdX had product-market fit, actual revenue, and a serious technical challenge they were taking on.

We also knew some of the folks helping build the chain and saw they were going to make use of underused features in the Cosmos SDK - that was exciting for us. We like working with teams that are trying to do something new on the tech side, not just copying what’s already out there

Q: What advice would you give to someone looking to run a public RPC or become a validator?

Be clear about your motivation. Are you doing it for fun, as a side project, or as a business? Running an RPC or validator as a business isn’t easy. You need to love systems architecture and be ready to deal with disk failures, internet outages, or late-night alerts.

Start small. Run on a testnet, stake your own tokens, and get your hands dirty. It’s about building experience and figuring out how to stay calm and effective when things go sideways.

Don’t expect it to be easy, and definitely don’t expect it to be super profitable right away. This kind of work is technical, stressful, and often thankless. You’ll be woken up at 3am to fix something that broke and no one will even know you did it. But if you enjoy that kind of challenge, it can be super rewarding. We always say this is kinda like DevOps with even more fire drills. If that sounds fun to you, then go for it. You get to work with awesome builders from the earliest stage which is a joy in and of itself.

Q: What’s something about Lavender Five that people might not know?

We have a tool page: lavenderfive.com/tools - that has everything you need to get started with dYdX or other networks: mainnet info, testnet links, endpoints, guides, and more. It’s one of our most visited webpages.

Also, you can follow us on Twitter: @lavender_five

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Conclusion

Thanks to Gijs and the Lavender Five team for sharing their story and insights.

Stay tuned for more Validator & Service Provider Spotlights!

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