Why Run a Validator in Cyprus? Because No One Else Is.
We get this question a lot:
“Cyprus? Really?”
Yes. And here’s the thing—while everyone’s rushing to host nodes in Frankfurt, Amsterdam, or some data center in the middle of Oregon, we decided to go a different route. Straight to the mountains of Cyprus.
Why?
First off, there are barely any validators in Cyprus. That’s huge. Most networks suffer from crazy centralization — all the validators end up clumped in a few cities, running through the same few cloud providers. If one data center goes down or one region gets throttled, a big chunk of the network suffers.
So running a validator here actually helps decentralize the network in a meaningful way. We’re not just another dot on the same map—we’re expanding the map.
Also, Cyprus is perfect in ways people don’t expect:
It’s in the EU, which gives us legal stability, solid infrastructure, and access to modern services.
Strategic location. It’s a geographical sweet spot between Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Great connectivity for a region that’s often overlooked.
Power grid is stable, internet is fast (once you dig half the mountain to get the cables in—yes, we did that), and the climate keeps the hardware cool more often than not.
Now, it’s not all sunshine and sea breeze.
Like we said in our other post — setting up here was not cheap. Labor costs, equipment imports, and the general “island tax” on literally everything made this a wallet-drainer. And of course, the local pace of work is... let’s say unhurried. You haven’t truly tested your patience until you’ve waited three weeks for someone to “just check something” while sipping frappe.
But in the end? Worth every euro.
We’re proud to say we’re one of the very few (maybe the only?) serious validators running out of Cyprus. It’s not just about being different—it’s about being smart. Decentralization isn’t just a buzzword. It’s infrastructure decisions like this that actually move the work on and give a strategic advantage.
So yeah — validator in the mountains, sipping coffee while blocks are signed.