Case Study: Sei Network

Notional Labs provides validator bootstrapping services for testnets in Cosmos. This is a service we have provided to several projects, one of which was Sei Network. Sei styles itself as a decentralized NASDAQ, allowing projects that build on its chain to benefit from a native order matching engine, frontrunning protection, and multiple levels of order bundling. The chain also runs at the fastest finality in the Cosmos ecosystem at up to 600ms.

Noitonal has an ongoing consulting relationship with Sei Network and helped boostrap their testnet with the finest quality validators in the Cosmos ecosystem. Part of Notional’s expoertise in Cosmos is knowing which validators contribute to the projects they run nodes on. Notional compiled a list of validators that contribute, spread the word, help the community, have good uptime, and prioritize security over all else.

This process included:
  • Filtering top validators who contribute, code, etc.
  • Contacting and inviting these validators to Sei testnet
  • Being a subject matter expert (SME) for validator quality based on past contributions
  • Choosing validators aligned with Sei’s vision
  • Leading coordination of validators
  • Helping validators with technical questions


Notional does its best to avoid allowing politics to dicate this filtering process, unless it specifically goes against Sei’s vision for its project. Our selection criteria is based on contribution, community engagement, partipation in governance, uptime, team quality, and prioritization of security.