From Genesis Validator to Ecosystem Infrastructure: Building Somnia.info

2026-02-07

Somnia validator infrastructure case study

When Somnia’s testnet launched in April 2025, we joined early as validators. But beyond running infrastructure, we quickly noticed something missing in the ecosystem.

There was no proper way for delegators to discover validators, compare them, or understand staking performance. Nodes existed, but decision-making was fragmented and opaque. That gap became the starting point for everything that followed.

Identifying the Gap

Running a validator gives you a unique perspective. During the early testnet phase, delegators faced a clear problem:

Validators were launching rapidly
Performance data was scattered
Commission structures were unclear
There was no unified view of reliability or uptime

Delegation decisions were being made with incomplete information.

We proposed a clear idea to the Somnia team:
build a comprehensive validator and staking analytics platform that makes participation transparent.

The team agreed. We started building.

The Product: Somnia.info

Our vision was not a simple stats page, but a reference dashboard for the entire ecosystem — something delegators would actually use.

Somnia.info was designed with a GTA-style interface: dense, functional, and data-driven. The platform includes:

Validator discovery and comparison
Commission structures and voting power
Delegation volumes and uptime tracking
APR / APY calculations with historical data
Network decentralization metrics
Transaction and network activity analytics

Everything needed to make informed staking decisions — in one place.

Somnia Validator Dashboard

By the time Somnia mainnet launched in September, Somnia.info was already complete. On October 23rd, we announced it publicly — a live platform aggregating validator data, network analytics, and staking tools in real time.

Somnia Network Analytics

Running a Validator and Building Infrastructure

What made this work is that these were never separate activities.

We joined Somnia’s validator set during the Shannon testnet as part of the earliest cohort. By testnet end:

Performance score: 93 / 100
Uptime: 100%

When Somnia processed 80 million transactions in 24 hours, our validator stayed fully operational. We were part of the system proving the network’s throughput under real load.

At the same time, we continuously analyzed and shared insights from inside the ecosystem — grounded in actual operator experience, not speculation. This consistency built trust with both the community and the Somnia team.

Infrastructure, product, and communication reinforced each other.

How It All Connected

By September, Somnia launched mainnet with 70+ projects and enterprise validators including Google Cloud. We shipped as genesis validators, with Somnia.info already live and functional.

By October, when the platform was publicly announced:

Delegators were already using it
Validator comparisons were transparent
Network health was visible in real time

Somnia.info became a practical tool for choosing where to stake — not marketing, not theory, but utility.

Validator Comparison Interface

The Takeaway

What worked here was refusing to separate validator operations from ecosystem building.

Most validators run nodes quietly.
Most media players stay disconnected from infrastructure reality.

We merged all three:

Reliable validator operations
A product the ecosystem genuinely needed
Consistent analysis grounded in real technical understanding

For HighTower, this case proves that infrastructure providers can become infrastructure partners — by identifying gaps and filling them early.

For the validator ecosystem, this is the model worth replicating:
don’t just operate. Contribute. Build. Amplify real signals honestly.