Certora, a leading blockchain security firm securing billions of dollars in DeFi TVL, has joined the Solana Foundation Delegation Program with the launch of its own validator, marking a significant expansion of its role within the Solana network. The decision places Certora directly inside the network’s operational layer. Rather than limiting its contribution to audits and tooling, Certora now applies its security expertise to the continuous work of securing transactions and maintaining network health.
This move positions Certora as a long-term, security-focused contributor whose interests align with the Delegation Program’s goals of strengthening decentralization, improving reliability, and sustaining high network performance. By operating a high-assurance validator, Certora translates theoretical security principles into measurable infrastructure outcomes.
Translating Security Expertise Into Network Operations
Certora built its reputation by applying formal verification and adversarial testing to some of the most complex systems in Web3. Its work with protocols such as Jito, Aave, Lido, Polygon, Irys, and other major ecosystems reflects a focus on preventing failure before deployment rather than reacting after incidents occur. Running a validator extends that same philosophy into live network operations.
Validator operation introduces a different class of risk than smart contract development. Operators must manage hardware reliability, network connectivity, software upgrades, and real-time incident response. Certora approaches these challenges with the same rigor it applies to protocol security.
"Our participation in the Solana Foundation Delegation Program is a logical extension of our mission to bring resilience and safety to Web3. We are deploying our security-first operational expertise to fortify Solana’s infrastructure, following the same best practices we recommend to our clients through our opsec services. By running a high-assurance validator, Certora is actively supporting the Solana Foundation’s mission to improve the decentralization, adoption, and security of the Solana ecosystem." - Seth Hallem, CEO of Certora
Alignment with the Goals of the Delegation Program
The Solana Foundation Delegation Program supports active contributors and developers who already have a solid understanding of the network’s technical and economic dynamics. The program aims to maximize decentralization, reliability, and performance, expand the number of validators with diverse stake sources, and sustain a large and representative testnet.
A lower validator count raises theoretical risks to decentralization and censorship resistance. Fewer operators increase the influence of large validators and reduce the margin of safety against coordinated failures or malicious behavior. The Delegation Program seeks to counter these trends by making validator operation more accessible and sustainable for technically capable teams with a long-term commitment to the network.
Infrastructure Choices and Operational Discipline
Certora’s deeper involvement in the Solana network builds on years of collaboration with established Solana-native teams. The company has delivered security work for Jito, Squads, Kamino, Light Protocol, and Fluid, among others. These relationships provide practical validation of Certora’s operational discipline and technical standards.
Certora deployed its mainnet and testnet validators on Latitude.sh bare metal infrastructure, prioritizing performance consistency and network connectivity. The mainnet validator operates from Amsterdam, while the testnet validator runs from Chicago. According to Certora’s Vice President of the Security Labs, Elad Erdheim, the team conducted extensive testing across locations to evaluate latency, bandwidth, and reliability before finalizing these deployments.
The validator stack reflects a deliberate approach to hardware selection, software configuration, and monitoring. Certora maintains 24/7 on-call coverage to address incidents and respond to network events as they occur. This operational posture mirrors the standards the company recommends to clients through its operational security services.
A Broader Pattern of Long-Term Commitment
Certora’s validator launch fits into a broader pattern of sustained investment in the Solana ecosystem. In recent years, the company has supported builders through direct security engagements and ecosystem-wide initiatives, including participation in audit subsidy programs designed to lower the barrier to professional security reviews. Certora has also continued to develop new tooling, such as its AI-assisted smart contract development platform, which combines automated code generation with formal verification.
By joining the Solana Foundation Delegation Program and operating its own validator, Certora moves from advisory and tooling roles into direct infrastructure stewardship. This step reflects a view that network security depends not only on secure applications but also on resilient, well-operated validators. Over time, contributions of this kind may play a meaningful role in strengthening decentralization and maintaining performance as the Solana network continues to scale.
Why Validators Matter
Validators are critical to Solana’s operation, handling transaction processing, security, governance, and staking reward distribution. However, the network has seen a steady decline in active validators for over two years, prompting concerns about decentralization and resilience. As the validator set shrinks and stake concentrates among fewer operators, risks increase: the superminority threshold, defined as the smallest number of validators that could theoretically halt or censor the network, has fallen from 34 validators in 2023 to around 20 today, intensifying debate about long-term network security and diversity of validators.
In response, independent validators have begun coordinating to counter consolidation. Layer 33, a group of 25 independent Solana validators, recently announced plans for a shared, evenly distributed stake pool designed to keep roughly one-third of total stake with independent operators. These discussions gained urgency following a massive DDoS attack that peaked at nearly 6 Tbps but caused no material network disruption, underscoring the importance of high-quality validators under stress.
While acknowledging ongoing economic and participation challenges, Solana Foundation Executive Director Dan Albert has rejected claims of an existential validator crisis, stating that current conditions do not threaten the network’s survival.
Read More on SolanaFloor
Solana Breakpoint 2025: Key Announcements and Stories from Saturday
The Shocking Truth About Solana DATs!
