Vasiliy Shapovalov

Vasiliy Shapovalov: Lido Co-Founder and P2P.org CTO

Vasiliy Shapovalov is a key software engineer and entrepreneur within the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) landscape, primarily recognized as a co-founder of Lido Finance, the market-leading liquid Crypto Staking protocol. His technical expertise, shaped by a background in applied mathematics and extensive software development experience, has been crucial in addressing the challenges of liquidity and accessibility in Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks, particularly Ethereum. Concurrently, he serves as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at P2P.org (formerly P2P Validator), a major non-custodial staking infrastructure provider.

Education and Early Technical Career

Holding a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Southern Federal University in Russia, Shapovalov built a strong foundation for tackling complex system design. His early career involved roles as a software developer and project manager at various technology firms (including OOO Content.RU, ANGSTREM JSC, and a Research Institute) focusing on areas like information security and virtualization. Around 2017, he transitioned into the Blockchain space, working as a developer at Digmus.

CTO at P2P Validator / P2P.org

Shapovalov became involved early on with P2P Validator (founded in 2018 by Konstantin Lomashuk and partners), assuming the role of Chief Technology Officer around 2020. P2P.org operates as a prominent global provider of non-custodial staking infrastructure, running high-performance validator nodes for numerous PoS blockchains on behalf of institutional clients and individual token holders. His leadership position at P2P.org provides him with deep insights into the operational challenges and best practices for securing large-scale staking operations across diverse networks.

Co-Founding Lido Finance (2020)

Recognizing a major barrier to entry for Ethereum's transition to Proof-of-Stake – the requirement to lock up 32 ETH, rendering it illiquid – Shapovalov co-founded Lido Finance in late 2020 alongside Konstantin Lomashuk, Jordan Fish (known online as Cobie), and others.

• The Liquid Staking Solution: Lido introduced a novel approach to solve staking illiquidity. Users deposit their ETH (and later, other PoS assets like SOL, MATIC) into Lido's audited smart contracts. The protocol then delegates these assets across a curated set of professional node operators (vetted by the Lido DAO, including P2P.org). In return, users receive a liquid derivative token, such as stETH for Ethereum, which represents their staked principal plus accrued rewards.
• stETH Utility: The key innovation was that stETH could be freely traded, used as collateral in DeFi lending protocols, deposited into liquidity pools, or otherwise utilized across the DeFi ecosystem, all while continuing to earn the underlying staking rewards. This unlocked significant capital efficiency.
• Non-Custodial Nature: While Lido's smart contracts manage the delegation process and users rely on the DAO-selected operators, the protocol is generally considered non-custodial from the user's perspective. Users mint and hold the stETH token, can initiate the unstaking process (subject to network withdrawal queues), and do not hand over their wallet's private keys directly to Lido itself. The validator keys are managed by the distributed set of node operators.
• Rapid Growth & Governance: Lido quickly became the dominant liquid staking provider, particularly for Ethereum, attracting billions of dollars in staked assets. Its growth was supported by significant venture capital funding, including a $70 million round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) in March 2022. The protocol operates as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization, the Lido DAO, governed by holders of its native LDO token who vote on proposals concerning upgrades, fees, and operator selection.

Thought Leadership and Industry Contributions

Shapovalov has actively engaged in public discussions regarding the evolution and challenges of liquid staking:

• Future of Liquid Staking: At industry events like Devcon Bogotá (2022), he shared insights on the potential consolidation of the liquid staking market, predicting Lido and large centralized exchanges would be key players, while arguing for the importance of DeFi solutions ultimately prevailing through improved capital efficiency.

  "We are very much dependent on the whole DeFi stack to win against the CeFi options. The only thing that CeFi does better than DeFi right now… is probably just capital efficiency." - Vasiliy Shapovalov (paraphrased from Devcon talk)

• Addressing Centralization Concerns: Recognizing the systemic risks posed by Lido accumulating a very large percentage of staked ETH, Shapovalov has been part of the internal and public discussions about mitigating these risks. This included engaging with proposals, potentially even suggesting Lido self-limit its market share, sparking important debates within the Ethereum community (with figures like Vitalik Buterin also weighing in) about maintaining validator decentralization.
• DeFi Composability: He highlighted the importance of reliable infrastructure, like Chainlink price feeds for stETH, in enabling liquid staking tokens to be safely and effectively integrated as core collateral assets across the broader DeFi ecosystem.

  "Chainlink effectively serves as an important enabler for DeFi protocols looking to add support for assets like stETH quickly and securely." - Vasiliy Shapovalov (commenting on integration)

Conclusion: Architect of Liquid Staking

Vasiliy Shapovalov stands as a significant technical contributor within the DeFi and Proof-of-Stake sectors. His work as a co-founder of Lido Finance was instrumental in creating and popularizing liquid staking, fundamentally changing how users interact with PoS networks by unlocking the liquidity of staked assets like Ethereum's ETH via tokens such as stETH. Combined with his role as CTO at the major staking infrastructure provider P2P.org, Shapovalov possesses deep expertise spanning both protocol development and practical validator operations. He remains an important voice in addressing the ongoing challenges and opportunities in staking, decentralization, and the future development of the DeFi ecosystem.