Thrilld Labs Partners with Colossus Digital
We’re thrilld to partner up with Colossus Digital, a blockchain tech provider connecting custody and validation infrastructures in our industry. As part of the partnership, Colossus Digital will be showcased in the Thrilld app, where anyone on Thrilld can connect with them to discuss business, staking, and more. Read on for why we partnered with them.
We’re thrilld to announce an official partnership with Colossus Digital, a blockchain technology provider, offering a comprehensive suite of services that bridge custody and validation infrastructures for the blockchain industry. Its focus is on value-added services, specifically enabling delegation from a customer’s preferred custody solution such as Fireblocks, Dfns, or Ledger Enterprise, to their validator of choice across more than 20 different blockchains, with new integrations released monthly.
“Can Machines Think?”
Colossus Digital, founded in 2022 and headquartered in Rome, it offers a range of services aimed at guiding institutional players into the Web3 space. Colossus’ focus is in value added services for the blockchain infrastructure, such as enabling delegation from customer preferred custody solutions. Its flagship product, the Institutional Hub, is a B2B marketplace that connects licensed custodians and their clients (exchanges, asset managers, banks, foundations, and VCs) with blockchain validators, enabling secure asset delegation for staking and governance. This unlocks new opportunities for institutional capital while ensuring security and compliance.
The name Colossus Digital comes from the 30-metre bronze statue Colossus of Nero, commissioned by a young Emperor Nero between 64-68 AD. The statue stood in the imperial villa complex in Rome, but was later moved in front of the Flavian Amphitheatre and re-designated as a statue of the Sun God Sol. While the statue was destroyed sometime in the fifth century, it is commonly believed that the Colossus’ position beside the Flavian Amphitheater prompted its renaming as the Colosseum.
However, Colossus is also the name of the first programmable electronic computer built in secrecy in the United Kingdom and used in World War II from 1943-1945. Colossus was able to decipher the Lorenz-encrypted (Tunny) messages, used by the Nazis to protect the correspondence between Adolf Hitler and his chiefs of staff. The story was popularized by a film re-making in The Imitation Game (2014), illustrating Alan Turing’s joining with the cryptography team to help decrypt the Enigma code and later building his own machine–a prototype of the modern computer.
The story behind the Colossus is one of pushing beyond the boundaries of what is already known to ask new questions. One proposed by Alan Turing in 1950 questioned, “Can machines think?”. These questions are now main-stream topics today with the emergence of AI and technology making its mark across industries. Strikingly, Colossus Digital is also addressing the very questions fundamental to the development of the Web3 ecosystem, including how to more effectively work and trade assets across multiple chains. The impacts of which extend to the long-term scalability and interoperability of the Web3 space.
Current Custodial Staking Solutions
Custodial staking is a type of staking service where a third party, usually a cryptocurrency exchange or a financial service provider, holds your crypto on your behalf and manages the staking process. However, with many staking custody solutions, there is the problem of limited mobility in assets since most institutions store crypto assets in highly secure, third-party custody solutions that are not compatible with on-chain staking or validator interaction. This means that in many custody staking solutions, assets are safe but remain locked in, unable to generate yield or participate in Web3 ecosystems. That is, unless they are manually moved to another platform which adds other unnecessary risks and friction.
This happens because many custody providers are focused on safekeeping rather than supporting every blockchain’s staking mechanism. Furthermore, staking itself requires the interaction with validator nodes but custody providers don’t usually support this natively or securely. As a result, large amounts of capital are “locked” in wallets and can’t participate in yield-generating staking or governance.
Indeed, it turns out that one of the challenges of a decentralized ecosystem is its decentralization. Blockchain protocols and different networks develop independently so that information and assets are not easily transferrable across different chains. This problem of interoperability has gained more attention in the Web3 space, and the question becomes how to connect the decentralized nature of Web3? The question sounds like a juxtaposition in itself, but by connecting various chains, the complication of which chain to use becomes a less crucial part of investing and scalability in Web3. The concept known as Omnichain expresses this idea, “Essentially, the omnichain concept strives to connect various blockchain protocols, enabling a more interconnected and efficient decentralized ecosystem” (Orderly Network). Interestingly, Colossus Digital thus presents one omnipotent solution by bringing on numerous protocols so that its users can work across multiple chains and put their assets to work with multiple validators.
Colossus Digital: Connecting Custody and Validation Infrastructure
Colossus Digital provides technical services that enable financial institutions to generate yield from their assets in custody. The company began its journey as a validator. What started as a single chain quickly expanded to over 150 servers across more than 20 proof-of-stake networks. The first major step came when a fund requested Colossus to safeguard its tokens as part of a regulated asset protection solution. This highlighted the need for a regulated on-ramp in the ecosystem. Colossus achieved OAM registration, implemented AML/KYC processes, and obtained a Fireblocks license to begin operations. While this was a significant step forward in addressing the core challenge, one issue remained: secure custody was not yet integrated with on-chain yield generation.
For this reason, Colossus Digital has developed the Institutional Hub, a pioneering two-sided B2B marketplace to ensure secure, efficient, and compliant staking for institutions with idle crypto reserves. The Hub allows to delegate assets not natively supported by current custody solutions, in other words, assets can be mobilized to unlock capital previously lying dormant or unused.
More specifically, Colossus Digital incorporates:
- Cross chain staking: stake assets across multiple PoS networks from a single interface, while maintaining custody provider alignment, simplifying multi-chain participation.
- Portfolio overview: gain full visibility over all assets (staked, available, locked and rewards) cross-chain into a clear, customizable portfolio view.
- Additional security layers: all signature processes remain within the custody, respecting users' TAP setup. The Institutional Hub adds: multi-party crafting, Transaction Lens, Simulation environment and Decoder (read more here:
https://colossusdigital.substack.com/p/raw-signing-misconceptions-a-clear) - Validator of choice: retain full delegation control by selecting preferred validators across supported networks, preserving flexibility and transparency within staking operations.
Colossus Digital supports over 20 tokens for staking, integrates 3 custody solutions (and allows you to bring your own), and estimates a wait time of 2-4 weeks on average to add a new chain onto the Institutional Hub.
In sum, Colossus Digital’s services allow token holders to maximize returns through network participation and staking rewards, while also enhancing network resilience through meticulously crafted nodes on major Proof of Stake chains. To view the list of supported assets ready for proprietary staking on Colossus, visit the Colossus Digital Institutional Hub page.
The company is led by the 3 founders, Lorenzo Barbantini Scanni, co-founder and CRO of Colossus. We recently met him at a Staking Panel (The Global Stakes of Staking: Networks, Nations, and the Next Era of Participation) at the Nordic Blockchain Conference this past June. He co-headed the creation of the Institutional Hub in 2023, introducing new and dynamic initiatives at Colossus by streamlining staking operations and maximizing profitability for asset managers, exchanges, foundations, custodians, and validators. The other founders are Gianni Pelosi (co-founder & CEO) and Andrea Calandruccio (co-founder & CFO).
As part of the partnership, Colossus Digital will be showcased in the Thrilld app, where anyone on Thrilld can contact them to discuss business, staking, and more. We are thrilld to partner with Colossus Digital and work with their team.
About Thrilld Labs
Thrilld, built by Thrilld Labs, lets Web3 professionals find each other, talk business, and build human connections through a fair networking app; online and at industry events.
Thrilld Labs is also building a decentralised app that lets Web3 event organizers sell tickets and enhance their reach as well as attendee engagement.
About Colossus Digital
Colossus Digital is a blockchain technology provider, offering a comprehensive suite of services that bridge custody and validation infrastructures for the blockchain industry. Its focus is on value-added services, specifically enabling delegation from a customer’s preferred custody solution, such as Fireblocks, Dfns, or Ledger Enterprise, to their validator of choice across more than 20 blockchains, with new integrations released monthly.
Its flagship product, the Institutional Hub, is a pioneering B2B marketplace that connects licensed custodians and their clients (exchanges, asset managers, banks, foundations, VCs etc.) with blockchain validators, enabling secure asset delegation for staking and governance.
