The validator team "Bro and Bro," composed of Alex, Alt Bro, and Cyber Obi-Wan, joined the Citizen Web3 podcast to discuss their work, values, and vision for the Cosmos ecosystem. Their commitment to privacy was immediately evident, as they appeared without avatars, a deliberate choice. Bro and Bro has been active for approximately a year and three months, starting with Osmosis and progressively expanding their presence across twelve networks, recently securing a spot in the Cosmos Hub active set. They are known for developing comprehensive dashboards and monitors, creating various bots, running relays, and offering a "Restake" feature that automatically compounds delegators' daily rewards at no cost, with all fees covered by the team. A central tenet of Bro and Bro's philosophy is a deep concern for the health and decentralization of the ecosystem. Alex articulated this, stating, "we are always worried about the ecosystem health and how it's decentralized because you know, the centralization is supposed to be decentralized, you know, and what I actually see every day that's it isn't." Their goal is to rectify the "decentralized sheet what happened in the some... main networks in the Cosmos ecosystem." To measure this, they've introduced a "network health" parameter, which assesses decentralization by determining the number of validator "actors" required to control or halt a network. While some networks, such as Bostrom and Evmos, demonstrate good health, others are deemed unhealthy if "only five actors need to stop the network," indicating a critical vulnerability and lack of security. Bro and Bro sees their core purpose in providing precise analytics and information. Alt Bro noted that many of their initiatives stem from observing inaccuracies, like incorrect APR numbers on explorers, driving them to "bring your word like saying, hey, look, this is correct. This is not." They firmly believe in instilling "blockchain decentralization and transference values into the ecosystem," as they perceive that many participants have "forgot about the real values of the blockchain." Ultimately, they consider it a fundamental responsibility of every validator to "bring new adopters to the ecosystem." The team's origin is rooted in the early days of Osmosis, sparked "over a beer and barbecue" while observing the initial airdrop claiming process. Alt Bro recalled noticing a critical gap: no one had created the necessary governance proposal to allow users to fully claim their airdrops. Bro and Bro stepped in, initiating what became Osmosis's "prop number one," a proactive move that underscored their dedication to community needs and marked their first significant contribution. On the broader topic of Web3's decentralization, Bro and Bro expressed strong reservations. Alex unequivocally declared that Web3 is "for now... definitely not" decentralized enough, emphasizing that "we have a lot of work for to make it decentralized." He pointed to "dots for attacking these networks," referencing events like Tornado Cash, and asserted that "the cosmos ecosystem is not an exclusion of that." Alt Bro expanded on this, explaining that decentralization is a multi-layered concept, encompassing physical infrastructure, protocols, and underlying values. He highlighted significant "weak spots," including over-reliance on the "fucking IP protocol" and "centralized cloud providers" such as Google, Amazon, and Hetzner, which, by their estimate, host "80 plus percent" of validators. In response to these vulnerabilities, Bro and Bro has taken decisive action towards physical decentralization. They are actively transitioning their nodes to "own hardware," moving away from major cloud providers. Alt Bro explained they are currently leveraging a "local data center" where they are the sole validator, marking a significant step. This shift was greatly accelerated by Hetzner's recent statement on proof-of-stake node hosting. Alex underscored the urgency, stating, "after their statement... we are starting to do this faster, really, really fast." Alt Bro further stressed, "you need to move your ass, because it's kind of like a with the world situation. You see a lot of signs of bad shit going to happen." Their ideal vision is for "every sovereign validator will have like a sovereign room somewhere, which backed up with a... solar panels, a wind generator, and a normal electricity electric supply, backed up with a few sources of internet and accessible only by him." The team also weighed in on the presence of large, centralized exchange validators. While acknowledging their "big money," Alt Bro questioned whether users fully grasp that their funds on exchanges are often staked by the exchange's own validator. Alex argued that it is problematic when users still rely on centralized exchanges despite the availability of decentralized alternatives like Osmosis, IBC, and Axelar, positing that "they will die as validator because they wouldn't have tokens anymore." Cyber Obi-Wan offered a counterpoint, suggesting that centralized exchanges play a role in "adoption" due to their "more user-friendly" nature for the average person. However, Alex retorted that this convenience typically lasts only "before your first money loss." This discussion highlighted Bro and Bro's conviction that validators have a crucial role in "education"—teaching users "why using DEXs is better than SEXs" and emphasizing the value of decentralized bridges. Addressing the critique that long-standing top validators may not contribute sufficient value, Alex firmly disagreed: "I think it's totally wrong to think that top validators didn't bring the value to the ecosystem because a lot of services and wallets and analytics... have come from the top validators." Nevertheless, he acknowledged the significant challenge for newer validators to attract delegations against established reputations. He stressed that "ecosystem builders wants to grow ecosystem up, I think they supposed to think about that. How to... help small validators to grow." Cyber Obi-Wan highlighted the intense competition at the lower echelons of active sets, noting that top validators benefit from greater resources due to their larger stake. He advocated for foundations to be "more flexible with their grants and delegations," citing Bostrom's frequent re-delegation program as a superior model compared to Cosmos Hub's less dynamic approach, which he characterized as a "plan economic of USSR." Alt Bro proposed that explorer interfaces should present validators "not by the stake, but by some sort of a different order," pointing to their "Braw Rating" as an alternative ranking system. Regrettably, Bro and Bro confirmed they would be unable to attend Cosmoverse in person due to "physical limitations" involving travel restrictions and visa complexities. Alex, who had attended the inaugural Cosmoverse in Lisboa, expressed his deep disappointment, calling it "the best event in the Cosmos ecosystem." Despite their physical absence, they stated they would be "following that and looking what happened and asking our questions to foundations, to validators."