Optimum’s first mainnet deployment, mump2p on Ethereum, has arrived. Block data is officially moving faster, by 2.5 - 3.5x on average. 16 leading node operators are already boosting their ETH stake with it, constituting over $3.7B in Total Value Boosted (TVB), and this is only the beginning. This foundational upgrade to the way data moves across Ethereum is now available for any validator to run, free of charge. It’s a win for the entire Ethereum ecosystem, one that paves the way for bigger blocks, quicker slots, and global economic scale. Let’s take a look at which validators are running mump2p and the real impacts they’re seeing, followed by an architecture breakdown and onboarding info for new validators who are looking to integrate mump2p for themselves.

Top Takeaways: mump2p provides significantly faster block delivery than the current Ethereum gossip standard, and that speed is much more consistent as well. Validators feel the effects of this acceleration by missing fewer attestations, cutting down on missed CL rewards. When proposing a block, mump2p buys validators more time to wait for the most lucrative bid possible while still safely meeting slot deadlines.

Our Partners

Accelerating Ethereum networking didn’t happen overnight. We’ve been working with some of these partners for over a year, carefully testing and refining mump2p to get it mainnet ready. We’ve seen strong adoption thus far, including some of the largest Ethereum node operators like Blockdaemon and Everstake, all ether.fi validators, and operators from every major global region. They know how valuable fast data propagation is, and that’s why $3.4B worth of ETH stake is already being boosted by Optimum. We’re excited to see how much more ETH stake we can boost once word gets out that any node operator can now onboard themselves and start receiving block data faster for free.

The Numbers

For proof of performance we built the Optimum Hub. This dashboard displays data directly from our connected nodes, aggregating it across all the operators running mump2p to show overall performance. The Hub shows a snapshot of Optimum’s data acceleration from recent blocks, and uses Xatu sentry nodes to measure libp2p performance over those same blocks. We invite you to see all the data and comparisons for yourself at hub.getoptimum.xyz. All of the figures in this section are taken from the Hub 1 week prior to publishing this article.

Over a sample of 50,292 slots, mump2p outperformed the Ethereum standard libp2p by 335ms, making it 3.3x faster.

Here you can see the block arrival times plotted over those same slots, with mump2p in black and libp2p in light gray. When you’re sending data all over the globe, network conditions can vary. mump2p not only speeds up delivery, but also cuts down latency variance. 

Latency is not uniform across Ethereum’s vast decentralized network. Reducing tail latency (how fast block data reaches the edges of the network) is one of mump2p’s greatest benefits. Above we can see the mump2p latency advantage in reaching the first 50% of nodes, all the way up to 95%. Those harder to reach nodes are getting even more of a benefit from mump2p.

Switching from fleet-wide to an individual operator case study, we can see a clear picture of mump2p’s impact on attestation accuracy. For this operator we measured their amount of wrong head votes over a 1 week period both before and after implementing mump2p. In their case we were able to reduce wrong head votes by 51%.

Performance Takeaways: Node operators are seeing the benefits of mump2p live on Ethereum mainnet. Data propagation is variable, but mump2p consistently accelerates 85-90% of blocks by a multiple of 2.5 - 3.5x. At the individual operator level this boosts CL rewards by raising head vote accuracy, and creates the opportunity to capture greater EL rewards by safely delaying bid selection.

New Validator Onboarding

Ethereum validator operators can get started through the Optimum Console at console.getoptimum.xyz, with self-serve setup, monitoring and admin tools in one place. Signal is free and available to all Ethereum validator operators. It helps your node receive beacon blocks sooner, giving it more time to attest on time and to the correct head. Accelerate is available through self-serve onboarding to entities operating at least 200 validator keys. It helps your proposed blocks reach other validators sooner and includes a service to optimize your bid cutoff settings. Every operator joining Accelerate improves their own performance and helps the Ethereum network become faster and more reliable. Onboarding support is available through our Discord operator support channel.

Architecture

This section will cover how mump2p fits within the bigger picture of what we’re building at Optimum. For details on how mump2p itself functions please see our documentation.

Starting from the bottom up, Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) is the technological advancement that makes this all possible. It’s a type of erasure code that is mathematically optimum (hence our name) for transmitting data across vast decentralized networks. Additional info on the properties and advantages of RLNC can be found in Battle of the Codes Part 1 and Part 2. From this tech base we built our first network protocol, mump2p, which is tailored to Ethereum. RLNC can accelerate any blockchain and we’re already narrowing down where to go next, but Ethereum’s extraordinary decentralization and widespread usage made it a natural fit for our debut launch.

One level up we have the Optimum Network, a global mesh of all the nodes running our chain specific network protocols. We refer to these as Flexnodes. Flexnodes perform RLNC sharding, encoding and decoding on block data, speeding up propagation across the network by swiftly forwarding shards to other nodes, as well as creating new useful shards. A larger and more geographically diverse mesh of Flexnodes speeds up data delivery across the entire network.

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Now we venture up into the product level, the outputs of the Optimum Network with which users interact. With the fast and efficient data movement capabilities of mump2p running across the global Optimum Network we’ve created two initial services- Signal and Accelerate. Signal is for receiving data fast. It’s the part we’ve now made available to any Ethereum node operator for free. Accelerate is for sending data fast. Signal on its own is valuable. For validators, receiving data faster means performing duties more efficiently and on-time, capturing rewards that otherwise may have been missed due to poor networking. The ability to also act on that data quickly is where broader economic opportunities lie, and that’s exactly what Accelerate provides. Initially this will be used by proposers who are looking to maximize MEV bid capture, and we’re actively collaborating with design partners to bring Accelerate to professional trading organizations next.

To access Signal and Accelerate we have developed the Console. This is the interface that contains signup, setup, and admin controls along with performance metrics for your connected nodes. 

Closing Thoughts and What's Next

From our CEO, Co-founder, and RLNC Co-inventor Muriel Médard:

“For twenty years we studied how to move data through a network with the least waste. mump2p on mainnet is that research doing real work: blocks reaching validators faster and more consistently, without asking Ethereum to change a single consensus rule. We are publishing what we measured and how we measured it, and there is much more to come.”

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From our CPO, Sajida Zouarhi:

“Testnet proved the idea. Mainnet proves it holds up under real load, with real stake, run by operators who cannot afford downtime. Shipping mump2p to Ethereum is the first step in giving every validator a faster, more reliable path for their data, and in bringing that same acceleration to more use cases and networks next.”

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This is a big day for all of us at Optimum, celebrating our first mainnet deployment. Ethereum is actively being accelerated, and more chains will soon follow. Thank you once again to all of our partners and supporters, welcome to all the new validators who are joining, and stay tuned for much more to come.

If you run a node or know someone who does, mump2p self onboarding is available at: console.getoptimum.xyz

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