The mump2p protocol of Optimum was launched on the mainnet on October 20, 2026, adding a parallel path for Ethereum block propagation. The company claims that this solution transmits blocks 2.42 times faster than the default network.
Optimum indicates that currently, there are 16 node operators running this software, including all 12 operators from the ether.fi validator set, and using this software has become a mandatory requirement within that set. ether.fi has not yet published any content regarding Optimum on their official blog, documentation, or governance forum.
Key Points
- Users using mump2p are managing over 1.4 million pledged ETH.
- Ethereum's existing GossipSub network still runs in parallel with that software.
- Verifiers can access for free, but they need to use the API key issued by Optimum.
mump2p How to Change Ethereum Block Propagation
mump2p operates as a sidecar gateway alongside the validators' consensus clients, rather than replacing Ethereum's existing network. The consensus rules, execution layer, and signature keys remain unchanged, and GossipSub will also continue to run in parallel.
This design also provides a fallback mechanism: if there is a failure in this layer of Optimum, verifiers will still continue to use GossipSub. This launch was carried out after testing began in mid-2025.
The core of this protocol is Random Linear Network Coding ( Random Linear Network Coding, RLNC ), which was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Optimum co-founder and CEO Muriel M along with dard. It operates on top of the network tools libp2p that are already in use by Ethereum clients.
The system does not repeatedly forward the same block data between nodes; instead, it splits the block into multiple fragments and sends the encoded combinations of these fragments. Nodes can forward and reassemble these fragments before receiving the complete message. The recipient can reconstruct the block once they have collected a sufficient number of linearly independent fragments.
The gateway software is open-source. However, its underlying RLNC library follows different terms: the source code is visible, but it cannot be forked or reused.
Optimum requires that ether.fi's verifiers all use this software.
Optimum indicates that ether.fi has required all 12 node operators to run mump2p, which has transformed this software from an optional tool into a standard component of their validator configuration. Other infrastructure participants include Blockdaemon and Stakefish.
Among these 16 operators, there are approximately 22,000 verifiers whose keys hold more than 1.4 million ETH. Calculated in this way, this scale accounts for about 3.2% of the 43.7 million ETH that are locked on Beacon Chain.
On average, each of these keys holds approximately 64 ETH, which exceeds the previous upper limit of 32 ETH. This change is related to EIP-7251; the proposal in Pectra raises the maximum valid balance to 2,048 ETH.
Despite the increasing total amount of ETH pledged, the number of validators on Ethereum is declining. The network currently has about 830,000 validators, with each validator holding an average of 52.7 ETH.
The Dan Spina project manager of Blockdaemon stated: "Validator performance is a matter of marginal gains, and those margins that you can control are worth striving for. Propagation latency is one of them."
Mainnet Performance and Operator Integration
Optimum indicates that early mainnet measurements showed that the block transmission speed of mump2p was 2.42 times faster than that of GossipSub, and the variance was 7.88 times lower. In 9 out of 10 measurements, verifiers using this protocol received blocks earlier than the Ethereum default network.
Timing can affect the rewards of verifiers. If blocks are delivered too late, verifiers may lose their proof and block generation rewards, with operators located further from major infrastructure hubs being the most affected.
Optimum indicates that faster transmission helps to improve the accuracy of head-vote, assisting verifiers in voting on correct and up-to-date blocks. The company also points out that this also helps to gain more MEV, which refers to the additional value related to the selection and sorting of transactions within the blocks.
According to Optimum, connecting to mump2p is free of charge and does not require any licenses, but operators need to use the API key issued by the company. Deployment does not require any hardware replacement; the company claims that the integration process for each operator takes less than two hours.
When the verifier page for Optimum began to integrate with the first batch of enterprise-level verifier partners, applicants were required to provide company information and operational scale. In a blog post in August, the company stated that the service of obtaining beacon blocks and proofs more quickly would still remain free for verifiers.
This article was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and has been reviewed by an editorial team.
