Introduction to Optimum
Optimum is a network of gateways you run beside your beacon node. The gateway delivers Ethereum blocks sooner, so your validators can attest to the head that was actually proposed. For entity accounts, it also recommends a bid cutoff for the MEV sidecar you already run, so a proposal can take a better bid without waiting so long that the block is late.
These pages are the runbook for that setup. They are for staking providers and for people who run their own validators. Start here if you want the path before the detail. Open Console when you are ready to enrol a gateway.
Your validators can only attest to a block after it reaches your beacon node. When the block arrives late, attestations miss or vote on the wrong head. When you propose, the bid cutoff sets how long the sidecar waits for a better bid. If you wait too long, your block is late. If you cut off too early, you leave value behind.
What Optimum is
mump2p is the protocol under the peer-to-peer mesh. Peers send coded pieces of a block and rebuild it from whichever pieces arrive first, instead of waiting for a full copy. The Optimum network is the mesh of gateways that speak that protocol. The protocol and the network are not the same thing. See mump2p protocol for the protocol.
You join the mesh by running the Optimum gateway, one container on a host beside your beacon node.
The gateway is a peer of your consensus client. It passes blocks to the client and never receives validator keys. Your validator client, keys, and signing setup stay exactly as they are.
What you get
| What it does | Where you see it | |
|---|---|---|
| Signal | The gateway hands your beacon node blocks from the mesh, so your validators receive blocks sooner. That improves attestation performance. | The Signal home in Console, then Network under Performance |
| Accelerate | Recommends a bid cutoff from slots your validators already proposed, so you can take a better bid without missing the slot. You download the config and deploy it on your own MEV sidecar. For entity accounts. | Accelerate in Console, under MEV outcome. See Acceleration. |
Console never changes your infrastructure. Optimum does not host gateways. You run the gateway and apply any configuration yourself.
Who it is for
- Staking providers and other entities. Run a gateway beside each beacon node, register your validator indices so Console can measure the result, then use Accelerate on your proposals.
- Individuals who run validators. Signal works the same way for you. Accelerate is offered to entity accounts only. Account type.
- Participants without validators. Run a stream-only gateway to receive blocks from the mesh and serve them to your own consumers. This is a supported account.
The path
Start here. This is the operator setup.
- What Optimum does. How the pieces fit, which path is yours, and what the host needs.
- Create an account. Register your organisation in Console.
- Signal. Name the gateway, start it, peer your consensus client, verify it, and register your validator indices.
- Accelerate. For entity accounts. Once enough of your proposals are measured, read the cutoff recommendation and set it on your MEV sidecar.
The other sections come after that setup:
- Sync validator keys keeps a changing validator set in line with Console. You get there from Register keys.
- Run the gateway opens the gateway manual: every setting, metric, and log line.
- mump2p protocol is the general Optimum docs, for how the mesh works.