Optimum indicates that Ethereum's new P2P protocol mump2p can double the speed of block transmission. The company claims that Ethereum validators have begun using their mump2p network protocol on the mainnet, achieving faster block transmission through a data sharing method that runs in parallel with existing consensus clients.

The key points are as follows:

• The mump2p network protocol of Optimum has been running on the Ethereum mainnet since its launch on October 20, 2026.
• According to Optimum, with the help of network coding technology, the propagation speed of Ethereum blocks can be increased by up to 3.5 times.
• This protocol can run in parallel with existing Ethereum consensus clients without the need to modify the consensus rules.
• Optimum indicates that as of November, participants in the verification process accounted for 7.8% of Ethereum's total staking volume of ETH.
• Vitalik Buterin lists the eradication of encrypted networks as one of the proposed improvements to support Ethereum's future post-quantum security roadmap.

According to Optimum, co-founder and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Muriel M é dard, this protocol uses random linear network coding (Random Linear Network Coding, RLNC) for encoding data transmissions within the Ethereum peer-to-peer network. In a statement on November 10th, she stated that the speed at which approximately 90% of blocks reached the participants responsible for verification was roughly doubled.

mump2p Reduce duplicate data transmission

Optimum launched mump2p on the Ethereum mainnet on October 20th, providing an alternative pathway for validators to transmit blocks and proof messages.

Under Ethereum's existing GossipSub network system, nodes receive and forward messages to other nodes, and sometimes they may receive duplicate copies of the same information. Differences in network connectivity and bandwidth can affect the time it takes for individual validators to receive proposed blocks.

The new protocol uses the encoding technology RLNC, which combines information fragments before sending them over the network. Once the receiving nodes have collected a sufficient number of independent encoded combinations, they can reconstruct the original data.

According to the technical documentation of Optimum, mump2p connects through a gateway that runs in parallel with the verifiers' existing consensus clients. This gateway forwards blocks and proofs between the regular Ethereum network and Optimum's independent communication system.

Participating operators do not need to replace the consensus software, nor do they need to modify the Ethereum consensus rules. This gateway supports clients such as Prysm, Lighthouse, Teku, Nimbus, and Lodestar.

Since mump2p operates as an additional network service, verifiers can still receive messages through standard Ethereum peer-to-peer connections.

Optimum claims that Ethereum block propagation is faster

In the launch announcement on October 20th, Optimum claimed that the block transfer speed was two to four times faster than the current GossipSub baseline.

The company stated that early mainnet measurements showed a reduction in arrival time variance by 7.88 times. Their system transmitted blocks earlier than traditional network paths in nine out of ten measurements.

Another analysis of a company that holds 50,292 Ethereum slot shows an average transfer advantage of 335 milliseconds, which is equivalent to a 3.3-fold increase in speed in this comparison.

However, StereumLabs conducted independent tests on 36 Ethereum mainnet nodes and obtained less consistent results.

Researchers observed that the block arrival times for Lighthouse, Prysm, and Grandine were earlier, while there was almost no change in Teku, and Nimbus showed slower results. This analysis failed to demonstrate statistically significant improvements in the samples.

Optimum subsequently explained that its global acceleration system was in an active state during the testing period, which may have allowed untreated nodes to also benefit from the same network improvements.

Further testing of the Lido evaluation project showed that during the test network period from September 17 to October 15, mump2p reduced the block arrival time by 407 milliseconds. This evaluation covered 180,327 slot, but researchers remind that the results from the test network should not be directly taken as an estimate of performance on the mainnet.

Ethereum validators utilize the mump2p network service.

At the time of launch, Optimum indicated that 16 participating node operators had been connected, managing approximately 22,000 verifier keys and over 1.4 million ETH staked tokens.

The company estimates that the scale of collateral connected will be approximately $3.4 billion, and it refers to this as Total Value Boosted.

The participating operators include Blockdaemon, Everstake, P2P.org, Stakefish, Luganodes, InfStones, and Validation Cloud.

The re-pledge service provider ether.fi requires the operators of its 12 nodes to use mump2p, while Stakefish has confirmed that it has integrated this gateway into its Ethereum validator infrastructure.

As of November 3rd, Optimum indicated that the adoption rate had reached 7.8% of all pledged ETH, which is higher than the 3% rate at the time of its launch in October.

This service is still currently available for free to validators for block propagation. Participants in the operation connect through the gateway and access system using Optimum.

Vitalik Buterin Links Faster Networks with Ethereum's Roadmap

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has listed the erased coding peer-to-peer network as one of the multiple technical improvements that support the long-term security and consensus roadmap of that network.

In a post on November 9th, Buterin stated that erasing the encoding network can improve the transmission of large data objects, with implementation complexity being its main trade-off.

He described a proposed consensus design in which the number of validators directly involved in each slot's key processing path would be reduced from about 30,000 to 500, which theoretically could double the consensus speed.

Buterin also discussed the use of post-quantum signature aggregation to achieve a certain level of finality, and cited calculations and simulations indicating that under certain parameters, this finality can be achieved in less than one minute.

These proposals are separate from the systems that are currently deployed on the mainnet with mump2p. Further development is still required before changing the way Ethereum's consensus operates.

Ethereum researchers also tested segmented block propagation under EIP-8411, using a simulated network environment to reduce delays when transmitting large execution payloads.

The long-term roadmap for this network includes research on shorter slot, faster finality, and quantum-resistant signatures.

Ethereum Foundation documentation lists post-quantum consensus signatures and data availability as key areas of ongoing research, with the development goals for core security infrastructure extending until 2029.