All staked nodes form a flat mesh. Node metadata propagates over a gossip overlay on regional and global topics. Content discovery uses a Kademlia-subset DHT, with broadcast probe fan-out as bootstrap/emergency fallback.
Clients and nodes both rank candidates by a unified score combining advertised price, observed latency, and reputation. Lower is better. The exact weighting is part of the protocol implementation.
Nodes register through an on-chain staking registry that binds a network identity to an Ethereum address. Registration requires proof of control of both keys — preventing identity squatting and ensuring every staked node is slashable. Key rotation remains available post-registration.
Nodes subscribe to a region topic plus the global topic. Regional topics reduce gossip noise for latency-sensitive selection: a client in Frankfurt typically prefers DE/NL/AT candidates over US ones, and the regional topic surfaces those preferentially.Clients subscribe but do not publish.
The transport handles hole-punching automatically; nodes update their registered addresses when their public-facing address changes. When direct P2P fails, traffic routes through a stateless, content-blind QUIC relay. Relays are protocol infrastructure (treasury-funded), not an incentivized network role — paying relays per byte would create a perverse incentive to prevent direct connections.
