> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.ava.do/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.ava.do/staking-ethereum/solo-staking-32-eth/set-up-mev-boost.md). # Set up MEV-Boost Open source middleware run by validators to access a competitive block-building market. When your validator proposes a block, MEV-Boost lets specialised block builders bid to fill it. Your AVADO takes the best bid, and the extra reward goes to your fee recipient address. It is optional and free, and it usually earns you more from every block you propose. {% hint style="info" %} **Running Rocket Pool?** Rocket Pool validators on your AVADO get MEV-Boost the same way, through your consensus client, so follow the same steps. Rocket Pool asks its node operators to run MEV-Boost, and it has its own rules about which relays you may use: see [Rocket Pool's MEV guide](https://docs.rocketpool.net/guides/node/mev#block-builders-and-relays). {% endhint %} ## Set it up Install your execution client (Geth or Nethermind) and your consensus client first. See [Setting up the ETH Clients](/staking-ethereum/setting-up-the-eth-clients.md). **1. Install MEV-Boost** Open **DappStore** in the sidebar, find **ETH Staking MEV-Boost** under the ETH Staking category, and click **Install**. **2. Turn on MEV-Boost in your consensus client** Open your consensus client from **My DApps** and go to its **Settings** tab (switch to **Advanced** mode in the bottom-left if you don't see it). Tick **Enable MEV-boost** (near the bottom of the page) and click **Apply changes**.

The MEV-Boost setting in Prysm

{% hint style="info" %} **Using Nimbus or Teku?** In the new app, go to **Settings**, tick **Enable MEV-Boost** and click **Save changes**. See [The Nimbus and Teku app](/staking-ethereum/setting-up-the-eth-clients/the-nimbus-app.md). {% endhint %} **3. Choose your relays** Open **MEV-Boost** from **My DApps**. On the **Overview** tab you see the **Relays** card. Click **Use recommended**: it ticks every recommended relay and sets the minimum bid to **Take every bid**. Then click **Save**. MEV-Boost restarts, which takes a few seconds. That's it.

The Relays card on the MEV-Boost app page

The card has one row for each relay, with a tick box, a note on whether the relay filters transactions, and an **About** link. A relay that has shut down says **No longer running**: untick it and click **Save**. The card needs AVADO Admin 10.0.62 or later. If you don't see it yet, see [Advanced](#advanced) below. ## Which relays? A relay is a go-between: block builders send their bids to relays, and relays pass the best ones on to your AVADO. The only thing your AVADO shares with them is your validator's public key, never your private keys or your funds. The more working relays you tick, the more bids you get, so ticking every recommended relay usually earns the most. Some relays filter sanctioned transactions: they leave out transactions that involve addresses on the US sanctions list. Others do no filtering at all. Both kinds pay you the same way, so you can pick the ones that match your own views. **Use recommended** ticks both kinds. | Relay | Filtering | Status | Relay URL | | ---------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Aestus](https://aestus.live) | No filtering | Live | `https://0xa15b52576bcbf1072f4a011c0f99f9fb6c66f3e1ff321f11f461d15e31b1cb359caa092c71bbded0bae5b5ea401aab7e@aestus.live` | | [Agnostic Gnosis](https://agnostic-relay.net/) | No filtering | Live | `https://0xa7ab7a996c8584251c8f925da3170bdfd6ebc75d50f5ddc4050a6fdc77f2a3b5fce2cc750d0865e05d7228af97d69561@agnostic-relay.net` | | [Titan Relay](https://docs.titanrelay.xyz/) | No filtering | Live | `https://0x8c4ed5e24fe5c6ae21018437bde147693f68cda427cd1122cf20819c30eda7ed74f72dece09bb313f2a1855595ab677d@global.titanrelay.xyz` | | [Ultra Sound](https://relay.ultrasound.money/) | No filtering | Live | `https://0xa1559ace749633b997cb3fdacffb890aeebdb0f5a3b6aaa7eeeaf1a38af0a8fe88b9e4b1f61f236d2e64d95733327a62@relay.ultrasound.money` | | [Wenmerge](https://relay.wenmerge.com) | No filtering | Live | `https://0x8c7d33605ecef85403f8b7289c8058f440cbb6bf72b055dfe2f3e2c6695b6a1ea5a9cd0eb3a7982927a463feb4c3dae2@relay.wenmerge.com` | | [Flashbots](https://boost.flashbots.net/) | Filters sanctioned transactions | Live | `https://0xac6e77dfe25ecd6110b8e780608cce0dab71fdd5ebea22a16c0205200f2f8e2e3ad3b71d3499c54ad14d6c21b41a37ae@boost-relay.flashbots.net` | | [bloXroute Max Profit](https://bloxroute.com/) | Filters sanctioned transactions | Live | `https://0x8b5d2e73e2a3a55c6c87b8b6eb92e0149a125c852751db1422fa951e42a09b82c142c3ea98d0d9930b056a3bc9896b8f@bloxroute.max-profit.blxrbdn.com` | | [bloXroute Regulated](https://bloxroute.com/) | Filters sanctioned transactions | Live | `https://0xb0b07cd0abef743db4260b0ed50619cf6ad4d82064cb4fbec9d3ec530f7c5e6793d9f286c4e082c0244ffb9f2658fe88@bloxroute.regulated.blxrbdn.com` | | [Titan Relay Regional](https://docs.titanrelay.xyz/) | Filters sanctioned transactions | Live | `https://0x8c4ed5e24fe5c6ae21018437bde147693f68cda427cd1122cf20819c30eda7ed74f72dece09bb313f2a1855595ab677d@regional.titanrelay.xyz` | | [bloXroute Ethical](https://bloxroute.com/) | Filters sanctioned transactions | No longer running (since 2026-10-11) | `https://0xad0a8bb54565c2211cee576363f3a347089d2f07cf72679d16911d740262694cadb62d7fd7483f27afd714ca0f1b9118@bloxroute.ethical.blxrbdn.com` | | [Blocknative](https://www.blocknative.com/) | Filters sanctioned transactions | No longer running (since 2026-10-11) | `https://0x9000009807ed12c1f08bf4e81c6da3ba8e3fc3d953898ce0102433094e5f22f21102ec057841fcb81978ed1ea0fa8246@builder-relay-mainnet.blocknative.com` | | [Manifold](https://securerpc.com/) | No filtering | No longer running (since 2026-10-11) | `https://0x98650451ba02064f7b000f5768cf0cf4d4e492317d82871bdc87ef841a0743f69f0f1eea11168503240ac35d101c9135@mainnet-relay.securerpc.com` | | [Proof Relay](https://pon.network/) | No filtering | No longer running (since 2026-10-11) | `https://0xa44f64faca0209764461b2abfe3533f9f6ed1d51844974e22d79d4cfd06eff858bb434d063e512ce55a1841e66977bfd@proof-relay.ponrelay.com` | ## Is it working? Open your consensus client from **My DApps** and look at its **Logs** tab (switch to **Advanced** mode in the bottom-left if you don't see it). Every now and then it prints a line like this. Prysm: ``` level="info" msg="Submitted builder validator registration settings for custom builders" ``` Nimbus: ``` Using external payload builder ``` Teku (X is the number of your validators): ``` INFO - Validator *** X out of X validator registration(s) were successfully sent to the builder network via the Beacon Node. ``` The **Logs** tab of the MEV-Boost app (switch to **Advanced** mode in the bottom-left if you don't see it) shows `Relays in use: n` each time MEV-Boost starts, where n is the number of relays you ticked. If no relay answers when it is your turn, your AVADO simply builds the block itself. You don't miss the proposal, only the extra reward for that block. After your validator proposes a block, beaconcha.in shows which relay supplied it. Open your validator page, go to the [**Blocks**](/staking-ethereum/solo-staking-32-eth/monitor-your-node.md#blocks) tab and click the **Slot** number. The relay is shown under the slot number; in this example it was Ultra Sound.
Proposals are rare: about one per validator every few months. So if an old block says "No MEV", that tells you nothing about your settings today. ## Advanced {% hint style="info" %} **Minimum bid.** The Relays card also has a **Minimum bid** choice. **Take every bid (recommended)** always uses the best bid. **Only bids above X ETH** makes your AVADO build its own block whenever every bid is lower. That earns a little less and keeps block building more independent. Since MEV-Boost 0.0.19 there is no minimum by default; older installs keep a minimum of 0.05 ETH until you click **Use recommended** and **Save**. Vitalik put it this way: > A min bid of 0.05 would mean you produce nearly half the blocks yourself (very strong censorship resistance) but only sacrifice a tiny bit of profit. Flashbots looked at the cost in detail in [The cost of resilience](https://writings.flashbots.net/the-cost-of-resilience). **Setting the relays by hand.** If your AVADO Admin is older than 10.0.62, you can set the same relays by hand. Switch the Admin to **Advanced** mode (bottom-left), open the MEV-Boost app and go to the **Settings** tab. In the **Environment variables** panel, replace the whole value of the environment variable `RELAYS` with the line below: select everything in its **Value** box and paste over it. Then click **Update environment variables**. The line holds every live relay from the table above. The minimum bid is the `-min-bid 0.05` part of the `EXTRA_OPTS` value on the same panel: remove it to take every bid. ``` https://0xa15b52576bcbf1072f4a011c0f99f9fb6c66f3e1ff321f11f461d15e31b1cb359caa092c71bbded0bae5b5ea401aab7e@aestus.live,https://0xa7ab7a996c8584251c8f925da3170bdfd6ebc75d50f5ddc4050a6fdc77f2a3b5fce2cc750d0865e05d7228af97d69561@agnostic-relay.net,https://0x8c4ed5e24fe5c6ae21018437bde147693f68cda427cd1122cf20819c30eda7ed74f72dece09bb313f2a1855595ab677d@global.titanrelay.xyz,https://0xa1559ace749633b997cb3fdacffb890aeebdb0f5a3b6aaa7eeeaf1a38af0a8fe88b9e4b1f61f236d2e64d95733327a62@relay.ultrasound.money,https://0x8c7d33605ecef85403f8b7289c8058f440cbb6bf72b055dfe2f3e2c6695b6a1ea5a9cd0eb3a7982927a463feb4c3dae2@relay.wenmerge.com,https://0xac6e77dfe25ecd6110b8e780608cce0dab71fdd5ebea22a16c0205200f2f8e2e3ad3b71d3499c54ad14d6c21b41a37ae@boost-relay.flashbots.net,https://0x8b5d2e73e2a3a55c6c87b8b6eb92e0149a125c852751db1422fa951e42a09b82c142c3ea98d0d9930b056a3bc9896b8f@bloxroute.max-profit.blxrbdn.com,https://0xb0b07cd0abef743db4260b0ed50619cf6ad4d82064cb4fbec9d3ec530f7c5e6793d9f286c4e082c0244ffb9f2658fe88@bloxroute.regulated.blxrbdn.com,https://0x8c4ed5e24fe5c6ae21018437bde147693f68cda427cd1122cf20819c30eda7ed74f72dece09bb313f2a1855595ab677d@regional.titanrelay.xyz ``` {% endhint %}