What Is a ‘Relay Network’ and How Does It Aim to Reduce Block Propagation Delay?

A relay network is a separate, highly-connected, high-bandwidth network that sits on top of the public peer-to-peer network. Its purpose is to rapidly transmit newly mined blocks between participating miners and nodes, bypassing the slower, more decentralized propagation path.

By quickly sharing block headers and then the full block data, relay networks significantly reduce the block propagation delay, thereby improving network security and reducing the stale block rate.