Run Espresso Infrastructure

Pick the right Espresso infrastructure role for your team: validator, builder, or Caff Node.

There are three operator roles you can run against the Espresso Network. Each one serves a different purpose, has different hardware needs, and is run by a different kind of team.

Pick your role

Role	Who runs it	What it does	Hardware
Validator node	Stake operators (institutional and independent) earning ESP rewards	Participates in HotShot consensus, finalizing blocks across the Espresso Network	1 CPU core, 8 GB RAM (non-DA); 4+4 CPU, 8+4 GB RAM, 1.2 TB SSD (DA)
Builder	Block proposers serving an Espresso chain's slot	Pulls transactions from the public mempool, assembles blocks, and submits them to Espresso for finalization	2-4 CPU cores, 4-8 GB RAM
Caff Node	Chains and applications integrated with Espresso	Reads finalized blocks directly from Espresso and serves standard EVM JSON-RPC, so users see confirmed state within seconds without waiting for downstream settlement	Varies; see the Caff Node Run repository

When to run which

• You hold ESP and want to participate in consensus / earn rewards. Run a Validator Node. You'll register in the stake table, attract delegations, and run the node software on the network of your choice.

• You operate an Espresso-integrated chain and need to propose blocks. Run a Builder. The builder is the component that bundles transactions for your chain's namespace.

• You operate a chain or application and need fast, low-latency reads of finalized state. Run a Caff Node. This is the read-side counterpart to the builder, exposing standard JSON-RPC.

Related references

• Networks: public endpoints and contract addresses for Mainnet 1 and Decaf Testnet.

• Stake Table Contract: how validator registration, delegation, and rewards work onchain.

• Reading from Espresso: the conceptual basis for what a Caff Node provides.