Read on Twitter
Around three years ago, I became interested in a question: what unexpected new challenges do smart contracts pose to security? My journey led me to give a devcon talk about the dangers of dexes, defi, and MEV. Today, we lay the groundwork for MEV to become a public good.
The original talk is in my (extremely biased) opinion still relevant and worth a watch if you haven't seen it: and is part of a larger body of work released by myself and co-authors as "Flash Boys 2.0": https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.05234
In the talk/paper, we describe several MEV nightmares:
- On-chain waste, increasing tx prices for all users
- Unstable miner rewards, encouraging unpredictable consensus behavior
- User waste, unpredictable tx execution
- Miner/P2P centralization through specialization incentives
- On-chain waste, increasing tx prices for all users
- Unstable miner rewards, encouraging unpredictable consensus behavior
- User waste, unpredictable tx execution
- Miner/P2P centralization through specialization incentives
So, Flash Boys 2.0 raised more questions than it did answers. How do we deal with MEV? How do we prevent it from becoming a consensus risk? Can it benefit consensus instead? How can we mitigate the harms caused by MEV? Can MEV benefit cryptocurrencies and users where it exists?
These questions have sparked countless discussions and debates throughout the crypto community, some of which I've been privileged to be part of. These discussions have made one thing clear: there is a need for independent, open-source, public goods development of MEV artifacts.
So, today, myself and a bunch of contributors are announcing Flashbots, an org dedicated to advancing open-source MEV infrastructure and research. Flashbots has two primary aims:
- Fund public infrastructure/research to democratize MEV
- Mitigate the above MEV externalities
- Fund public infrastructure/research to democratize MEV
- Mitigate the above MEV externalities
To accomplish the above, we are releasing code and products aimed at understanding, publicizing, and communicating MEV metrics to users. We are also releasing open-source versions of cryptocurrency clients, modified to run private MEV auctions between miners and traders.
The organization aims to preserve the properties all cryptocurrency enjoys against erosion by MEV: completely permissionless, transparent, horizontal, and open networks that ensure that both small and large participants have equal access to low-level financial primitives.
Flashbots is a community, and will amount to nothing without *your* participation. We believe MEV and the way it is extracted affects every single user of and application built on cryptocurrency. So we need you involved, in R&D and organization. This is a call to action.
For now, read more about our values and an introduction to our organization on Medium: https://medium.com/flashbots/frontrunning-the-mev-crisis-40629a613752
or see our technical call to action, system description, and research roadmap on ethresearch: https://ethresear.ch/t/flashbots-frontrunning-the-mev-crisis/8251/2
... which summarizes the above and more.
I can't wait to see where the MEV journey takes this community!
... which summarizes the above and more.
I can't wait to see where the MEV journey takes this community!
Flashbots is stewarded by @epheph @phildaian @thegostep @ObadiaAlex @tzhen
We exist thanks to the continued support of members of the MEV Pi-Rate Ship and @paradigm.
We exist thanks to the continued support of members of the MEV Pi-Rate Ship and @paradigm.
Special thanks to @anisimov_andrei @IvanBogatyy @vaibhavchellani @brockjelmore @gakonst @jparyani @fiiiu_ @samczsun @onewayfunction for their contributions on MEV-Geth and MEV-Inspect
... and further thanks to @sunnya97 @suryabakshi @PhABCD @tarunchitra @delitzer Lev Livnev @_charlienoyes @valardragon @danrobinson @tyneslol @MicahZoltu for their feedback on MEV-Research!
