This Paradigm-backed project is making Ethereum's technical underbelly more accessible
In the crypto world, MEV (‘Maximal Extractable Value’) refers to block producers’ ability to reorganize the sequence of transactions in any given block to extract a premium.
While MEV can be used nefariously in instances such as front-running large transactions, it can also be used for arbitrage opportunities that do not directly impact other market participants.
In this episode of The Scoop, we take a closer look at the world of MEV with Viktor Bunin, a protocol specialist at Coinbase, and Stephane Gosselin, the founder of Flashbots — a research project that provides MEV solutions to Ethereum validators.
According to Gosselin, the purpose of Flashbots is to make markets more efficient:
“We look at market structures, we research them and we develop products to try to improve them, and make sure that they're aligned with the intent of the chains that they're operating on top of.”
How Flashbots works in practice is essentially by creating a separate layer where users can bid against each other to have their transactions included on the blockchain.
As Bunin explains,
“It essentially creates a private mempool or a ‘fastlane’ where it says, ‘Hey, you're welcome to compete all you'd like, but you should do it at this layer,’ and then there will be a standardized way by which whoever is a winning bid — essentially the winning transaction — that will be the one that gets included on the blockchain and no others.”
Episode 91 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Viktor Bunin, protocol specialist at Coinbase and Stephane Gosselin, MEV boost architect & co-founder of Flashbots.
Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblockcrypto.com.
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC Schaffhausen
About Tron
TRON is dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and decentralized applications (dApps). Founded in September 2017 by H.E. Justin Sun, the TRON network has continued to deliver impressive achievements since MainNet launch in May 2018. July 2018 also marked the ecosystem integration of BitTorrent, a pioneer in decentralized Web3 services boasting over 100 million monthly active users. The TRON network completed full decentralization in December 2021 and is now a community-governed DAO. | TRONDAO | Twitter | Discord |
About Chainalysis
Chainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.
About IWC Schaffhausen
IWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.
Why Is Ethereum Trying to Maximize Value From Users? Two Sides Debate - Ep. 388
Stephane Gosselin, cofounder and chief architect of Flashbots, and Uri Klarman, CEO of bloXrouteLabs, joined Unchained to discuss everything about MEV, an especially important topic now with the Merge coming.
Show highlights:
what MEV is, how it works under Proof of Work
some examples of MEV, like frontrunning and arbitrage
how MEV is a rabbit hole full of monsters
the role of Flashbots in the MEV industry and how Flashbots enabled a reduction of gas fees for users
how MEV-geth functions and how it relates to auctions systems
how bloXroute, Uri’s company, is working with MEV
where Stephane and Uri disagree on MEV, despite agreeing on many fundamental things
how MEV changes with the implementation of Proof of Stake
what MEV-Boost is and the problems it solves
what proposer-builder separation is and the motivation behind this idea
whether DeFi would flourish more if there wasn’t frontrunning and why MEV-Boost doesn’t prevent it
what externalities MEV-Boost or proposer-builder separation (PBS) would solve for users
how MEV exists in other industries and in traditional finance
why Flashbots’ own investors would rather trade on a fair-sequenced rollup than on Flashbots
how the number of MEV extractors has been decreasing and whether this would end up centralizing MEV
whether exploiting certain types of MEV is illegal
how other chains are trying to solve frontrunning, like Osmosis with threshold encryption
what are the levers that can be pulled to solve MEV, according to Uri
how eradicating MEV can positively affect the price of ETH, and by how much
whether validators can potentially share MEV profits with users
how to determine if a network has a good MEV supply chain
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021
Ava Labs: https://www.avax.network/
a16z: https://link.chtbl.com/HObAJQDL?sid=unchained
Show Links
Uri: Twitter: https://twitter.com/uriklarman
Stephane: Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegostep
Previous coverage of MEV on Unchained: The Debate Over Ethereum MEV: Should It Be Minimized or Boosted?: https://laurashin.bulletin.com/the-debate-over-ethereum-mev-should-it-be-minimized-or-boosted
The Other Side(s) of Ethereum's MEV Argument: https://laurashin.bulletin.com/the-other-side-s-of-ethereum-s-mev-argument
MEV What is MEV: https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/mev/#:~:text=Maximal%20extractable%20value%20(MEV)%20refers,of%20transactions%20in%20a%20block
Proposer-Builder separation: https://www.alchemy.com/overviews/proposer-builder-separation
Uri’s blog post: https://medium.com/@uri_61495/flipping-the-table-on-the-mev-game-dc31df8baaf7
MEV Profit sharing validators: https://www.recvc.com/mev-2-0-the-rise-of-mpsvs/
Panel conversation mentioned in the episode (39:53): https://youtu.be/UKfBFV1TuEM?t=2393
Sealed auction design: https://ethresear.ch/t/mev-sgx-a-sealed-bid-mev-auction-design/9677
Priority Gas Auction (PGA): https://www.mev.wiki/terms-and-concepts/priority-gas-auctions#:~:text=What%20is%20a%20priority%20gas,up%20fees%20for%20other%20users.
Dune’s dashboard - amount of MEV extractors: https://dune.com/queries/1171509
The MEV Game of the Crypto Economy: Osmosis' Threshold Encryption vs. SGX of Flashbot?: https://mirror.xyz/infinet.eth/SFjR1H1-RMnKoIoPjqkxpauVPrLYGqLHQP1dY9FHvx4
Bank of International Settlements report on MEV: https://www.bis.org/publ/bisbull58.pdf
Flashbots Flash Boys 2.0 paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1904.05234.pdf
Flashbots Dashboard: https://dashboard.flashbots.net/
Flashbots auctions: https://docs.flashbots.net/flashbots-auction/overview
Flashbots relay open source: https://twitter.com/hasufl/status/1559908331145265156?s=20&t=gtHe5sVetxQXVKfZL2VMYg
MEV Boost: https://www.alchemy.com/overviews/mev-boost
MEV in ETH PoS: https://writings.flashbots.net/writings/mev-boost-call-for-testing
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133 - Flashbots Saves Crypto with Stephane Gosselin
Stephane Gosselin is the Founder of Flashbots, an R&D organization that’s trying to fix the most pernicious problem in crypto—the problem of MEV (Maximum Extractable Value).
Many of us are massively optimistic about crypto and aren’t worried too much about its future. However, this MEV thing could be our achilles heel.
On this episode, we dive into what Stephane and his team are doing to make MEV less of a potential weak point, how MEV works, and what our industry would look like if Flashbots didn't exist. And of course—so much more.
This is another fundamental Bankless episode that you won’t want to miss.
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------ Topics Covered:
0:00 Intro 9:28 MEV Explained & Its Importance 13:35 The Evil Side of MEV 21:26 MEV Utopia vs. Dystopia 28:54 Competitiveness, Market Structure, Equilibrium 32:10 MEV Supply Chain Crashcourse 37:24 Timeline 38:56 Flashbots Thesis 42:31 No MEV Geth Scenario 45:15 Flashbots Continued 49:10 Solutions 51:15 MEV Boost 1:00:18 MEV Boost Adoption 1:05:10 Differences in Staking APY 1:08:20 Flashbots Incentives 1:12:57 Infinite Problems to be Solved? 1:14:35 PBS 1:17:54 Relayer Role 1:20:05 Weird MEV Potential Merge Issues? 1:22:40 Byproducts of MEV Boost 1:27:17 New Builder Market Speculation 1:31:15 Stephane’s Optimism 1:32:55 Closing & Disclaimer
------ Resources:
Stephane Gosselin https://twitter.com/thegostep
MEV-Boost in a Nutshell https://boost.flashbots.net/
Flashbots Blog Posts https://writings.flashbots.net/writings
Guide to Ethereum Roadmap https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/guide-to-the-ethereum-roadmap-jon#details
Ethereum’s Hidden Power Structure https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/125-matt-cutler#details
----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.