The MEV Letter is a weekly collection of papers, articles and resources related to MEV. The intention of this letter is to provide a comprehensive summary of the latest research, discussions, and developments in the space, with links for further reading.
The first half of this edition is dedicated to Devconnect Istanbul and features available recordings at the time of writing. Additional content from Devconnect will be included in upcoming editions as recordings are released.
Devconnect Istanbul
- Flashbots at Devconnect by Fred provides an overview of the talks, panels, workshops, and events hosted by Flashbots during the week of Devconnect in Istanbul.
- UNISUAVE Researchathon and Hackathon @ Devconnect Istanbul hosted by Flashbots and Uniswap Foundation explores what SUAVE and Uniswap v4 can uniquely enable, starting with a Researchathon followed by co-sponsored prizes at the ETHGlobal Istanbul hackathon.
- Flashbots
Suave Workshop by dmarz presents an overview of the SUAVE architecture, example use cases, and how SUAVE and Uniswap v4 can integrate. - Flashbots ETHGlobal Hackathon by dmarz announces the winning submissions of the hackathon that demonstrate innovative possibilities of MEV applications on SUAVE
- Headwitch posted a thread detailing Blob Merger which optimizes blob data usage by merging blobs from multiple rollups into one.
- vita posted a forum post describing PEPC-REP that enables PEPC commitments on SUAVE for Top of Block auctions.
- Dogan published a thread presenting SUClave which utilizes intents on SUAVE and Uniswap v4 hooks to reduce LVR via Top of Block auctions.
- ETH Global Istanbul: Flashbot & Uniswap’s prize winners and insights about SUAVE by Yosuke Aramaki shares insights from the UNISUAVE hackathon and presents an overview of the winning submissions.
- Arena X on SUAVE by Mehran Hydary is a SUAPP that accepts intents from any chain that supports Uniswap’s Universal Router and allows searchers to execute transactions on behalf of users.
- suave-template by Mehran Hydary is a template for building and deploying SUAPPs on a local Rigil testnet using Foundry.
- dmarz published a post showcasing a SUAPP by Miha Lotric that creates an auction for the extraData field in blocks.
- Flashbots
- censorship.wtf organized by T&T explored censorship resistance across the Ethereum stack and beyond, with speakers presenting from both Istanbul and Prague.
- ETHconomics by Robust Incentives Group highlighted economic problems on Ethereum with a focus on transaction fee mechanisms, staking economics, and AMM design.
- Programmable Cryptography Conference by 0xPARC and PSE focused on next-generation cryptography, applied cryptography, zkSNARKs and MPC.
- ETHStaker’s Staking Gathering by ETHStaker delved into Ethereum staking, crypto-economics, and protocol design.
- Pragma Istanbul by ETHGlobal
- Panel: Based Rollups and the MEV Gambit moderated by Justin Drake invited Tomasz Stańczak, Josh Bowen, Daniel Wang, and Mark Tyneway to go over the challenges in MEV reduction and distribution among rollups using shared and decentralized sequencing.
- Panel: MEV: Fractalization of Block Building moderated by Tina invited Tarun Chitra, Anna George, Wee Howe Ang and Kubi Mensah to discuss the evolving landscape of block building with a focus on intents, the roles of solvers, and its implication on centralization.
- Staking Summit 2023 by Staking Rewards
- Panel: Exploring Sustainable Optimization in the MEV Pipeline moderated by Michael Moser with Tomasz Stańczak and Alex Watts delves into the current state of MEV extraction and how the landscape might evolve from here.
- How to Achieve Credible Neutrality by Martin Köppelmann explores the state of censorship on Ethereum and presents how Gnosis chain aims to enhance censorship resistance through a shutterized beacon chain.
- Datapalooza by The Graph
- Exploring Ethereum Mempool, Orderflow & MEV by Danning Sui looks at trends in DEX activity, the shift of DEX Aggregators to solver models, and the rise of private liquidity through RFQ systems. (Slides)
- L2 Days by Scroll & L2BEAT
- Panel: Moar Intrastucture: Shared Sequencing moderated by Justin Drake invites Tomasz Stańczak, Josh Bowen, Charles Lu and Mark Tyneway to talk about the complexities and potential of shared sequencing with a focus on neutrality, interoperability, and liquidity.
Papers & Articles
- A General Theory of Liquidity Provisioning for Automated Market Makers by Adithya Bhaskara, Rafael Frongillo and Maneesha Papireddygari explores liquidity provisioning in AMMs and presents a general protocol that may have advantages over Uniswap v3 and provide greater flexibility in prediction markets.
- Game Manipulators – the Strategic Implications of Binding Contracts by Maria Alejandra Ramirez, Yoav Kolumbus, Rosemarie Nagel, David Wolpert and Jürgen Jost looks at how commitment devices can be used by external agents to manipulate games and extract fees, altering Nash equilibria and potentially reducing player payoffs.
- Alternate PBS: A PBS Proposal for Based Rollups by Conor McMenamin introduces a new PBS proposal for based rollups that allows income generated to be captured by the rollup itself.
- Everything You Need To Know About Order Flow Auctions by Tuukka Tuomikoski and Carlos Monteiro provides a comprehensive overview of the OFA design space by categorizing 27 different OFAs and analyzing how integrated searcher-builders and intent-based systems might centralize the MEV supply chain.
- RIG Update #3 — Protocol Berg + Devconnect by Robust Incentives Group provides a recap of recent publications, and talks at Protocol Berg and Devconnect by RIG.
- MEV & The Evolution of Crypto Exchanges: Part I by Benjamin Funk explores challenges and opportunities in DEX design.
- Towards an intent-centric topology by Christopher Goes provides an overview of intents in distributed system architecture, particularly focusing on their application in systems like Anoma.
- Interview with jaredfromsubway by Cryptic Woods is a conversation with one of the most successful searcher, diving into topics such as ethics, strategies, and future perspectives.
- Unlock 10% more block rewards with MEV Maximizer feature by Vladislav Kurenkov describes how P2P achieves a greater average block reward by delaying the relay request by the proposer.
- libMEV - Data Methodologies by Cryptic Woods presents the data methodology used in libMEV.
Posts & threads
- Current Thinking For Consensus by Quintus Kilbourn summarizes high-level thinking related to SUAVE consensus mechanisms.
- SUAVE Bridge by dmarz seeks input on the trade-off space for bridge architecture between SUAVE and other domains to balance security, decentralization, scalability and user experience.
- Builderelay by Quintus Kilbourn initiates a conversation on the implications of integrated builder-relays in light of to recent developments by market participants.
- Kubi Mensahl published a thread that presents Titan’s view on vertically integrated builders-relays and operating credibly neutral infrastructure.
- Blair Marshall published a thread detailing how integrated searcher-builders are able to backrun some transactions sourced from OFAs without sending MEV back to the user.
- Doug Colkitt published a thread analyzing the Kyber exploit earlier this week that resulted in approximately $50M being stolen across multiple chains.
- Maddiaa published a thread to announce an FHE co-processor on Aztec that can enable private on-chain auctions.
- Wolfgang Vitale published a thread with takeaways from Devconnect with regard to Ethereum staking, scaling, economics, and cryptography.
- atiselsts.eth published a thread on the methodology used in papers related to liquidity provision strategies in AMMs.
- Blocknative published a thread detailing how the Transaction Boost status API now detects if a transaction was part of a reorg.
Talks & Discussions
- Scraping Bits: Rsync Rivals Titan: Block Builder Controling 30% Of Ethereum’s Blocks invites Tom Zhao to discuss what it takes to be a successful builder, the emerging trend of integrated searcher-builders, and more.
- Bell Curve: Crosschain DEXs: The Next Frontier invites Hart Lambur to dive into interoperability and how intent-based protocols like Uniswap X and Across Protocol are reimagining bridges.
Other
- Crisis Handbook - Smart Contract Hack by the Seal 911-team is a guide designed to improve the effectiveness in teams responding to urgent onchain attacks or exploits.
- Flashbots Boost Relay on Holešky is live and has started to deliver blocks on the Holešky testnet.
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