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.
See our Transparency Reports for deeper dives into updates related to Flashbots.
Articles
- PEPC FAQ by Barnabé Monnot dives into the philosophy and architecture of PEPC and how it compares to Eigenlayer, SUAVE and ABCI++. The post also introduces two new designs: In-protocol MEV-capture using PEPC, and Out-of-protocol PEPC with PEPC-Boost.
- Game-theoretic Model for MEV-boost Auctions (MMA) by soispoke presents a game-theoretic model for MEV-boost auctions, where players bid as block builders and proposers act as auctioneers.
- Account Abstraction(AA): Link Web3 and Web2 by YQ delves into the “intricacies of account abstraction, tracing its evolution, present state, and future trajectory, while addressing key questions revolving around this topic.”
- Tweet-thread by YQ
- Intent-Based Architectures and Projects Experimenting with Them by Bastian Wetzel gives an overview of projects working on intent-based architectures, enabling users to express their desired outcomes, rather than specifying each transaction.
- Curve Pool Reentrancy Exploit Postmortem July 30th, 2023 by LlamaRisk looks at the reentrancy bug in (certain versions of) the Vyper compiler that led to 4 Curve pools being drained on July 30th. The exploit resulted in the second highest daily payout to proposers through MEV-Boost with 7186 ETH.
Posts & threads
- Capture the Flag
by Shea Ketsdever introduces MEV-Share CTF – a capture the flag event using MEV-Share on Goerli running from Aug 5-7th. The CTF consists of 10 flags that are activated by specific transactions or bundles, with points awarded to searchers based on difficulty. - The MEV Workshop at the Science of Blockchain Conference 2023 (MEV-SBC ’23) by Sarah Allen announces the MEV-SBC workshop on Aug 31st at Stanford University. The event will highlight important MEV research from the past year and present new research problems for the community to prioritize.
- Should builder discard failed transactions from bundles when they’re specified as reverting transaction hashes? by Wasif Iqbal seeks community feedback on whether the Flashbots builder should discard failed transactions from bundles when they’re specified as reverting transaction hashes.
- Grace Deng published a thread on intents, providing an overview of the current landscape with a closer look at CowSwap hooks, UniswapX and the MEVM on SUAVE.
- Thogard published a thread detailing the “Hook of Divine Sandwiches”, a Uniswap v4 hook that aims to minimize LVR/IL by leveraging sandwiches as a way that benefits the LPs of the pool.
- JK published a thread of their takeaways looking at various organizations in the MEV space and how the landscape might evolve going forward.
Other
- Reorg.pics by Toni Wahrstätter is a dashboard that visualizes missed slots on Ethereum with breakdowns of CL-clients, proposers, relays and builders.
- MEV at the Crossroads | MEV Decoded Part 3 hosted by Blocknative with guests @ballsyalchemist Sophie_EigenPhi, Blair Marshall and Tony Denyer explore the future of MEV through the lens of transaction data analysis.
- DeFi 2.0: How This Changes Everything with Paradigm’s Head of Research, Dan Robinson invites Dan Robinsson to talk about UniswapX and how it will impact the AMM landscape including MEV, chain interoperability and the introduction of new off-chain actors.
- MEV-Week Paris has been updated with additional recordings and slides from MEV-related events in Paris. The page will continuously be updated over the next couple of weeks as more recordings are being uploaded.
Upcoming events
- Aug 5-7: MEV-Share CTF.
- Aug 8: Pantera Capital MEV Conference call with Matt Stephenson and Quintus.
- Aug 10: Mechanism Design Deep Dive with Blockworks Research and SMG to dive into censorship, private orderflow and MEV.
- Aug 17: MEV-Boost Community Call #5 hosted by Alex Stokes will discuss Deneb, including spec and implementation updates, as well as eth_validatePayload and validator registrations onchain.
- Aug 18: ETHPortland Summit will have Danning Sui present insights on MEV data.
- Aug 31: MEV-SBC workshop.
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