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.
Papers & Articles
- Introducing Rollup-Boost - Launching on Unichain by Flashbots announces Rollup-Boost as a platform for rollup extensions like verifiable block building, fast confirmation times, strong user guarantees, and MEV internalization; powering the upcoming Unichain.
- Unichain – an Ethereum L2 designed for DeFi by Uniswap Labs announces Unichain as a fast, decentralized Superchain L2 that’s designed for DeFi and liquidity across chains.
- TEE-enabled Social Games: An Experiment with Bobu’s Magic Show by @sxysun, Ryan MacArthur, Roshan Palakkal, and @socrates1024 outlines the technical implementation of Azuki’s livestreamed magic show using Teleport to tweet from the audience’s accounts.
- Using TEEs for Social by @2pmflow details how Azuki and Flashbots used TEEs to securely enable one-time tweet permission.
- Abracadabra! Flashbots and Hallway Reshape Entertainment with Azuki by WHIZWANG describe how Azuki, Flashbots, and Hallway collaborated on a livestreamed magic show, leveraging Teleport and AI for an interactive community experience.
- Zero Trust Execution Environments by @Quintus, Sylvain Bellemare, @jonathan, and @socrates1024 discuss the limitations of existing secure hardware and the need for advancements to meet the growing demands of Web3, AI, and other industries.
- Forum post by @Quintus
- Thread by @Quintus
- BONKbot’s Secure Signer Architecture: Dedicated TPM-based System with WASM signing verification vs. TEEs by @willvillanueva details BONKbot’s use of a TPM-based system for transaction signing, and compares it to TEE-based approaches in terms of security, verifiability, and performance.
- MEV Capture Through Time-Advantaged Arbitrage by Robin Fritsch, Maria Inês Silva, Akaki Mamageishvili, Benjamin Livshits, and Edward W. Felten analyzes the impact Timeboost on arbitrage opportunities in AMMs, and compares it to FCFS and PGA.
- How to Remove the Relay by Charlie Noyes and Guru Vamsi Policharla details how silent threshold encryption could enable private and direct communication between builders and proposers, without the need for relays.
- Possible futures of the Ethereum protocol, part 1: The Merge by Vitalik Buterin explores potential improvements to optimize Ethereum’s PoS by reducing finality times and lowering the staking threshold.
- Modeling Security for Cross Rollup Interoperability by shakeshack outlines a security model for cross-rollup interoperability.
- Uncrowdability of FOCIL by Julian Ma details how FOCIL is designed to prevent the outsourcing of IL construction rights to centralized entities.
- Uniswap, Flashbots, and OP-Stack: The Trinity Behind Unichain by 100y.eth covers the announcement of Unichain and how it’s designed to improve rollup scalability and address MEV.
- MEV Maestro Yoink Netting $2.65M on 59 Blocks in August by EigenPhi details how the searcher-builder “I can haz block?” earned 1061 ETH through arbitrage and liquidations across 59 blocks in August.
- Introducing the Arrakis DVMM: DeFi’s First MEV-Aware Onchain Market Maker by Arrakis Finance outlines the design of their Decentralized Vertically-Integrated Market Maker (DVMM) to reduce MEV and enhance profitability for LPs.
- Thread by Arrakis Finance
- Thread by Hilmar
Posts & Threads
- @stephen continued the series of threads exploring successful searcher strategies:
- Gideon published a post detailing how Flashbots and Azuki leveraged TEEs to securely create one-time tweet access to over 300 community members while ensuring integrity and confidentiality of user data.
- Itamar published a thread to highlight how Unichain is marking a significant advancement in rollup sequencing rules through Rollup-Boost.
- Alex Nezlobin published a thread arguing that Timeboost is more harmful to LPs than a comparable PGA by giving arbitrageurs more time to exploit price deviations.
- PBS Foundation published a thread compiling key resources related to MEV and PBS.
- EigenPhi published a thread detailing the distribution of rewards in the MEV supply chain with data from their Builder Performance Analysis dashboard.
Talks & Discussions
- Introducing Unichain. Built on the Superchain with Chase Chapman, Hayden Adams, and Karl Floersch discuss the launch of Unichain and how it’s optimized for DeFi and interoperability.
- Bankless: Announcing Unichain | DeFi’s Next Frontier? invites Hayden Adams and Karl Floersch to talk about the design of Unichain, liquidity, and rollup interoperability.
- Interview: Verifiable Crypto-Physically Secure TEEs invites Sylvain Bellemare, Julio Linares, and @Quintus to discuss the limitations of current TEEs, potential solutions using PUFs, and the need for more open-source collaboration in hardware security.
- The Gwart Show: Ethereum’s North Star invites Mike Neuder to discuss the Ethereum roadmap, Unichain, MEV, and PBS, and more.
- Post by Blockspace Media
- Post by Mike Neuder
- PROF: Protected Order Flow in a Profit-Seeking World by Kushal Babel at Intersubjective Rhizome by Kushal Babel outlines how PROF is designed to limit harmful forms of MEV by enforcing transaction ordering in existing PBS systems.
- Multiple Concurrent Proposers by Max Resnick outlines inefficacies in DeFi and how MCP is designed to improve market structures.
- Unaligned Day 2024: Roasting Leader-based Preconfig Designs by Murat Akdeniz discusses Leaderless and Leader-Based Preconfirmations, their trade-offs, and potential combinations.
- Ethereum Sequencing and Preconfirmations Call #15 hosted by Justin Drake includes updates on preconfirmation from Puffer, Rome, Taiko, Nethermind, Commit-Boost, Espresso, and mev-commit.
- ePBS (EIP-7732) breakout room #11 hosted by Potuz covered the latest progress and implementation status of EIP-7732.
Other
- How to Become a Filler? by banri details the process of becoming a Filler on UniswapX by handling intents and executing token swaps on behalf of users.
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