In the three weeks since The Merge, MEV-Boost has become a critical part of the Ethereum block-production infrastructure, with almost 50% validator adoption.
Yet it is not a part of the Ethereum core development, and we still have a long way to go until in-protocol PBS or alternatives to it. For the foreseeable future, MEV-Boost / out-of-protocol PBS will remain as a key coordination mechanism along the transaction supply chain, both in and outside of Ethereum.
The systemic importance of MEV-Boost makes it necessary to be thoughtful about how ongoing research and development of MEV-Boost should be organized. To that end, we wish to open up to the community the discussion about what the process of agreeing on future changes to MEV-Boost should look like.
There are critical design decisions to be made, such as partial block auctions and inclusion lists, that affect market equilibriums and the fundamental principles of the infrastructure. There are also possible improvements related to security, performance and quality-of-life (i.e. logging, operations). Many of these require thorough evaluation of trade-offs from a research as well as a philosophical angle.
Some broader philosophical issues include:
- How do we balance the interests of different stakeholders?
- How do we prioritize functionalities and features?
- How do we coordinate releases?
With these open questions in mind, we would like to invite the key stakeholders, core devs, cat herders, researchers, ecosystem builders, node operators, block builders, searchers and other creators of the Ethereum ecosystem to co-design an open, collaborative, and effective R&D process for MEV-Boost.
Please share your thoughts and ideas to collectively navigate the path forward.