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mev - wtf?

Phil Daian | (cornell tech, flashbots)

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mev

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The Hydra�“Flaws of Decentralization on 0x and Etherdelta”

Ordering (OO) Fees

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The Hydra : Into the Rabbithole

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“Flaws of Decentralization”

Issue: exposure to arbitrage, miner frontrunning, exchange abuse

Found $1M/y profit running our own bot. Pre-PGA MEV bot!

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Ordering Fees: One Puzzle Piece

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Flash Boys 2.0 (a warning)

“MEV”, “PGA”s - beyond ordering

fair ordering: Themis and more (Kelkar et al)

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Flash Boys 2.0

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mev

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Enter MEV

OO fees represent one case of a more general quantifiable value we call miner-extractable value (MEV).

MEV refers to the total amount of Ether miners can extract from manipulation of transactions within a given timeframe, which may include multiple blocks’ worth of transactions.

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Fair Ordering: A Response

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Clockwork Finance: A New Definition

MEV: the amount a miner can increase their balance across a series of blocks

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Flashbots

mev: wat do?

… and many other projects

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mev wat do?

MEV is fundamental

wat do?

  1. transcriptability
  2. interoperability (trust)
  3. “permissionless” design

DAPP DEVELOPERS: Limit MEV to what is strictly required/inherent. Think carefully about MEV.

USERS: Demand the above. Don’t use dapps with predatory MEV. Understand what MEV means to you.

L1/L2: Redesign with MEV in mind. Think about the use cases you are designing for, and how best to manage MEV. ��VALIDATORS: Extract, extract, extract, and don’t be ashamed. Your continued extraction is required to the game-theoretic security of any network on which MEV exists.��Everyone else: mitigate 👏 negative 👏 externalities.

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… the birth of the magic bot

> illuminate the dark forest�

> democratize MEV extraction��> distribute MEV benefits

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why are you here? the present

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mev.day!!

Cross-Chain MEV: a Formalization

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mev.day

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Cross-Chain MEV

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Still dark: the centralized world

MEV on FTX?????

Binance?

$95B >> $1.3B

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wat do next? the future

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wat do next?

We are on the precipice of centralizing all crypto.

There is now a choice.

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wat do next?

attain understanding

preserve decentralization

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wat do next?

make money

own the centralized stack

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wat do next?

attain understanding

preserve decentralization

make money

own the centralized stack

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Is the MEV meme good or bad…��for the world?

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Is MEV research good or bad…��for the world?

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Is MEV research good or bad…��for the world?

it’s up

to you

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That’s great but wat do?�(and a teaser)

  • Auction Design
  • Cryptographic Privacy
  • Cryptoeconomic Privacy
  • MEV in ETH 2
  • MEV in L2
  • MEV Taxonomy
  • Account Abstraction
  • Protocol Design
  • Search Optimization
  • Flashbots as Critical Infrastructure

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What is a better MEV auction?

user

validator

  • more private
  • more decentralized
  • more competitive
  • more transparent
  • more user tooling

minimize

maximize

  • more robust
  • more efficient
  • more geographically diverse
  • fewer network externalities
  • (still) fewer first-party deals

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…. join us

github.com/flashbots

(PS Github sucks we’re working on it)