MEV-Boost: Merge ready Flashbots Architecture

MEV is fundamentally a centralizing force. MEVA only serves to accelerate this centralization. It is time to stop misrepresenting MEVA as democratizing or decentralizing the network in any meaningful way.

See here for a discussion on why any proposal furthering the integration of MEV auctions into Ethereum will be disasterous.

In summary, MEVA/PBS (especially full-block) incentivizes:

  1. centralization around a dominant private relayer with gatekeeping powers over the entire network
  2. that centralized relayer must be the most exploitative in order to achieve and maintain dominance, using predatory mechanisms such as censorship markets (allowing one user to censor the transactions of another user for a bribe)
  3. there is no requirement for the dominant relayer to have any stake in the network as the Eth needed to buy blocks can be converted just-in-time. Their intention may actually be to profit from trying to harm the network long term (think competing chain, central or private bank, hostile hedge fund or VC). In fact the dominant relayer must care little about the long term success of Ethereum in order to be willing to use the most profitable/exploitative methods possible to win blocks short term.

It’ll end in the antithesis of what Ethereum set out to be, with Tony Soprano running the network.

6 Likes