2023 marks the first anniversary of Ethereum's merger and the activation of MEV-Boost.1
2023 marks the first anniversary of Ethereum's merger and the activation of MEV-Boost.
1. Rapid adoption of MEV-Boost
The merger brought significant changes to Ethereum as it shifted the responsibility for block generation from a few mining pools to thousands of stakeholders around the world. This change has also led to the readjustment of Ethereum MEV infrastructure. Due to the control of the new proposer group, the previously existing relationship between searchers and miners no longer exists.
After the merger, MEV-Boost quickly gained widespread adoption. In the first month, 50% of validators started using it, but by the end of the second month, this proportion had increased to 90%.
MEV-Boost has been rapidly adopted, with 50% of validators running it within the first month and reaching 90% by the end of the second month. Proponents who outsource block construction through MEV-Boost received the same median block reward, thereby reducing the centralization force that MEV may have on the Ethereum validator set.
The highest MEV payment transaction in history came from a transfer from Baike c0ffeebabe.eth to Beaverbuild. This is because they discovered a loophole in a contract and returned the funds before the loophole was abused, resulting in a profit of up to 678 ETH. Beaverbuild forwarded this MEV to the block proposer to win the bid.
2. Relay situation
As Ethereum transitions to Proof of Rights on September 15th, validators can connect to 7 different relays, which in turn receive bids from 27 unique block builders. In order to exclude the Flashbots relay, we intentionally did not set it as the default value for MEV-Boost.
3. The Evolution of Market Builders
Flashbots builders initially accounted for 95% of the block share in MEV-Boost. However, compared to the relay market, the diversified development of block construction is faster. Only a week later, with the addition of BloXroute, the proportion of Flashbots builders decreased to below 60%, accounting for 25%, while other early adopters (such as Blocknative and builder0x69) also began to acquire blocks. In November, we opened up the block builder and saw more builders added to it.
4. After merger, searcher profit
Using mev inspect py to identify atomic MEVs, we can quantify that the monthly profit of atomic MEVs hovers around $2 million, soaring to $4-6 million during periods of intense market volatility.
The total revenue of proposers benefiting from atomic MEV transactions ranges from $1 to $4 million. Compared to the overall income of proposers within the same time frame, this only accounts for 5-10%. Please note that this is a conservative lower bound estimate, limited by the mev inspect py range.
5. Final conclusion
(1) The Future of PBS
MEV-Boost was developed as an interim solution for Ethereum PoS, until the research on PBS within the protocol matured as part of the Ethereum roadmap, aiming to address the short-term, medium, and long-term research, development, and operational challenges of PBS, and authorizing delegation of authority. The initial stage aims to raise $1 million for independent relay, research and development, data transparency, and PBS education.
(2) Data transparency
As the MEV supply chain evolves into a complex supply network, tracking the lifecycle of order flow throughout the entire stack becomes challenging. Although MEV-Boost's open relay data API helps to understand the final steps before on chain settlement, it is still difficult to determine the initial entry point for tracking orders.
(3) Looking Forward to the Future
The transition from Ethereum to proof of equity, coupled with the rise of MEV-Boost, fundamentally changed the dynamics of the trading supply chain. The evolution of Ethereum has always been a community driven process. As we move forward bravely and enter the next chapter, let us unite our collective strength and continue to uphold the spirit we cherish. The future is full of exciting opportunities, and we will meet these challenges together.
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