Now feels like a good time to discuss ETH and today I want to talk about MEV.
MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) is the value derived from controlling transaction inclusion and ordering.
MEV was first used in the context of PoW, and initially referred to as "miner extractable value".
This is because in PoW, miners control transaction inclusion, exclusion, and ordering.
Since the Merge, validators have been responsible for these roles, and mining is no longer part of the Ethereum protocol.
The value extraction methods still exist, though, so the term "Maximal extractable value" is now used instead.
MEV is a way for validators on a blockchain network to make money by reordering transactions.
Validators are the only ones who can guarantee the execution of a profitable MEV opportunity, but "searchers" can also get a substantial portion of MEV.
Searchers use complex algorithms to find profitable opportunities and then use bots to automatically submit those transactions to the network.
Validators still get some of the MEV revenue because searchers are ready to pay high gas fees to increase the chances of their transactions being included in a block.
In highly competitive scenarios, such as DEX arbitrage, searchers may have to pay up to 90% or more of their total MEV revenue in gas fees to validators in order to guarantee that their transaction is executed.
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