mev-toolkit/MEV_projects/rook/docs/the-mission-of-KeeperDAO.md

The Mission of KeeperDAO

• Keepers are bots that work on blockchain networks like Ethereum. The are an emergent and increasingly important network participant.
• Keepers respond when there is a need to buy or sell a sequence of assets, or execute particular smart contracts in a timely manner.
• DeFi relies on Keepers. Their constant arbitrage keeps prices in sync accorss dexes.
• From the keeper's perspective, a blockchain is a giant chessbord. They look for sequences of mvoes with high MEV and try to execute them.
• To be the first, they must pay block producers (minners and validators) above and beoynd the normal fee.
• Unlike block producers, Keepers were not accounted for in Ethereum's protocol design. This has turned Ethereum's public mempool (database where all unprocessed transactions are stored) into a dark forest.

The Coordination Game

• Game-theory optimised Keeper protocol that provides a solution in the MEV incentive structure problem; aligns Keeper's incentives with those of the network participants.
• Currently it's not clear how many Keepers are there, how much liquidity they command, how protocols shoudl optimally price risk, or how users and protocols should bid for Keeper attention.
• KeeperDAO protocol fills the void by formalizing the work Keepers do in a way that benefits the nwtwork, ensuring more determinism and avoiding harmful side-effects like the exploitation of users and protocols through predatory MEV attacks.

The Mission

• KeeperDAO is dedicated to Keepers: to bring about a decentralised economy which Keepers create more efficient, secure, and egalitarian blockchain networks.
• Research and build unique technology to coordinate access to certain shared resources - namely order and transaction pools bound for blockchain networks - allowing keepers to more efficiently capture on-chain profit - for example by executing an arbitrage or liquidation.
• KeeperDAO creates new primitives that users and protocols can use to protect themselves from predatory MEV.

Founding principles

1. Reward those that add value
2. MEV doesnt belong to block producers
3. Search for win-win scenarios
4. Solve hard problems
5. Decentralise