This repository contains my notes, scripts, code through my journey into stateful blockchains and miner profit.
Flashbots maintains a proof-of-concept communication channel for users to send their Ethereum transactions directly to miners. It was created as part of Flashbots' goal to mitigate the negative externalities and existential risks posed by MEV to smart-contract blockchains.

Episodes

Further references

Mempool: the set of pending, unconfirmed transactions in the EVM.
MEV: Maximal (or miner) Extractable Value
Frontrunning (also known as Priority Gas Auctions (PGAs)): when a miner steals a profitable opportunity (such as arbitrage) for themselves by sending the same transaction with a higher gas price. For example, Transaction A is broadcasted with a higher gas price than an already pending transaction B so that A gets mined before B (eg. to snatch a Uniswap price arbitrage trade to rebalance a pool).
Backrunning: Transaction A is broadcasted with a slightly lower gas price than already pending transaction B so that A gets mined right after B in the same block. (eg. to execute a DyDx liquidation after a price oracle update that triggers a DyDx loan to go under the required collateralization ratio).
Sandwiching: profiting off slippage in liquidity pools by buying and selling before and after large transactions posted in the mempool.
DEX arbitrage: If two DEXes are offering a token at two different prices, one can buy the token on the lower-priced DEX and sell it on the higher-priced DEX.
Liquidations: if the value of a borrowed asset exceeds the collateral, anyone can liquidate the collateral and collect the liquidation fee for themselves.

Description

👾 notes and resources on blockchain's maximal extractable value: on the hope of non-predatory free markets in the metaweb

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