MEV Dark Forest: The Mystery Behind Ethereum Frontrunning

MEV Dark Forest: The Mystery Behind Ethereum Frontrunning

In this episode of Public Key, our host, Ian Andrews (CMO at Chainalysis) is joined by the podcast’s first anonymous guest.  Nicknamed “Hazard”, the CEO of Rook, demystifies the “Dark Forest” of one of the greatest challenges of the Ethereum, MEV, which stands for maximal extractable value.  Hazard clarifies extremely technical concepts around frontrunning, sandwich attacks and Flashbots.

Class is in session for this episode as Hazard provides informative insights into how MEV impacts users of Ethereum and explains why simple solutions being suggested could potentially compromise the decentralization of the network. 

Minute-by-minute episode breakdown

• (2:05) – Hazard’s origin story as a Mathematician and stumbling across the Bitcoin Whitepaper and progressing from Discord to Core Team at Rook
• (7:45) – What is MEV is and how it fits into the cryptocurrency technology stack 
• (13:49) – How do large mining pools and private mempools impact MEV
• (20:00) – Should Ethereum users be genuinely concerned about market manipulation connected to MEV
• (25:05) – How does the MEV problem get fixed or is it just a cost of doing business to ensure miners are actively participating
• (28:55) – What is Rook.fi and how is it helping individuals and developers manage MEV
• (32:15) – The methodology on how to ensure that the MEV goes back to the user versus only going to the miner

Related resources

Check out more resources provided by Chainalysis that perfectly complement this episode of the Public Key.

• Report: The Chainalysis State of Web3 Report
• Webinar: The State of Web: Watch On Demand (with Ethan McMahon and Kim Grauer
• Website: Rook Website
• Article: Flash Boys 2.0: Frontrunning in Decentralized Exchanges, Miner Extractable Value, and Consensus Instability
• Case Study: Rook Whale Case Study
• Blog: Introducing Chainalysis Government Solutions

Speakers on today’s episode

• Ian Andrews * Host * (Chief Marketing Officer, Chainalysis) https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianhandrews
• “Hazard”  (CEO, Rook) https://twitter.com/0x81B

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