Bachelor / Master Thesis
MEV-prevention with a consensus protocol
Miner-extractable value (MEV) [1] is the profit that miners in a blockchain can obtain through their ability to arbitrarily select and order transactions inside a block. Miners make a profit by placing a specific transaction right before a given transaction of a user and take advantage from it, such as a better rate for trading cryptocurrencies. Such behavior is called front running. Miners may also profit from how a user’s transaction can affect the market value by placing their transaction just after the one of a user; this is so-called back running. The combination of both is known as a “sandwich attack”.
This thesis concerns an implementation of a solution to the MEV problem at the level of a consensus protocol. The solution makes use of smart contracts and could be implemented on the Ethereum testnet [2] (details upon request).
References
[1] Miner-extractable value (MEV) https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/miner-extractable-value-mev
[2] Ethereum https://ethereum.org/en/