The Chopping Block: Why the Once-Taboo MEV Is Now a Core Part of Ethereum Unchained

Welcome to “The Chopping Block!” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. This week, Flashbots co-founder Phil Daian joins the show to go deep on what maximal extractable value (MEV) means and how it’s shaping the Ethereum ecosystem.

Show highlights:

how Phil started working in MEV and why he believes it resembles 'Alice in Wonderland'

Phil's definition of MEV and when he realized this was an actual problem

how Flashbots was born

the story of how Vitalik didn't care about sandwich attacks at the time Uniswap was released

whether it's possible to minimize MEV via more competition

the never-ending debate about whether MEV should be accepted

why Tarun thinks the concept of fair ordering is against nature 

how Bitcoin uses social norms to solve its weaknesses 

how Google is being called out in court for creating auction to front run its customers

how Flashbots worked prior to and after Ethereum's Merge

why Flashbots complies with OFAC sanctions 

what is the Suave project and how it aims to decentralize Flashbots

what the future of MEV looks like




Hosts


Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital


Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures


Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital


Guest:
Phil:
Twitter

Disclosures

Links
The Block: Flashbots seeks up to $50 million at a billion-dollar valuation
CoinDesk: Opinion: Miners, Front-Running-as-a-Service Is Theft
CNN: DOJ sues Google over its dominance in online advertising market
Unchained: 51% of Ethereum Blocks Are OFAC Censored
Given the Sanctions on Tornado Cash, Is Ethereum Censorship Resistant? - Ep. 390

The Cost of Decentralization in 0x and EtherDelta

Previous coverage of Unchained on MEV:
Why Is Ethereum Trying to Maximize Value From Users? Two Sides Debate

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