Opinion by: Loring Harkness, commercial headbar in Brainbot GmbH and Shutter
Earlier this year, the Ethereum Foundation launched a $ 1 trillion security initiative, a progress in a broader campaign to adapt the chain image for the new audience of non-Crypto retail investors, Wall Street and traditional financial institutions.
On paper, the initiative is nothing more than a good thing. The Ethereum, which recognizes its shortcomings, is refreshing. It also offers the proposed approach a clear path to being “bigger” about security – a direction that will give the industry we hope to attract crypto with peace of mind. For Ethereum security problems, however, excessive transparency is the start of the problem.
The $ 1,000 dreams
The Ethereum Foundation’s Trillion-dollar initiative Looking at success as a world where “billions of individuals are each comfortable that stores more than $ 1,000 onchain.” If we should assume a constant trajectory based on Current growth rate For unique purse holders in Ethereum, that milestone is less than a decade away. As Ethereum celebrates its 10th anniversary on July 30, we assume the adoption of the Colossal Mass for the chain at an institutional and retail level.
In principle, this development is well done within Ethereum’s reach. Defi Protocols in Ethereum are in charge now $ 64 billion To the total amount locked (TVL). Foundation’s increased interaction with giant Wall Street such as Blackrock, Fidelity, JPMorgan and Robinhood has seen traditional finance juggernauts publicly embrace Ethereum-based financial products, which confirms the age of the blockchain.
Despite the activity of strengthening Ethereum reputation, Blockchain security Researchers and Innovations is rising increasingly urgent Alarms about the extent of malicious maximum can be obtained amount (MEV)Especially in Ethereum.
Since 2020, More than $ 1.8 billion is obtained by MEV in Ethereum, mainly at the cost of sun -sun users by malicious MEV. Some may say that this is all parts of the Defi game. In fact, incredibly unfair, especially while non-web3 indigenous people come to Onchain, the population that will produce billions of users that Ethereum wants to convince.
The order of the Ethereum transaction
Ethereum architecture exposes a major weakness: the currently unacceptable public mempool. Any transaction processed in Ethereum must go through its public mempool, where transactions have been broadcast at all – including evil actors and bots – before confirming. At this stage, the attack of bots, front-run and re-ordering transactions for revenue.
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This transparent design, originally intended to enhance verification, creates a perfect environment for predators actors to study pending transactions and manipulate transactions to their advantage.
Another fact is that sandwich attacks, running in front, and other malicious exploitation of MEV is sitting in a gray regulation. Although there are some Developments In the works of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to deal with it, this activity has no formal police framework, and there is no small fruit handling the attacks.
Sacrifice of total transparency
This is not a new problem, and there are solutions that say to meet the malicious MEVs there. The dominant successors will prioritize giving users a more equal cut of pie, however, rather than a fair opportunity in the first place. Current private transaction pools create centralization risks and often only move the MEV acquisition of various actors, rather than removing it.
The MEV-Boost tried to democratize the acquisition of MEV but it was not removed. This is redistributing the MEV income between builders and advocates while users are still suffering from front and sandwich attacks.
The only Kapani -believed solution to Ethereum’s malicious MEV crisis is redesigning how network transactions flow. That answer lies in Ethereum’s encrypting mempool, which uses a decentralized system in which a shared network of parties temporarily sees all transactions until the transactions are complete.
Censoryption of transactions until they are permanently placed on a block gives us to achieve a field playing the field where the malicious MEV is almost impossible. An encrypted mempool in Ethereum will change the user experience by automatically providing all users protocol protection against the malicious MEV, without users who need to take any action.
Most people will never move their RPC or Dex, so the only real solution is to default the fairness. It will also eliminate the need for the Patchwork today by centralized MEV prevention tools, which has helped limit some attacks but has not completely stopped MEV.
This enecrypted mempool system seems simple, but it represents a massive architectural shift for Ethereum.
This will require changes to the underlying Ethereum protocol. Changes in the code required will handle the most basic components of Ethereum – the mechanisms of transaction propagation, agreed protocols and implementation environment. The timeline for these changes will stretch out many network upgrades, it will probably take years for full implementation. If Ethereum continues to grow at the current rate, the demand for a viable, long -term solution for such a threat will only increase.
Ethereum’s next move
As the institutional capital continues to pour into the Ethereum ecosystem, the stakes of responding to MEV’s malicious weakness continue to grow. The recent wave of institutional adoption provides a deceptive sense of security mask the underlying technical crisis. However, it is only a few hours before institutions and users ask about weaknesses.
The $ 1 trillion security initiative deserves strong community support because it targets the issue amid Ethereum value proposal: Can we trust that the network will process our transactions fairly?
The path of technology to fairness in Ethereum is clear: enecrypt mempools. What remains to be seen is whether the Ethereum community has decided to implement these changes before the institutional confidence is eliminated.
The price chart may look like promise now, but without addressing the malicious MEV crisis, the long -term security and flexibility in Ethereum will remain at risk.
Opinion by: Loring Harkness, commercial head of Brainbot GMBH and Shutter.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be done as legal or investment advice. The views, attitudes, and opinions expressed here are unique and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of the cointelegraph.
