Blockchain Researchers Propose New Approach to Mitigating MEV

A recent study has shed light on a new approach to mitigating MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) on blockchain networks. Flash Freezing Flash Boys (F3B), proposed by researchers H. Zhang et al., employs per-transaction encryption, which prevents sensitive data from being exposed until a transaction reaches finality.

The F3B protocol involves a threshold committee that generates decryption shares for each transaction. These shares are then released after the transaction is finalized, allowing the consensus group to decrypt and execute it. The protocol also includes a staking mechanism with locked collateral to incentivize honest behavior among trustees.

Two different cryptographic implementations of F3B have been analyzed: TDH2 (Threshold Diffie-Hellman 2) and PVSS (Publicly Verifiable Secret Sharing). While TDH2 is more efficient due to its fixed committee, it has a higher storage overhead. On the other hand, PVSS offers greater flexibility but requires larger public-key ciphertexts.

Simulated proof-of-stake Ethereum results show that F3B can deliver its privacy guarantees with minimal performance overhead. However, deploying F3B on Ethereum may be challenging due to the complexity of integration and the need for modifications to the execution layer.