Agnostic Relay Takes Over Spot 1 and Delivers Most Blocks
Four months ago, Agnostic Relay was released with the goal to reduce censorship on Ethereum. Today, it took over spot 1 and delivered the most blocks. Learn how it became part of the game and why the game needs to change fundamentally.
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Martin Köppelmann
Unconditional Basic Income @CirclesUBI, Co-founded Gnosis. Supporting @gnosisDAO @gnosischain, @gnosisSafe, @gnosisguild, @cowswap
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Four month ago we released the "Agnostic Relay" with the goal to reduce censorship on Ethereum.
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023
Today Agnostic took over spot 1 and delivered the most blocks!
🧵 how we became part of the game but how we also think the game is broken and it needs to change fundamentally! https://t.co/9nn3lF3UqJ pic.twitter.com/iUfzco8VtM -
Lets start with a quick reminder: every 12 sec it is the turn of a specific validator to produce the next block. They can either do that locally ("vanilla block") or use mev-boost and query different relays to give them the best block that will likely have a larger payout. pic.twitter.com/ZG7FrgB4H6
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023 -
When we decided to join only very few relays existed and the most important ones had a policies to never deliver a block that would contain transactions that touched specific addresses. Up to 80% of the blocks were effected threatening the neutrality of Ethereum. pic.twitter.com/XiT4MchzFF
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023 -
With us and @ultrasoundmoney launching our relays end of November, on the surface that situation has improved dramatically and I once again want to thank Flashbots for their support launching the Relay. However - we still see 2 major issues with the current situation:
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023 -
Issues:
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023
1) Fragility of censorship resistance
2) Value distribution at the cost of user -
Lets start with 1)
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023
The truth is, the situation can flip immediately with just 3 entities either colluding or simply coming to a different legal conclusion than right now:https://t.co/esB3CEdUEI -
This is why more systemic solutions are necessary for credible neutrality. On @gnosischain we have deliberately not build MEV-boost infrastructure and instead are working first with @project_shutter on a solution to include transactions in the chain while they are sill encrypted.
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023 -
We are building it as a "opt-in" solution for validators that could be used on Ethereum as well and could even eventually become part of the core protocol of both chains.https://t.co/UjaZpXmBAN
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023 -
Now to issue 2) (Value distribution)
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023
In the last week blocks delivered via Agnostic payed >4000 ETH to validators and this is the way to compete as a relay: deliver the block with the highest payout! Still, our goal is to have a competitive relay but actually REDUCE that number! -
I applaude the @bloXrouteLabs effort of an "Ethical" relay that prohibits MEV extraction at the direct cost of user (frontrunning/ sandwiching) but ultimately if we can protect user with code and not goodwill of validators the system will be much stronger.
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023 -
At Gnosis we have always worked on solutions that intended to protect users going back all the way to DutchX, Gnosis Protocol, Gnosis Auction eventually resulting in the spin-out of @CoWSwap, a now leading solution for users to get the best price MEV protected.
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023 -
Now, with a couple of partners, we are going the next step and are offering soon a similar solution for any Ethereum transaction (not just a direct token swap like on CoWswap). The goal is the same: give more value to the user!
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023 -
The concept is outlined here: https://t.co/6GsGgwP5yL
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023
If you are: a wallet, a RPC endpoint, a builder or a searcher you can DM me already for early access! For everyone else: more to come very soon! -
We believe that a large % of the 4000 ETH our relay gave to validators in the last week belongs to users and we are going to help them keep it!
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) March 17, 2023