How Batched Threshold Encryption could end extractive MEV and make DeFi fair again

BTE offers epochless, constant-size decryption shares (as small as 48 bytes) that can help layer-2 rollups to achieve pending transaction privacy.

Batched Threshold Encryption (BTE) builds on foundational concepts such as threshold cryptography, which enable secure collaboration among multiple parties without exposing sensitive data to any single participant. BTE is an evolution of the earliest TE-encrypted mempool schemes, such as Shutter, which we have covered previously. For now, all existing work on BTE remains at the prototype or research stage, but it could shape the future of decentralized ledgers if successful. This creates a clear opportunity for more research and potential adoption, which we will explore in this article. 

On most modern blockchains, transaction data is publicly viewable in the mempool before it is sequenced, executed and confirmed in a block. This transparency creates avenues for sophisticated parties to engage in extractive practices known as Maximal Extractable Value (MEV). MEV exploits the block proposer’s ability to reorder, include or omit transactions for financial gain. 

Typical forms of MEV exploitation, such as frontrunning and sandwich attacks, remain pervasive, particularly on Ethereum, where, during the flash crash on Oct. 10, an estimated $2.9 million was extracted. Accurately measuring total extractive MEV remains difficult because roughly 32% of these attacks were privately relayed to miners, with some involving over 200 chained subtransactions in a single exploit.

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