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Update 1

This is my first update for the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship - cohort three.
In the first week I was exploring possible project ideas. My previous experience with Ethereum is mainly related to the EVM and Ethereums security. But since this is a learning opportunity I wanted to do something out of my comfort zone. Since one of the biggest concerns I have with Ethereum right now is base layer censorship and builder centralization due to economies of scaling. Therefore I wanted to explore ideas in those directions. I discussed some ideas with Alex Stokes. Those ideas include: Partial Block Auctions to constrain the power the builder currently has, trust-less searcher to builder connection and a protocol for a decentralized builder.

Partial Block Auctions:

  • Partial Block Auctions wouldn't directly solve the problem of builder centralization but would mitigate some of the concerns with a centralized builder censoring blocks
  • This would result in builders only partially deciding what goes into a block and where
  • One example would be an inclusion list which is a list of transaction that the proposer demands from the block builder to be included in the block
  • How much can we constrain builders without bringing back heavy burdens to proposers?
  • The project idea would be to create a specification of a fitting approach and prototype it in e.g. mev-boost

Trust-less searcher to builder connection

  • At the moment the searcher is trusting the builder not to steal their mev opportunities
  • A decentralized builder protocol would need this as a prerequisite

Decentralized builder protocol

Further Reading/watching material

Next steps

My goal within the following two weeks is to first narrow down the project ideas further and then decide upon and formalize a concrete project.

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Final EPF update

This is the final update for the "Reducing trust in the PBS relay" project by echno. The project aimed to reduce the required trust assumptions in the PBS relay either by proposing a new approach or adopting an existing one Status report The goal of the project was defined as follows: The goal is to have developed a solution and specification, with the fewest possible drawbacks, that to some degree reduces the trust of the relay. Additionally, it would be nice to have a prototype implementation of this specification. The approach we created is called the Rollup-Relay, which is a PBS solution that utilizes a rollup as the intermediary between the builder and the proposer. Additionally, we described how this approach could be further abstracted to utilize other intermediaries, such as a modified MEV-Boost-Relay or a Data Availability Layer (DA). We also extended the approach with an additional Data Availability Layer to reduce trust assumptions even further.

Feb 27, 2023
Update 9

Over the past two weeks, I have mainly been exploring the 'Further Work' section of the Rollup-Relay approach, with a focus on further reducing the trust assumptions through a data availability layer, as well as further abstracting the approach. Abstraction Since I didn't emphasize this enough in my earlier posts, the off-chain commitment between the builder and the proposer does not need to have a rollup as the intermediary. It can also be done via a mev-boost-relay or a data availability layer, as shown in the illustration below. Trust assumptions are reduced with this approach regardless of which intermediary is used. However, there are different trade-offs to consider beyond the trust assumptions, which is why I initially chose to use a rollup as the intermediary. However, I can also see a world where all these different intermediaries can co-exist, and proposers and builders can choose which one to use based on their trade-offs. This leaves room for experimentation and lets the market decide what intermediary works best. Here is the full approach with the abstracted intermediary: Reducing trust assumption further with a data availability layer

Feb 19, 2023
Rollup-relay

The goal of the project was to reduce the trust assumption in the PBS relay. While the Rollup-Relay may not be the ultimate solution for solving PBS, we still believe it accomplishes this goal. Additionally, this solution could be implemented relatively quickly today compared to other solutions, since the infrastructure is already in place. It also serves as a solid foundation for more sophisticated solutions. The Problem Currently, relays serve as the link between the builders and proposers. Builders can submit bids to the relay to have their block included in the proposers slot. The relay selects the highest valid bid and forwards the block header the proposer. The proposer picks the best block from all the relays and returns the signed header back to the chosen relay. After the signed block header is received, the whole block is released to the network. This strategy has some fundamental trust assumptions, e.g. relying on the relay to release the block on time, unbiased in selecting the blocks for the proposer (e.g. the relay operators do not prefer their own blocks over others), does not censor blocks based on their content and do not steal the builder’s mev opportunities. To reduce these trust assumptions, we propose the rollup-relay. The Approach The Rollup-Relay approach involves using a rollup to facilitate the exchange of minimal information needed for the builder and proposer to accomplish the auction. In the following section, we will provide a more detailed explanation of how this process takes place.

Feb 19, 2023
Update 8

The last two weeks, I have been mainly focused on cleaning up the approach and writing a comprehensive doc that explains the entire mechanism. I'm also in the process of collecting feedback from various people about the it. Additionally, I looked further into data availability layers with their own consensus algorithms, such as Celestia. The doc with the entire approach can be found at: https://hackmd.io/@echno/rollup-relay If you want to leave some feedback, dms are open on twitter or leave some feedback here: https://collective.flashbots.net/t/rollup-relay-reducing-trust-assumptions-in-the-relay/1212 I have also started a Github repo a while back: https://github.com/ogechno/rollup-relay There isn't much in the repo, except for some boilerplate code, but I will probably try to hack on it during the builder week at ETHDenver 2023.

Feb 6, 2023
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