PBS compatible Preconfirmations without slashing risk or restaking

Restaking-free, fully artisanal, grass-fed mev protocols right at your door. No point system, no GMOs, no unadulterated yield!

This proposal focuses on integrating XGA - which stands for eXtensible Gas Auctions - to Lido.

XGAs elaborate on the way block space is allocated to builders, making it more dynamic and accessible. They facilitate the allocation of blockspace by dividing each block into two parts instead of selling it as a single monolithic entity. One part is designated for high-priority, time-sensitive transactions (top), while the other is reserved for less urgent transactions (bottom). This segmentation allows users to select the most cost-effective and suitable space for their needs, enhancing transaction efficiency and user value.

The first part of the block is sold through mev-boost as is common now for most blocks. The second part of the block is sold as a form of preconfirmation. That is, if a block gets minted, the bottom part is sold in a pre-defined period before. This part is sold in a multi-unit way meaning that several bidders can win blockspace for this part.

Winners of the bottom part of a block can then submit their bundles before the block gets actually minted. In effect, winners of the auction get an inclusion guarantee before the block is in.

The merging logic of the top and bottom parts of the block are handled by a specially designed relay.

On the validator side, to participate, a validator opts into this service. Practically, the validator rejects all blocks so long as it gets a valid block submission from the dedicated relay. If the validator does not get a valid proposal from the XGA relay, it then will pick the highest submitted block it has gotten from all other relays. Therefore, there is very little remunerative risk but a possible upside.

We are already working on a subsequent version that will overcome the exclusivity requirement with respect to the XGA relay, making it fully backwards compatible with currently existing mev-boost relays. This will effectively make XGAs relay-agnostic.

We believe XGAs are probably the fastest path to make preconfirmations viable on Ethereum L1, in line with the strategic roadmap specified by Hasu here. Moreover, XGAs solve some long-standing problems of current mev-boost infrastructure. For instance, since an XGA auction requires the relay to put in computational effort for the merging in a provable way, they provide an actionable pathway to solve the relay remuneration problem in the future.

Captive Insurance

Since a specially designed relay is needed to run XGAs, we also detail a captive insurance service to minimize Lido's risk. Captive Insurance aims to protect validator earnings against service outages, ensuring continuity of potential profits.

• Coverage Scope:
  • Service Downtime: Compensation for inoperative or inaccessible relay service periods.
  • Incorrect or Malicious Proposals: Protection against losses due to incorrect or malicious block proposals.
  • Performance Degradation: Coverage for significant performance drops impacting validator operations.
• Service Downtime: Provides compensation for any periods when the relay service is either inoperable or inaccessible.
• Incorrect or Malicious Proposals: Offers protection against losses arising from incorrect or malicious block proposals made by the relay.
• Performance Degradation: Ensures coverage in cases where the relay's performance deteriorates significantly, affecting validator operations."

Holesky Testing

We are now requiring that Node operators must operate CL clients that support the new v3 builder API endpoints.

What this means, practically

Practically, we request the Lido community to add our XGA relay endpoint to the relay registry smart contract. Our relay endpoint is:

    uri: https://mainnet-auction.securerpc.com/
    operator: Manifold Finance
    is_mandatory: true
    description: Manifold's XGA relay

Having done this, Lido will be able to start experimenting with the system.

Production status

Validator Relay Rate limit: 80 requests per minute
L2 RPC: https://xga-api.securerpc.com/v1 300 req per minute per IP
Auction dashboard: https://mainnet-auction-dashboard.securerpc.com/
Auction relay endpoint: https://mainnet-auction.securerpc.com/