Breaking Mev Is A Choice Blockchains Must Confront
MEV isn’t inevitable. It’s engineered exploitation masquerading as necessity. Blockchain’s future depends on eliminating this hidden tax on users.
Decentralized, permissionless and transparent. These are the principles that attracted many of us to the blockchain ecosystem. This vision is still being undermined, however, by an insidious, often invisible force: maximal extractable value (MEV).
MEV isn’t inevitable; it’s a choice. Too many treat it as an unavoidable byproduct of blockchains. It is not. MEV is engineered into incentives, and it can be engineered out. Left unchecked, it becomes a hidden tax, a form of censorship, and a direct assault on fairness and decentralization.
Tolerating it drains user trust and deters adoption. Eliminating it, by contrast, protects users and signals credible, future-proof infrastructure. Building fair systems means building ecosystems that are more competitive and investable.
Builders, developers, users and investors need to recognize this menace and rally to eliminate it; it is both an ethical imperative and a strategic necessity on which the future of Web3 depends.
Maximal extractable value is the maximum profit a block producer can capture by manipulating transaction order. Some argue there are neutral forms of MEV, like simple decentralized exchange arbitrage, but the vast majority is harmful. This “toxic MEV” is financial censorship that undermines security, permissionlessness and decentralization.
The most common examples are block withholding, time-bandit attacks, front-running and sandwich attacks. Each reorders transactions to extract value at the user’s expense. These are not benign tricks of the trade. They are deliberate manipulations that subvert user intent and drain trust. Allowing them is a policy choice, not a law of nature.
Toxic MEV is a symptom of centralization in systems designed to resist it. No single actor should ever control transaction order. Yet MEV consolidates power among a handful of extractors who exploit outcomes.
The result is an uneven playing field. When users fear they’re being front-run or sandwiched, they lose faith in the system’s integrity. This trust deficit is fatal for long-term adoption. Worse still, MEV distorts incentives. Instead of rewarding builders who strengthen the network, it funnels rewards to those who exploit it. That misalignment is an existential threat to blockchain’s credibility.
Related: Ethereum should limit transparency for a fairer blockchain
Source: CoinTelegraph
