Preamble
Aestus is a non-censoring and independent MEV Relay based on the original implementation from Flashbots; one of a handful of entities providing the ability for validators to auction their rights to block production to builders. As of Nov 2024, we’ll be celebrating two years of continuous operation.
MEV is a valuable component of staking returns, and it is critical that we minimise centralisation pressures by ensuring profits are equitably distributed amongst all validators. Our relay also contributes to the resilience of the Ethereum ecosystem by providing essential network infrastructure, serving hundreds of millions of requests per day to tens of thousands of clients and supporting transactions across both the L1 and L2 ecosystems.
Key operating information
• ~900,000 (85%) validators are registered with Aestus, including solo stakers, liquid staking protocols and large professional operations such as LIDO Operators.
• We process ~5% of all Ethereum mainnet blocks per day, for a total of around 160,000 blocks since inception.
• More than 20k ETH in profits have been delivered to validators through slots auctioned on Aestus.
• ~150k L2 blobs have passed through the relay since Dencun.
• We provide developer and testnet (holesky) instances in support of network upgrades.
• Mainnet relay uptime (excluding scheduled maintenance and security incidents) exceeds 99.5%
We initially imagined the relay as a short-term necessity, designed to fill a gap until the development of in-protocol proposer-builder separation (“ePBS”). Unfortunately, a robust design that would allow Aestus to retire, has so far proved elusive. While research continues, we intend to remain in operation.
The future
In recent months, there has also been considerable R&D into instantaneous transaction guarantees (preconfirmations), and the concept of “based” sequencing – which in combination promise to drastically improve user experience and interoperability across the Ethereum L1 and L2 stack. Emerging protocols from entities such as Chainbound, Luban, Spire and Puffer place considerable, complex new responsibilities on neutral infrastructure providers, like Aestus. And there is still considerable uncertainty as to the overall feasibility – and utility – of the broader approach.
Meanwhile, the structure of the MEV-Boost ecosystem has deprived relays like Aestus of a sustainable revenue stream. Any attempt to monetise our relay – for example by charging a service fee - effectively compromises our neutrality. Therefore, Aestus has so far been funded via modest public goods donations from the PBS Foundation and Optimism. We now need to raise significant further monies to secure our position into 2025. This would be used both to meet future operational costs and to support development demands from emerging preconfirmation and based sequencing projects and protocols.
We intend to focus our resources and ecosystem voice on promoting designs that are solo-staker compatible and will otherwise prioritise working with those projects that minimise centralising pressures and maximise censorship resistance. We hope to be part of a collaborative environment that allows the ecosystem to experiment and eventually standardise around winning designs over the coming months and years.
Aestus was added to the LIDO relay allow list in Feb 2023 and we’ve been delighted to support many LIDO Operators who are using our services. As part of this general fundraising effort, we’re formally asking LIDO for a grant of $50,000 which will be allocated to our ongoing operational costs.
Should this be approved, our recipient address is aestus.eth (0x9Be3570F5454fd668673fEb9C43805C533e53FFD)
