MEV, explained: what it is, what to do about it

MEV, explained

Pranav Garimidi and Joseph Bonneau

MEV has long been a hot topic in crypto, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi). But it’s only by understanding MEV that protocol designers can help manage it. So in this post we explain the basics of what MEV is, how it affects blockchains, and ways to address it.

Simply put, MEV is the value that can be obtained by including, excluding, or reordering transactions in a block, in addition to standard block rewards. MEV once stood for “miner extractable value” when blockchains still relied on proof of work, but now it commonly stands for “maximal extractable value.”

Why does it matter? MEV is fundamental to how blocks get built on nearly all blockchains, naturally arising from the fact that block producers — who are responsible for coordinating users’ preferences — are also in a position to profit from information asymmetries. Because there are many ways to coordinate preferences, block producers can gain value by strategically performing the coordination task in a way that benefits them. And while MEV isn’t necessarily good or bad, it does drastically affect protocols by changing the incentives of people participating in them.

Read all about MEV

Marketing 101 for startups: Token launches, memes, reaching developers, and more

Kim Milosevich, Amanda Tyler, Claire Kart

Marketing in crypto is different from marketing in traditional tech in many ways. So we take a candid look at what it takes to build and navigate the industry’s many cults and subcultures on the latest episode of the web3 with a16z podcast.

a16z crypto CMO Kim Milosevich hosts this conversation on what works and what doesn’t when it comes to building reputation and community, attracting developers, hiring teams and agencies, launching tokens, raising founder profiles, and more — with guest experts Amanda Tyler, who was most recently Head of Marketing at the Optimism Foundation; and Claire Kart, Chief Marketing Officer at Aztec.

Lessons from the U.S. launch of World

A guest post from Christian Catalini, Co-founder of Lightspark and the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab

Recently, Alex Blania — CEO and co-founder of Tools for Humanity, the team behind World app — unveiled the company’s latest plans in a noteworthy debut. But the more interesting question is what this move signals for the crypto industry’s leap from early-adopters to more mainstream users.

Convincing Americans to swap an iris scan for a cryptographic “I’m human” badge is ...