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Eating Sandwiches: Modular and Lightweight Elimination of Transaction Reordering Attacks by Orestis Alpos (University of Bern), Ignacio Amores-Sesar (University of Bern, IC3), Christian Cachin (University of Bern, IC3), Michelle Yeo (National University of Singapore):
- Sandwich attacks have drained over $1.1 million from Ethereum users within the last month alone, according to Eigenphi. To mitigate the effects of these attacks, the authors have introduced a new, decentralized protocol that transforms any blockchain's consensus algorithm without compromising on network security.
Avalanche Consensus — Does it Perform as Promised? by Philipp Schneider (University of Bern, IC3) with contributions by Ignacio Amores-Sesar (University of Bern, IC3), and Christian Cachin (University of Bern, IC3):
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In a three-part series, the authors examined the "Snow" protocols that tackle the fundamental consensus issue. This series is divided into three parts. Part 1 can be found here, while parts 2 and 3 are available on the Crypto@Bern blog.
Decentralization of Ethereum Builder Market by Sen Yang (Yale University), Kartik Nayak (Duke University), and Fan Zhang (Yale University, IC3 Alum):
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The authors investigate the decentralization of Ethereum, focusing on its builder market designed to avoid centralization from Maximal Extractable Value (MEV). Despite being permissionless, this market is highly centralized, with three builders producing over 90% of blocks. The study, based on auction data from 2022, reveals significant entry barriers and inequalities in block-building capabilities. It highlights issues in the competitiveness and efficiency of MEV-Boost auctions, which impact overall decentralization and security.
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