689 ETH Cashed by Ethereum Validator From MEV-Boost Relay

Lido gets $1.28 million from MEV block on Beacon Chain.
Earlier, Lido received a reward of 691 ETH in March 2023.

One Ethereum validator received a reward of around 689 ETH from an MEV block on Beacon Chain. The reward was worth $1.28 million, one of the largest in months. Lido, an Ethereum stalking solution, was paid the reward for block number 17007842 on the Beacon Chain. The block was finalized on April 9, involving 47 transactions, and was built by beaverbuild.org.

Lido and the Current High Reward

The recent reward received by Lido was very close to the earlier 691 ETH on March 20. The new figure garnered the attention of Martin Koppelmann, CEO and Co-founder of Gnosis, an Ethereum-based infrastructure platform. He suggested that more Ethereum users should switch to using MEV Blocker, preventing the exploitation of transactions.

As per MEV Blocker, MEV bots extracted more than $1.38 billion from Ethereum users who have attempted to trade, mint Non Fungible tokens (NFTs) and provide liquidity to the network. Moreover, these centralized MEV-boost relays are designed to extract value by aggregating blocks from multiple builders and selecting the one with the highest fees.

More on MEV-Boost Relay

These Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) boost relays can be linked to prosper-builder separation, introduced by Flashbots, an Ethereum research organization, in 2021. This cloud be considered a backend process for the Merge, where they transitioned to Proof-of-Stake in September 2022.

The proposers and block builders were separated to promote added competition at the consensus level, thereby enhancing the decentralization of the Ethereum network and working towards robust censorship resistance. After the successful Merge, Ethereum faced multiple censorship issues like the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) compliance standards.

Right now, the number of active relays is 10, with Flashbots responsible for relaying almost 50% of the MEV-boost blocks since the MEV was introduced in 2021.

Two days from now Ethereum network is going through another paradigm change, with the Shanghai upgrade / Shapella Upgrade scheduled on April 12. In which the stakers who have staked their ETH for becoming validators will be allowed to un-stake their holdings. Speculations are that the amount could be near 16% of the total ETH supply, approximately $37 billion.

Fear is gripping the market that it could invite a massive withdrawal influx and might cause a price drop. But experts say that not every staker would rush to withdraw, and this facility of un-staking and re-staking could invite more validators and staker, thereby increasing the functionality of the network.

The crypto industry is looking at the Shanghai upgrade and holding its breath.

However, the prospects are good, but the recent test results were not promising as the new upgrade did not work properly on some systems. The team is working to solve the issue and hopes they will resolve them before the release. Nonetheless, the Shapella upgrade would bring desired results for the Ethereum network and the crypto industry.

Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while his post-graduation. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing along with being a developer. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing