The following steps align with our mainnet guide. You may need to adjust file names and directory locations where appropriate. The core concepts remain the same.
❓What is mev-boost?
Enables solo and home stakers access to MEV, Maximal Extractible Value.
Enables validators to earn higher block rewards.
Optional and not required for ETH staking.
Open source middleware run by validators to access a competitive block-building market.
tldr: As of August 2023, MEV is estimated be 24% of a validator rewards. Other estimates suggest it can boost staking rewards by over 60%.
⚒️ How to MEV?
Prerequisite: You run a full Ethereum node (Execution Layer client [e.g. geth/besu/nethermind/erigon] + Consensus Layer client [e.g. prysm/lighthouse/teku/lodestar/nimbus]) and a validator.
Step 1: Create mevboost service account
The systemd service will run under this account, mevboost
Install Go and removing any previous Go installations.
cd $HOMEwget-Ogo.tar.gzhttps://go.dev/dl/go1.19.6.linux-amd64.tar.gzsudorm-rf/usr/local/go&&sudotar-C/usr/local-xzfgo.tar.gzrmgo.tar.gzechoexportPATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin>> $HOME/.bashrcsource $HOME/.bashrc
Verify that you've installed Go 1.18+ by printing the version information.
Install binaries to /usr/local/bin and update ownership permissions.
sudocp $HOME/go/bin/mev-boost/usr/local/bin
Create the mevboost systemd unit file.
sudonano/etc/systemd/system/mevboost.service
The ExecStart line lists relays: Flashbots, UltraSound, Aestus, bloXroute Max Profit, WenMerge. Remove or add other relays according to your preferences. Add as many or as few relays as you wish.
-relay https://RELAY1.COM \
-relay https://RELAY2.COM \
-relay https://RELAY3.COM
Important: Ensure each relay line ends with \ except the last relay line.
Paste the following into your mevboost.service file. To exit and save from the nano editor, press Ctrl + X, then Y, thenEnter.
Using -min-bid flag, you can set a minimum bid value in ETH.
If all relays cannot bid higher than your minimum value, then your local execution client will produce the block.
By setting this value, you can capture MEV opportunities for higher value blocks and maintain a degree of control for local block production which helps strengthen censorship resistance and a neutral Ethereum network.
Reload systemctl to pickup the new service file.
sudosystemctldaemon-reload
Good to know: If you add or remove relay endpoints, you'll need to re-run this systemctldaemon-reload command and restart the mevboost services.
If required, add the appropriate flag to the ExecStart line of your validatorclient service file. To exit and save from the nano editor, press Ctrl + X, then Y, thenEnter.
sudonano/etc/systemd/system/validator.service
--builder-proposals
For Teku running in standalone validator configuration,
After configuring your consensus client and validator to enable mevboost, reload and restart your services. Finally, verify your logs look error-free and show use of the new MEV configurations.
Sample output showing your validator's registration to relays.
./check_mevboost_registration.py 0x8000a44457e18388c5be046e22e86aedae1a07638394df63adfcd32d29b4e86c030219e94782ebebe398c9a05a8a28e7
Validator '0x8000a44457e18388c5be046e22e86aedae1a07638394df63adfcd32d29b4e86c030219e94782ebebe398c9a05a8a28e7'
Relay: 'bloxroute.ethical.blxrbdn.com', ❌ not found
Relay: 'relay.edennetwork.io', ❌ not found
Relay: 'builder-relay-mainnet.blocknative.com', ✔️ registered
Relay: 'bloxroute.max-profit.blxrbdn.com', ✔️ registered
Relay: 'boost-relay.flashbots.net', ✔️ registered
Relay: 'bloxroute.regulated.blxrbdn.com', ❌ not found
Relay: 'builder-relay-mainnet.blocknative.com', ✔️ registered
Relay: 'relay.edennetwork.io', ❌ not found
Relay: 'mainnet-relay.securerpc.com', ✔️ registered
Relay: 'relayooor.wtf', ✔️ registered
Relay: 'relay.ultrasound.money', ✔️ registered
Relay: 'agnostic-relay.net', ✔️ registered
Check Manually
For example, to verify that your validator is registered with the flashbots relay, enter the following URL into your browser. Replace <myPubKey> with the public key of your validator and you will see registration data such as your fee recipient address.
Ethereum stakers must run three pieces of software: a validator client, consensus client, and an execution client.
MEV-boost is a separate piece of open source software, which queries and outsources block-building to a network of builders.
Block builders prepare full blocks, optimizing for MEV extraction and fair distribution of rewards.
They then submit their blocks to relays.
Relays aggregate blocks from multiple builders in order to select the block with the highest fees.
One instance of MEV-boost can be configured by a validator to connect to multiple relays.
The Consensus Layer client of a validator proposes the most profitable block received from MEV-boost to the Ethereum network for attestation and block inclusion.
What are the risks of running MEV-boost?
Adding more relays increases risk of adding a "bad" relay (hacked, withholds bid, performance issues) and causes your validator to miss a proposal.
More relays = more chance of getting a high-bid block however this also increases chance of getting rugged by "bad" relays and missing a proposal.Requires trust that relays and block builders will act honestly. MEV is not yet a trust-less process until there is protocol-level proposer-builder-separation (PBS).
Track network participation, recent MEV blocks, top relays and block builders at https://www.mevboost.org
I'm using multiple relays. Which one is chosen?
If multiple relays are available, the relay bidding highest MEV reward will be chosen. If all relays are not available, the local execution client builds the block without MEV.
What's makes a MEV relay ethical or not?
Based on varying degrees of profit or censorship, MEV relays can decide on what transactions to bundle in a block.
Ethical relays: will not censor transactions or profit from front running / sandwich attacks, which is harmful to everyday users on Ethereum.
OFAC relays: will censor transactions according to the OFAC list.
Maximal profit relays: profit is all that matters, ethics have no meaning.
Do I need to open any incoming ports on the firewall?
No changes needed. mevboost only makes outgoing tcp calls.
⏭️ Next Steps
💰MEV Smoothing: Earn rewards on a consistent basis! Potentially share lottery blocks. Average out your MEV rewards.