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Blockchains sell blocks. A complex market of actors are paid to assemble those blocks, but a part of that market — specifically block builders — is a duopoly between two players (Beaverbuild and Titan).

Source: Mevboost.pics

This duopoly is bad for various reasons, but chiefly in regard to maximal-extractable value (MEV).

MEV is believed to be monetary value that the end user creates, so returning it to them is ethically preferable. But when a few block builders dominate block building, that creates maximal value extraction that is suboptimal for the Ethereum end user.

To mitigate…

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