The Future of MEV Will Be Built on Attribution Science

Protocols and users cannot see or capture the value their activity creates for searchers and builders. This is a multi-billion dollar leak in DeFi.

• ~$1B+ in MEV extracted annually, largely unaccounted for.
• Zero protocol revenue from the value their order flow generates.
• Creates perverse incentives that harm user experience and network stability.

Protocols like UniswapX and CowSwap route orders through a competitive auction before execution, forcing searchers to bid for the right to fill them.

• Directs MEV revenue back to users as better prices (surplus).
• Creates a transparent market for order flow, disintermediating dark pools.
• Enables intent-based architectures where users specify outcomes, not transactions.

Flashbots' SUAVE chain aims to be a decentralized, neutral mempool and block builder. Its core innovation is attribution at the protocol level.

• Allows any dApp to embed logic that claims a share of MEV its activity creates.
• Decouples block building from proposing, reducing validator centralization risk.
• Turns MEV from a threat into a programmable revenue stream for ecosystems.

Projects like Across and LayerZero are solving for cross-domain MEV, where value is extracted across chains. Attribution must be tracked and settled atomically.

• Unified auctions for cross-chain intent fulfillment.
• Verifiable attestations to prove execution quality and source of value.
• Prevents MEV fragmentation from becoming a new vector for leakage.

Current attribution models fail to track causal relationships across multiple transactions and blocks. You can't tax what you can't trace.

• Off-chain deals and pre-confirmation agreements are invisible.
• Long-range MEV (e.g., oracle manipulation, governance attacks) is poorly quantified.
• Limits the sophistication of MEV-sharing agreements and rebate mechanisms.

Infrastructure like Flashbots' MEV-Share and RPC providers (e.g., BloxRoute) are becoming the arbiters of attribution. They sit between users and the chain, deciding who sees what and gets paid.

• Private mempools with programmable backrun revenue sharing.
• RPC endpoints become profit centers, competing on attribution features.
• Raises critical questions about neutrality and censorship resistance in the mempool.

Today, ~$1B+ in MEV/year is extracted with no clear attribution to the protocols that created the opportunity. This is a tax on user experience and a leak of protocol-owned liquidity.\n- Uniswap pools lose value to generalized searchers.\n- Lending protocols see liquidations captured by third parties.\n- No protocol-level data to optimize for value retention.

Frameworks like UniswapX and CowSwap demonstrate that routing user intents through a solver network allows for explicit fee attribution. The future is generalized intent layers that attribute value flow.\n- Solver competition reveals true cost/price.\n- Fee Recipients can be specified per intent (e.g., protocol treasury).\n- Enables MEV-aware order flow auctions at the protocol level.

Attribution science enables protocols to install programmable fee switches on the value they generate. Think EIP-1559 for cross-domain MEV.\n- LayerZero's OFT standard could embed attribution.\n- Across and other bridges can route fees to securing their own chain.\n- Turns MEV from a threat into a sustainable revenue stream and security subsidy.

Specialized oracles will emerge to track and verify value creation across chains and layers, creating a market for attributed order flow.\n- Chainlink-style networks for MEV event attestation.\n- Data availability layers like Celestia/EigenDA store proof of origin.\n- Enables trust-minimized revenue sharing between L2s, apps, and solvers.

Future protocols will be designed from first principles with MEV attribution as a core feature, not an afterthought. This flips the economic model.\n- DEXs that auction off block space of their own pools.\n- Lending protocols that run keeper networks for liquidations.\n- NFT markets that capture and redistribute frontrunning value.

The entity controlling the attribution standard or oracle becomes the new central point of failure and rent extraction. This is the next great protocol war.\n- Risk of attribution cartels forming between major solvers.\n- Layerzero, Chainlink, or a new player could dominate.\n- Requires open standards and forkability as a defense.