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Welcome back to 0xResearch. Here's what we’ve got for you today:

• Flashbots announces BuilderNet 

• Chart: Understanding Base tx surge

• Listen & Read: Debating Ethereum’s future

Flashbots’ MEV solution to block builder centralization

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).

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 this, the Flashbots team announced today BuilderNet, a new block building network designed to return more MEV and gas fees to users.

Operating alongside Nethermind and the same Beaverbuild, BuilderNet looks to split up the presently “monolithic process” of block building.

This division of labor would allow existing stakeholders such as block builders, searchers and dapps to join a “multioperator network” and concurrently run the same block builder together. When blocks are assembled, rewards are then refunded back to stakeholders based on the amount of market value they’ve contributed to a block.

With BuilderNet, any application can permissionlessly and privately submit transaction order flow to a block builder and be paid for it on a pro rata basis.

Transactions stay private since the BuilderNet network will run in a “trusted execution environment” (TEE), an encrypted secure enclave that allows data to be processed without revealing order flow data.

Operators will also be able to permissionlessly deploy a block builder in BuilderNet.

According to official docs, this will enable an “even playing field where independent searchers can receive the same financial outcomes and privacy that integrated searcher-builders do today.”

BuilderNet in effect looks to thwart current industry practices in the block builder market that have sought to internalize MEV from end users. These include exclusive MEV revenue-sharing agreements between apps/wallets and block builders.

Another way block builders have sought to capture greater MEV is vertical integration within the MEV supply chain. The Titan block builder, for instance, launched its own relayer back in April 2024 that only accepted its own blocks, thereby defeating the entire purpose of the offchain proposer-builder-separation (PBS) that Flashbots’ MEV-boost software introduced.

Though BuilderNet will primarily benefit the Ethereum L1 today, it eventually plans to be available for decentralized sequencing on L2s through Rollup-Boost, the block building platform that will be used on Unichain.

— Donovan Choy (X: @donovanchoy | Farcaster: @donovan)

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Base throughput:

These charts highlight trends in Base's network activity, focusing on transaction throughput (TPS) and gas usage.

On Nov. 24, Base recorded an all-time high of 131 transactions per second (TPS). However, this spike was primarily driven by a sharp rise in reverted transactions (red), which now account for 53% of all transactions. Successful transactions (green) maintained a relatively stable trajectory, but the increasing inefficiency caused by reverted transactions signals a growing issue.

The accompanying gas throughput chart shows a consistent rise in network gas consumption, peaking at over 15 mgas/s. Notably, reverted transactions now consume 25% of Base’s total gas, reflecting the inefficiency introduced by spam transactions.

According to Doug Colkitt, founder of Ambient Finance, this surge in reverted transactions is linked to sniper bots exploiting memecoin launches from Clanker, an AI-powered "tokenbot" integrated into the Farcaster social network.

These bots use predictable patterns within Uniswap's NFTPositionManager contract to snipe liquidity pool tokens in the same block as deployment. The predictable logic allows bots to brute-force combinations, creating significant network spam as they attempt to match addresses.

A potential solution, Colkitt suggests, involves altering Clanker’s deployment logic to bypass the Uniswap NFT position index, which bots rely on for their exploits. This fix would significantly reduce the ability of bots to spam transactions, improving network efficiency and reducing wasted gas consumption.

— Macauley Peterson (X: @yeluacaM | Farcaster: @Macauley)

2 Ethereans debate Ethereum's future

On the latest edition of the Unchained podcast, Justin Drake and Martin Koeppelmann explored Ethereum’s challenges and opportunities, focusing on scalability, interoperability and its competition with Solana.

Drake emphasized a layered strategy: L1s should prioritize security and resilience while L2s focus on user acquisition and scaling to rival Solana’s speed and usability. He highlighted the progress of L2s in reducing latency and increasing throughput, predicting exponential scaling as the ecosystem adopts shared sequencing and standards. 

Elaborating on the Beam Chain — a proposal for Ethereum’s consensus layer put forward at Devcon — Drake explained why he prioritizes bundling upgrades like single-slot finality, post-quantum security and faster slot times. While this roadmap spans four years — not five as some have claimed — he argued it would ensure Ethereum remains robust and future-proof.

Koeppelmann criticized L2s for their fragmentation and lack of interoperability, which he believes undermines Ethereum’s network effects. He proposed Ethereum-native rollups with unified security standards, synchronous composability and seamless integration with the L1, enabling developers to build without choosing between disparate ecosystems.

Koeppelmann also stressed the importance of increasing L1 execution capacity to maintain Ethereum’s relevance and mitigate fragmentation risks.

Both agreed Ethereum faces critical challenges, but differed on priorities. Drake suggested their visions were 95% the same, but he prefers to focus on the long term, while Koeppelmann called for immediate action to address fees, fragmentation and developer experience.

— Macauley Peterson

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Geodnet is the world’s largest RTK network by both the number of base stations and coverage area, providing hyper-precise positioning data to Web2 customers. RTK networks are critical to enabling a world of ubiquitous autonomous drones, vehicles, and industrial robots.

In this unlocked research report, Blockworks Research’s Ryan Connor explores why the GEOD token enables both a cost and product advantage for the GEODNET RTK network, which will allow it to out-compete multibillion-dollar incumbents Trimble and Hexagon.

• The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Treasury’s sanctions on Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts, finding they are neither property nor services under federal law. Legal experts hailed the decision as a victory for decentralized technology, highlighting that immutable contracts cannot be owned or controlled. The case underscores the need for genuine decentralization in crypto projects, and will be sent back to the district court for a decision on its merits under the clarified legal framework.

• Schuman Financial has proposed EURØP, a MiCA-compliant euro-denominated stablecoin backed by cash and equivalents. With 7 million euros in VC funding and an EMT license in France, the company aims to bridge TradFi and crypto. EURØP is positioned to support digital payments, tokenized assets and onchain FX trading. While available initially on Ethereum and Polygon, there are plans for broader integration.

• Who needs a governance token when we have memes? DeFi dapp Superform has launched PIGGY, a fair-launch memecoin, exclusively for its community on Base. With no insider or VC allocations, PIGGY is pitched as a reward for active users, reflecting Superform’s community-first ethos. Blending DeFi innovation with playful engagement, the token has over 16,000 holders since its launch on Monday.