Flashbots Research is an open, transparent and iterative collective creation process taking inspiration from both academic and applied research, and modelled upon Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) process. Anyone can contribute to Flashbots Research through opening or answering a Github issue in this repo, or writing a Flashbots Research Proposal (FRP).
FRPs stands for Flashbots Research Proposal and consists in a markdown document describing the approach to one of our suggested research topics. Similar to an academic research proposal, it should introduce what the research strives to explore or prove, incorporate a systematic breakdown of the research question, and providee an account of the methodologies, approaches or theories that will be used to support the hypothesis within the project, including a review of the relevant literature.
The different stages of an FRP are as follows:
- Draft: the first formally tracked stage of an FRP in development. An FRP is merged by an FRP editor into the FRP repository when properly formatted. At this stage the draft may be iterating and undergoing rapid changes.
- Review: an FRP author marks an FRP as ready for and requesting peer review.
- Accepted: accepted FRPs are work in progress until incorporated into the research papers.
- Withdrawn: the FRP author(s) have withdrawn the proposed FRP. This state has finality and can no longer be resurrected using this EIP number. If the idea is pursued at later date it is considered a new proposal.
- Completed: the work associated with the FRP has been merged into Flashbots Research Paper and/or published independently, or otherwise deemed as completed by the FRP editors.
- Stagnant: an FRP in Draft or Accepted if inactive for a period of 6 months or greater is moved to stagnant. An FRP may be resurrected from this stage by Authors through moving it back to Draft, Withdrawn, or by FRP editors through moving it to Draft or Completed.
FRPs are expected to deliver a blog post summarizing the work completed, independent of other deliverables like research papers or presentations in workshops or conferences, and will be reviewed by the Flashbots Research arm.
If you'd like to create a new FRP, follow the instructions in the FRP template.
If you would like to raise a new Research Question to be incorporated into the Flashbots Research Roadmap, or you are a (prospective) MEV Fellow who would like to breakdown a particular Research Question into addressable sub questions to seek community contributions, we invite you to open an Issue in this repository and link it to the relevant FRP Draft. Issues will be closed by FRP editors if the newly proposed Research Question has been reviewed and acted upon, an FRP has been completed, or when they are no longer relevant.
An MEV Research Fellow (or MEV Fellows) is one whom FRP has been accepted upon review and has been allocated a research grant. In addition to delivering the FRPs, MEV fellows (either indiviuals or organizations) are expected to participate in research workshops and regular progress check-ins with the Flashbots research team.
If you are interested in contributing but do not want to commit to the responsibility of drafting and getting the necessary alignment for an FRP, you can become a MEV Research Contributor. A contributor is anyone who is not an MEV Fellow but contributes meaningful artifacts to FRPs. Contributors can be either invited by respective MEV Fellows for particular FRPs throughout their lifecycle, or request to join an MEV Fellow to work on a particular FRP before its review. Opening or answering issues in this repository are ways to signal interest and demonstrate qualification as a contributor. Contributors will be recognized in eventual papers or research post for their contributions.