Blocknative, a blockchain infrastructure company that laid off staff in October after suspending work on a major business project, is releasing a new tool to examine the “mempool” of pending transactions awaiting processing on Ethereum, an effort that ultimately could help reduce the number of cases of blocking. level manipulation and protect users from front-running bots.
The real-time explorer tool is invoked ethernow.xyz, which provides insight into Ethereum mempool data and the block building process, and Matt Cutler, CEO of Blocknative, described it as the Etherscan for pre-chain data.
The tool, made possible by a grant from the Ethereum Foundation, should solve challenges around ‘observability’ – allowing researchers to understand why certain transactions fail or succeed, and how they are added to certain blocks.
“Protocol developers can provide real-time visibility into application usage and predict increased or decreased volatility,” Cutler told CoinDesk via Telegram.
The tool was first presented at the Columbia CryptoEconomics Workshop in New York on Wednesday.
Before transactions enter a block, they are added to a mempool, which is like a transaction waiting room, before validators come in to organize them into a large group of transactions known as blocks. During this time, there are ways that outside players can come in and organize these trades in certain ways that can maximize certain profits, known as Maximum Extractable Value (MEV).
Ethernow could ultimately help wallet providers provide end-user feedback on transaction status and suggestions for MEV protection, as well as help stablecoin issuers monitor potentially problematic transactions earlier in their lifecycle, Cutler told CoinDesk.
“It’s the first real-time interface that sees the inner workings,” Cutler told CoinDesk in an interview. “But there are a lot of opportunities for us to improve and grow it.”
In October, Blocknative underwent a restructuring, resulting in a workforce reduction of one third, after services related to the MEV-Boost relays were halted due to bad economy.
At the time, Cutler told CoinDesk in an email that the company was “focused on extending our runway so that we have ample opportunity to advance our Real-Time Observability thesis.”