<p>The Aestus Relay is a neutral, non-censoring implementation of MEV-Boost, connecting Ethereum proof-of-stake validators and block builders via an auction. We emerged from conversations in the EthFinance and EthStaker communities, and provide credibly neutral infrastructure for the Ethereum staking ecosystem. The relay has been in continuous operation for 2 years and serves over 850,000 validators (80%), including many solo stakers, Rocketpool users, and large professional staking operations. Between 1-5% of all Ethereum mainnet blocks pass through our infra. MEV remains a valuable part of revenue for Ethereum PoS consensus participants, but it is critical to the long-term health of the network that we minimise centralisation pressures and ensure MEV profits are equitably distributed amongst all validators. Aestus operates as a public good, free from commercial interests and adhering to principles of credible neutrality. Aestus was originally imagined to be a short-term enterprise destined only to fill a short-term gap between the Merge and the development of enshrined proposer-builder separation ("ePBS"). This pathway to an in-protocol solution has been significantly more challenging than initially anticipated. </p>
<p>Aestus intends to remain in operation until we outlive our useful purpose. Recently, there has been exciting R&D towards improving Ethereum UI/UX by developing cross-chain (L2) atomic synchronicity, instantaneous inclusion and execution guarantees (preconfs), and using L1 validators to secure L2s. This "based" ecosystem is an exciting opportunity and creates significant new responsibilities for relays and other new ecosystem participants. This will require extensive further research. development and testing. We are entirely dependent on public goods funding and are asking the Octant community to support us as we move forward with these exciting new opportunities.</p>
<p>Learn more and discuss <a href="https://discuss.octant.app/t/aestus-mev-relay/432/1">Aestus MEV Relay on discuss.octant.app</a>.</p>