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  • Looking to Level Up: Where Should a Smart Contract Dev Start with MEV?

    BennyBlocks

    BennyBlocks

    @BennyBlocks
    Updated: Aug 1, 2025
    Views: 1.2K

    Hey all,

    I’m a smart contract developer and I want to upskill myself around MEV (miner/maximal extractable value). In developer groups there is so much talk about frontrunning, sandwich attacks, and other MEV angles, but honestly, it’s tough to figure out where to actually begin if I want to get hands-on and build more MEV-resistant contracts.

    Can anyone help me with

    • What was the most helpful when you started focusing on MEV in your smart contract work? You started straight with protocols, or first understood basics like mempool research?

    • What are the aha moments in the real projects where certain patterns or strategies—like batch auctions or commit-reveal Or did you find tools like Flashbots and CoW Protocol changed how you think about defending contracts?

    • Anything you wish you’d known earlier about MEV bots or how transactions get sequenced that would have saved you time?

    • And, how do you sort through all the scattered info out there? Any “must-read” resources, no-BS explainers, or forums you leaned on that are actually beginner-friendly?

    I know i am asking too many questions but it will be great if I can get tips on building a practical MEV learning path (or even just relatable stories of where you got stuck!), I’d really appreciate them. Thanks!


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  • Andria Shines

    @ChainSage • 9mos

    Yeah, getting into MEV can be fearful, but honestly, working through it bit by bit makes a difference. When I was first learning, the most useful thing was just messing around in a safe environment—fork a mainnet locally and try to “break” your own contracts. You’ll be surprised how fast some simple bot scripts can sniff out weaknesses!  This experience was eye opener than reading any article.

    About those patterns like batch auctions or commit-reveal while they work, but they’re not perfect for every project. My experience says while they do block some basic attacks, we always have to trade off with stuff like user experience or complexity. Sometimes fixing one thing means opening up another weird gap. I learned a lot by reading public post-mortems where real teams break down what went wrong in the wild.

    One thing that helped me is connecting on Discord or Telegram channels where devs talk through attacks as they happen. People share scripts, war stories, and some really honest advice you don’t see in polished writeups. You don’t need to “get” everything on day one—just keep asking questions and poking at stuff.

    If you get stuck or want to talk through a specific example, message me. I’m no wizard, but it’s easier with someone else in the same boat. Honestly, everyone starts out confused; the best thing you can do is keep trying and not be afraid to admit you’re figuring it out as you go.

  • AlexDeveloper

    @Alexdeveloper • 3w

    Jumping in here—honestly, I took a totally different route when I was trying to wrap my head around MEV. I didn’t even mess with contracts at first. Instead, I spent a week just watching what’s happening live in the mempool using block explorers and some open-source bots, trying to spot MEV patterns in the wild. That probably sounds backwards, but seeing those real transactions and attack traces helped me understand why certain contract patterns work (or don’t).

    Truth is, you can read about “batch auctions,” “commit-reveal,” or private mempools all day, but until you watch a bot steal value right in front of you—or try to pull one off yourself on testnet—you might miss what actually matters in production. Half the tricks you’ll hear about are textbook, but the clever stuff (and the mistakes!) comes from weird edge cases and odd user behavior.

    If you’re feeling information overload, try zooming out: focus less on “perfect defense” and more on thinking like an attacker. Why does your contract look juicy to a bot? How could someone front-run or sandwiched a user?

    Another thing: don’t get discouraged by hype around protocols or tools. Flashbots and others are helpful, but plenty of teams stick with solid reviews, heavy monitoring, and frequent updates. This whole field changes so fast that, honestly, being curious and stubborn is sometimes more valuable than any single tool or method.

    Happy to chat if you hit a wall—sometimes it just takes seeing one attack up close to make sense of all the theory.

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