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| -# Design Overview |
| 1 | +# How Express Relay Works |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +Express Relay allows protocols to eliminate miner-extractable value (MEV). |
| 4 | +Many protocols generate MEV on a regular basis. |
| 5 | +For example, borrow-lending protocols provide bonuses to searchers for liquidating undercollateralized loans. |
| 6 | +Searchers compete for these bonuses by tipping the chain's miners or validators. |
| 7 | +The validators capture most of the value of the liquidation bonus via these tips, so the liquidation bonus is in essence a transfer of wealth from the protocol's users to the validators. |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +Express Relay solves the problem of MEV by providing protocol developers with an auction primitive that they can use to prioritize access to permissionless operations. |
| 10 | +Developers specify a set of operations in their protocol that must be accessed through Express Relay. |
| 11 | +Searchers then participate in an off-chain auction to access these operations. |
| 12 | +Their bids in the auction determine the priority of their transactions, i.e., the order in which their transactions will be executed. |
| 13 | +The winners transactions are forwarded to the blockchain, which both pays their bid and executes the operation. |
| 14 | +The profits of the auction are then split between the integrated protocol and other participants in Express Relay. |
| 15 | + |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | + |
| 18 | +The diagram above shows how Express Relay changes the MEV landscape for a liquidation. |
| 19 | +In the status quo (left), Searchers tip miners in order to guarantee that their liquidation transaction lands on-chain. |
| 20 | +Their transaction directly interacts with the protocol exposing the liquidation opportunity, and the liquidation bonus flows back to the Searcher. |
| 21 | +With Express Relay (right), Searchers submit bids for their transaction to the Express Relay auction. |
| 22 | +The auction submits the winning bids to the blockchain, where the transactions are processed by the Express Relay Entrypoint before being forwarded on to the integrated protocol. |
| 23 | +The Express Relay Entrypoint collects payment from the Searchers and forwards a share of the revenue back to the integrated protocol. |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +FIXME: I think the diagram is wrong (specifically the liquidation bonus going back to express relay) |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +## Which protocols can use Express Relay? |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +Any protocol with permissionless and valuable operations can use Express Relay. |
| 30 | +These operations generate MEV, as the validators control which searchers can access them. |
| 31 | +Express Relay enables protocols to auction access instead, thereby ensuring the operation is competitively priced. |
| 32 | +Lending, perps, and derivatives protocols with liquidation mechanisms are clear candidates that can benefit from integration with Express Relay. |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +Aside from eliminating MEV, protocols that need a stable set of searchers may choose to use Express Relay. |
| 35 | +Express Relay provides access to a robust network of searchers who are already active in the Express Relay ecosystem. |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | +## Participants in Express Relay |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +There are four types of participants in the Express Relay protocol: |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | +- The Relayer runs the off-chain auction and forwards winning transactions onto the blockchain. There is a single Relayer chosen by the Pyth DAO. |
| 42 | +- Protocol developers integrate their protocol with Express Relay in order to eliminate MEV. |
| 43 | +- Searchers participate in auctions to access liquidations and other on-chain opportunities. |
| 44 | +- The Pyth DAO owns and governs the Express Relay system |
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