English

Boost+: Equitable, Incentive-Compatible Block Building

Cryptography and Security 2026-02-05 v1

Abstract

Block space on the blockchain is scarce and must be allocated efficiently through block building. However, Ethereum's current block-building ecosystem, MEV-Boost, has become highly centralized due to integration, which distorts competition, reduces blockspace efficiency, and obscures MEV flow transparency. To guarantee equitability and economic efficiency in block building, we propose Boost+\mathrm{Boost+}, a system that decouples the process into collecting and ordering transactions, and ensures equal access to all collected transactions. The core of Boost+\mathrm{Boost+} is the mechanism MBoost+\mathit{M}_{\mathrm{Boost+}}, built around a default algorithm. MBoost+\mathit{M}_{\mathrm{Boost+}} aligns incentives for both searchers (intermediaries that generate or route transactions) and builders: Truthful bidding is a dominant strategy for all builders. For searchers, truthful reporting is dominant whenever the default algorithm dominates competing builders, and it remains dominant for all conflict-free transactions, even when builders may win. We further show that even if a searcher can technically integrate with a builder, non-integration combined with truthful bidding still dominates any deviation for conflict-free transactions. We also implement a concrete default algorithm informed by empirical analysis of real-world transactions and evaluate its efficacy using historical transaction data.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.04007,
  title  = {Boost+: Equitable, Incentive-Compatible Block Building},
  author = {Mengqian Zhang and Sen Yang and Kartik Nayak and Fan Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.04007},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:35:03.744Z