SoK: Preventing Transaction Reordering Manipulations in Decentralized Finance

TL;DR

This paper systematically analyzes various mitigation schemes against transaction reordering attacks in DeFi on Ethereum, revealing that none fully satisfy all blockchain ecosystem requirements and highlighting their respective strengths and weaknesses.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive categorization and evaluation of current mitigation approaches, assessing their effectiveness and impact on the blockchain ecosystem.

Findings

No scheme fully meets all blockchain demands.

All approaches have notable weaknesses.

Current mitigation schemes are insufficient for comprehensive protection.

Abstract

User transactions on Ethereum's peer-to-peer network are at risk of being attacked. The smart contracts building decentralized finance (DeFi) have introduced a new transaction ordering dependency to the Ethereum blockchain. As a result, attackers can profit from front- and back-running transactions. Multiple approaches to mitigate transaction reordering manipulations have surfaced recently. However, the success of individual approaches in mitigating such attacks and their impact on the entire blockchain remains largely unstudied. In this systematization of knowledge (SoK), we categorize and analyze state-of-the-art transaction reordering manipulation mitigation schemes. Instead of restricting our analysis to a scheme's success at preventing transaction reordering attacks, we evaluate its full impact on the blockchain. Therefore, we are able to provide a complete picture of the strengths and weaknesses of current mitigation schemes. We find that currently no scheme fully meets all the demands of the blockchain ecosystem. In fact, all approaches demonstrate unsatisfactory performance in at least one area relevant to the blockchain ecosystem.