Recently, for the third time, someone asked, “Who does on-chain front-running really harm?” I feel like everyone keeps staring at “how much profit the robots take,” but what’s more direct is this: the expectations ordinary users have when placing orders get stolen. You think the trade executes at the price you hit confirm on, but once the order ranking changes, slippage, failure fees, and delay costs are all charged to you. Put plainly, it’s about pushing uncertainty onto the person with the least bargaining power.

What’s even more awkward is that this “front-running tax” may end up being packaged as “protocol revenue,” and then the community starts arguing about whether to enable buyback/distribution switches… Even I, who love poring over tables, get a headache: the money goes around from users’ pockets, and once it lands in someone’s table, does that count as “legitimate”?

I also think about the recent controversy around re-staking and shared security—the “stacking yield, nesting dolls” effect. A lot of people are attracted by the appearance of “one more layer of income,” but they ignore that once the underlying friction—like ordering/MEV—is amplified, even an earnings table that looks great may just be propping up risk underneath. Anyway, when I look at projects now, I ask one thing first: how do you handle ordering fairness? Otherwise, don’t talk to me about sustainability.