Just now I was staring at the mempool in a daze—like watching a bus app that keeps showing “1 stop remaining”… To put it plainly, don’t be afraid of terms like “data availability / ordering / finality.” Just follow one line: the transaction you send has to be visible for everyone to see first (otherwise it’s basically a black box), then it gets included in a block according to the order decided by others (this is also the easiest step to tamper with—most MEV gossip is about this), and finally it reaches “finality,” meaning it’s finalized and won’t be changed back (otherwise you think you’ve boarded, but the bus reverses and backs up to the platform).

Recently, retail investors have been complaining that validators/miners are getting too much, and that ordering is unfair—I can understand that too… Just think: whoever controls the order can decide who gets to transact first and who gets squeezed out. In any case, right now when I place orders on L2, I care more about whether the confirmation is solid. If a chain isn’t solid, I’d rather hold back a couple of impulsive moves than have my mindset get rubbed raw by back-and-forth.