Recently, someone asked me again: who exactly gets screwed by on-chain front-running (MEV, ordering)? To put it simply, the most direct victim is the regular user’s swap: slippage gets eaten, and the transaction price worsens. You might think it’s “market volatility,” but in reality, someone might have seen what you’re about to buy in advance and conveniently pushed you to the back.

A more subtle long-term effect is that everyone defaults to “who can front-run better, who makes more money,” turning decentralization into a competition of infrastructure and networks, and the boundaries of economic incentives are slowly being distorted.

These days, meme + celebrity shoutouts are back in the spotlight, and newcomers chasing in can easily become the last one to act. My habit is pretty simple: when I get emotionally excited, I don’t click confirm right away, I close the page, and take a look at the recent transaction distribution and failed trades in the block (many times, a bunch of reverts remind you how crowded it is). If I still want to buy after ten minutes, I’ll consider it—anyway, missing out isn’t really a loss.