MetaMask Introduces ‘Smart Transactions’ to Shield Against MEV Bots

The non-custodial wallet MetaMask has introduced a feature designed to help users protect themselves from the actions of MEV bots, such as frontrunning, and to enhance transaction efficiency.

Smart Transactions represent a significant leap forward in making blockchain transactions safer, more predictable, and cost-effective?https://t.co/EoQB6I306e

— MetaMask ?? (@MetaMask) May 6, 2024

The feature, called Smart Transactions, allows the use of a ‘virtual mempool’ to queue operations before they are recorded on the blockchain.

The solution is expected to protect against certain MEV strategies involving bots. The option also provides instant pre-simulation of transactions, which can reduce gas costs.

“Currently, up to 15% of transactions are reverted, meaning users spend around 47,000 ETH annually on operations that yield nothing. This is in addition to the 124,000 ETH extracted by MEV bots that can read and front-run user transactions for financial gain. In total, this amounts to over $440 million in annual losses,” the MetaMask team noted in a statement.

Developers emphasized that these issues are not directly related to the wallet, but “MetaMask can and should address them for its users.” Smart Transactions was developed by the team with input from specialists in the Special Mechanisms Group (SMG) of the owner company ConsenSys.

During beta testing, the solution demonstrated a 99.5% success rate for transactions, significantly higher than the industry standard. The feature also provides gas cost predictions and the ability to track pending status directly on the MetaMask dashboard.

Smart Transactions is not enabled by default—users must decide to activate the feature themselves. They can also revert to standard transactions at any time through the application. MetaMask does not charge any fees for using the option.

In the future, the wallet team plans to expand the functionality of Smart Transactions based on user experience.

Back in January, it was revealed that MetaMask and SMG were testing a transaction routing technology that could revolutionize value transfer on the Ethereum network.