CoW Protocol's team has been made aware of an instance of surplus shifting that negatively impacted a trader on CoW Swap while positively (though unfairly) impacting LPs on CoW AMM.
The team has investigated what happened. Read below for more info and next steps.
A 🧵
The specific transaction in question is a CoW Protocol batch where a solver included liquidity from a CoW AMM pool as part of their solution.
Over the weekend, we were alerted to the possibility that some CoW Protocol trades were falling victim to a multi-block MEV attack.
We were aware of this attack vector, and were monitoring settlements periodically, but – before this weekend – we deemed it unlikely to happen because of it's risky nature (for the attacker).
TL;DR – the identified issue is being addressed and CoW Protocol will continue to be free of (even rather novel forms of) MEV.
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To recap, @AgentChud suspects that an attacker is monitoring CoW Protocol's public OrderBook API, buying tokens once an intent to buy them is broadcast, and selling the tokens after the original trader's intents are settled a few blocks later.
CoW Swap is excited to announce the launch of an entirely new class of orders. We call them Programmatic Orders. ✨
Programmatic Orders execute automatically, in perpetuity, according to the conditional parameters you set.
Let's dive in. 🤿
Everyone loves trading on CoW Swap. But to make interesting moves, traders need to monitor the market manually & sign new txs for every order they want to make. 🙄
Without a higher degree of automation, executing complex trading strategies in DeFi is nearly impossible.
Aug 17, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
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TWAP orders are now available on CoW Swap! (Call us CoW Twap!)
TWAP orders let users split their trades over time while benefiting from CoW’s signature MEV protection & best prices.
Available for @safe wallets today.
Learn more: blog.cow.fi/cow-swap-launc…
Time-Weighted Average Price (TWAP) orders allow you to split a large order into many smaller orders that execute in parts over a specified period of time.
Split your order up into 2, 5, 20, or even 100 parts over an hour, 2, 12, 24, or more! TWAP orders are fully customizable.
Apr 5, 2023 • 8 tweets • 9 min read
CoW Swap, in collaboration with @beaverbuild and Agnostic Relayer, is proud to announce MEV Blocker. MEVBlocker.io ⛱️
MEV Blocker is a free RPC endpoint that *pays users* to protect themselves from MEV across a wide variety of use cases in DeFi, NFTs, and dApps.
MEV Blocker works by routing all transactions through a network of searchers that is structured to block frontrunning and sandwich attacks.
Searchers bid to backrun transactions coming from MEV Blocker, and MEV Blocker sends 90% of the profits to users (10% goes to validators).
Feb 7, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Last night, a hacker exploited an external solver and used it to drain the settlement contract, which held 7 days worth of protocol fees.
Users are not affected since we never hold user funds (!)
Neither Cow Swap is affected: The solver's bond will pay for all damages.
A 🧵👇
CoW Swap engages in a so-called "solver competition": external parties who compete to find the best execution route for our users.
Each solver has access to the settlement contract which usually stores collected fees over a one week period (before being used to reward solvers).
Nov 23, 2022 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Price disparity created by current AMM designs is the root cause of MEV.
We are now seeing MEV impact LPs through LVR, but CoW Native AMMs (aka surplus-capturing AMMs with a single price clearing) can protect LPs while giving better prices.
But, what if LPs could capture revenue by executing trades from retail users, arbitrageurs, & others at the same uniform clearing prices, following the idea of "one price per token per block"?
CoW Protocol is excited to announce the launch of Seasolver 🧜♀️ from @iearnfinance, the leading yield aggregator on Ethereum.
This is one of the most novel applications of a solver to date – enabling unique benefits to Yearn and CoW Swap users alike.
cow-protocol.medium.com/cow-protocol-i…
Seasolver 🧜♀️ specializes in settling exotic tokens from the @iearnfinance ecosystem – so CoW Protocol users can now trade a larger number of tokens, including yvSNX, yvUSDC, and yCRV.
The protocol is able to do this by leveraging Seasolver 🧜♀️ as a price estimator.
Nov 15, 2022 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Not your keys, not your coins! 🔑🔒
This is, unfortunately, becoming more apparent every time a CEX collapses.
But self custody isn't the only reason to prefer DEX trading. Signature verification, on-chain proofs, and permissionless innovation are just as important.
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The main difference between a CEX and a DEX is that, with a DEX, users hold onto their own tokens – instead of trusting someone like FTX to do that for them.
This is very important as it gives users the ultimate power to decide where their funds go and what they do.
Nov 2, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Product update 📯📯 CoW Protocol now supports ERC-1271 signatures.
ERC-1271 makes it possible to trade "gas-less-ly" on CoW Protocol with any Smart Contract or Smart Contract wallet (cough cough, @safe), and enables all sorts of exotic order types on CoW Protocol
Thread 🧵👇
Usually thought of as a way for Smart Contract wallets to sign things, we can leverage ERC-1271 for creating special orders with custom validation logic.
Oct 28, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Do CoW’s Slip-age less? 🐮⛸️❄️
In this article we use on-chain data to compare the difference between quoted and executed prices.
📖 Sneak peak: ~ 50% of trades you make on a DEX or Aggregator don't get settled at the price you see in the UI
cow-protocol.medium.com/do-cows-slip-a…
When analyzing slippage across DEX aggregators, the first natural question is: how frequently does slippage occur? As you can see, the majority of trades across aggregators are settled with zero slippage, while the remainder of trades vary by aggregator.
Feb 2, 2022 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
📯vCOW investment options🔥
Who hasn’t been annoyed by VCs getting better deals than the community that contributes so much to a product’s success?
When vCOW launches, both CowSwap users & GNO holders will be given the opportunity to buy vCOW @ the same conditions as VCs 🐮🦉
10% of the total vCOW supply is distributed amongst CowSwap users and GNO holders in the form of investment options.
This equals the total amount of investment options given to VCs, angels and partner projects.
Here's a 🧵to explain what they are and how they work: 👇
Sep 21, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
A GIP (GnosisDAO Improvement Proposal) has been submitted for the creation of a CowSwap specific token. The proposal lays out details of the motivation behind it, its functionality & distribution. Make sure to participate so that your voice is heard 😁
forum.gnosis.io/t/gip-13-gnosi…
Before the token could be launched, the proposal would have to pass the 3 mandatory phases of the GnosisDAO governance process: ideation, specification, and consensus.
