Primev

Founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, Primev is a research-focused organization developing infrastructure to address inefficiencies within the Ethereum ecosystem, specifically concerning Maximal Extractable Value (MEV). The company operates as a ZK data protocol for the MEV space, creating a network that connects searchers, builders, and validators to enhance transparency and unlock efficiencies. Primev has received venture capital funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Figment Capital, IOSG Ventures, LongHash Ventures, and MH Ventures.

Primev's core mission is to solve coordination problems in decentralized domains, aiming to make Ethereum faster and more private. The company's work centers on research and development in cryptography, peer-to-peer networking, and blockchain infrastructure. This research translates into high-performance products that tackle MEV mitigation and censorship resistance. A key product is mev-commit, which establishes a peer-to-peer network for MEV actors to issue real-time bids and commitments for execution. This system utilizes an encrypted mempool to enable preconfirmations, which are designed to make Ethereum transactions significantly faster for dApps and wallets.

The company's offerings are targeted at various participants within the Ethereum ecosystem. Clients include bidders (such as searchers, solvers, and market makers) who want to optimize transaction execution, providers (like block builders and relays) who aim to optimize block production, and validators who can passively opt-in to increase their yield. The infrastructure is also built to empower rollups, L2s, and dApps. While currently operating some centralized components like an oracle service and validator infrastructure for its mev-commit sidechain, Primev has stated a long-term goal of progressive decentralization by incorporating outside entities and exploring new consensus algorithms.

Keywords: MEV, Maximal Extractable Value, Ethereum infrastructure, preconfirmations, ZK data protocol, blockchain speed, low-latency transactions, mev-commit, cryptography, p2p networking, censorship resistance, block builders, validators, searchers, decentralized finance, Web3 infrastructure, transaction ordering, Eigenlayer, L2 scaling, dApp performance