Explore the innovative highlights of ArcherSwap, CowSwap, and MistX! A comprehensive analysis of the three major MEV-resistant trading platforms.

The most attractive aspect of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) lies in its strong innovation capabilities and endless future potential. You never know what kind of products will emerge in the market next month. Take DEX aggregation platforms as an example, from capturing the best price on a single chain in the past, to introducing limit order functionality and multi-chain liquidity aggregation, innovative features continue to emerge. Today, DEX aggregators have evolved to a more powerful and comprehensive stage, known as "MEV-resistant aggregation trading platforms," addressing the MEV (Miner Extractable Value) problem described in the article "Ethereum is a Dark Forest" and the GAS and slippage issues in the current DEX trading environment as primary concerns.

NGC Ventures' Managing Partner llamacorn recently published an article on his personal Medium, elaborating on the operating principles and differences of three MEV-resistant aggregation trading platforms: ArcherSwap, CowSwap, and MistX.

ArcherSwap

ArcherSwap is a trading platform developed by MEV solution ArcherDAO. The platform aims to provide optimal prices for large traders on Uniswap and SushiSwap without the risk of front-running or sandwich attacks by third-party bots.

Its operation involves sending trades to the Archer Relayer, which collaborates with miners. By paying a fee to the miners, they help bypass the Ethereum network's mempool, where unconfirmed transactions are stored, preventing leaks to bots or competitors before confirmation.

The image above shows an actual transaction by llamacorn. Although the Gas Fee is 0 due to the miner's backdoor operation, it has actually been paid as a "miner's tip." llamacorn pointed out regarding ArcherSwap's solution:

"The design of having to send funds to the ArcherSwap contract may lead to some single point of failure issues. The success of a trade largely depends on the quality of the contract."

CowSwap

CowSwap is developed by the Gnosis team and built on Gnosis Protocol V2. Gnosis Protocol V2, also an MEV solution, features off-chain "batch auctions," allowing settlement directly between two traders when they hold assets the other wants, without the need for external market makers or liquidity providers.

When trading on CowSwap, users need to sign a message containing details such as sell/buy type, quantity, expiration date, etc., to allow CowSwap to process their orders off-chain. The "Solver" on CowSwap, in search of the best matching order for a fee, helps traders match trades off-chain to avoid MEV issues. If no suitable off-chain orders are found, the user's trade is submitted to other on-chain DEX like Uniswap or Sushiswap.

In essence, using CowSwap results in two outcomes: "settled directly via CowSwap" or "settled via on-chain DEX."

In the transaction shown above, a match was found off-chain, resulting in direct settlement via CowSwap, as evidenced by the transaction being settled directly through Gnosis' contract. Many users wonder why the transaction was sent from Gnosis' wallet address and not their own. This is because the user's interaction with CowSwap occurs off-chain, and actual on-chain transactions are confirmed by Gnosis after finding a match off-chain, achieving low slippage, and avoiding failed transactions without incurring Gas Fees. It's worth noting that the Gas Fee for the transaction is paid from Gnosis' wallet address, not by the user, but CowSwap still incurs charges elsewhere.

Another outcome of using CowSwap is when no match is found off-chain, resulting in the trade being settled "via on-chain DEX." The following transaction serves as an example.

In this transaction, no CoW was found, so Gnosis deducted protocol and miner fees of 0.005 WETH from 0.2 WETH and settled the transaction on Uniswap V2.

MistX

MistX is an MEV protection aggregator developed by the Alchemist team, closely associated with MEV research institution Flashbots. MistX operates similarly to ArcherSwap by leveraging miner backdoors to bypass the blockchain mempool, preventing transaction leaks to third parties in the Ethereum network. While ArcherSwap is compatible with FlashBots, MistX directly utilizes FlashBots. llamacorn commented on MistX:

"The path logic during MistX transactions has improved significantly compared to ArcherSwap. By skipping the step of sending ETH to the ArcherSwap contract (which may lead to some single point of failure issues), MistX performs better overall, even though both MistX and ArcherSwap allow custom miner tip payments."

In the transaction above, the trade utilized FlashBots' solution. After the user paid sufficient miner fees, the trade was selected by FlashBots' searcher for inclusion in the transaction bundle, bypassing the mempool and confirmed directly by miners. 0.00516 WETH was paid as a fee to the miner's address, while an additional 0.000271 WETH was paid as a protocol fee to MistX's address. As the "miner fee" is paid as a "tip," the on-chain Gas Fee displays as 0.

Comprehensive Comparison Chart

llamacorn has compiled the features and technologies of the three platforms in a tabular form, along with their fee structures and llamacorn's test results, for user comparison.

(Note: Cowswap is in its early stages of development, with the official subsidizing some Gas costs, and the protocol currently does not charge fees.)