Miners are the oft-unacknowledged heroes of the Ethereum blockchain. They process user transactions, add blocks to the chain, and help keep the whole enterprise running by competing to solve cryptographic puzzles. While they're rewarded with 2 ETH (about $4,000 at current prices) plus transaction fees for any block they're able to mine, they can often bag more. The catch: To do so, they have to tinker with your transactions. Welcome to the world of MEV, also known as miner extractable value or sometimes maximal extractable value. It refers to how much Ethereum miners can make—not simply from processing users' ... (full story)