Rebar unveils product to protect Bitcoin users from MEV attacks

Bitcoin maximal extractible value startup Rebar is releasing its first product to enable users to bypass Bitcoin's public mempool and avoid emerging Bitcoin MEV strategies.

MEV is the process where miners and validators manipulate the order of transactions to maximize their profits — often at the expense of users.

Called Rebar Shield, the product works by allowing users to submit transactions to a private mempool. It does this using a Remote Procedure Call (RPC), or a protocol that connects external applications to Bitcoin nodes to either send a command or retrieve information.

MEV works because miners can pick and choose what transactions to include when building a block from the Bitcoin “memory pool.” The worst MEV attackers prioritize the most valuable transactions, front-run orders and even liquidate user's debt positions.

Rebar Shield’s private mempool offers a layer of protection because transaction details remain unknown until they’re included in a block and therefore less likely to be exploited. Users submit their transactions using a Rebar RPC, which will then be forwarded to participating mining pools to be included in a block while avoiding the public mempool.

"With the growing complexity of Bitcoin's on-chain activity, we're seeing the emergence of MEV strategies similar to those on Ethereum," Rebar CEO Alex Luce said, mentioning the novel Bitcoin transaction types and tokens unlocked by programmable protocols like Ordinals, Runes and BRC-20s.

The team does not have a firm date for the launch of Rebar Shield, which will be more useful with more hashpower behind it. They are communicating with several “major” Bitcoin mining pools and wallet providers about joining the client.