Quick Start

Let's use mev-inspect to find the same arbitrage as MEV Alpha Leak

Install

mev-inspect-py is built to run on kubernetes locally and in production

Install dependencies

First, setup a local kubernetes deployment - we use Docker and kind

If using kind, create a new cluster with:

kind create cluster

Next, install the kubernetes CLI kubectl

Then, install helm - helm is a package manager for kubernetes

Lastly, setup Tilt which manages running and updating kubernetes resources locally

Start up

Set an environment variable RPC_URL to an RPC for fetching blocks Example:

export RPC_URL="http://111.111.111.111:8546"

note

mev-inspect-py currently requires and RPC with support for OpenEthereum / Erigon traces (not geth 😔)

Next, start all servcies with:

tilt up

Press "space" to see a browser of the services starting up

On first startup, you'll need to apply database migrations. Apply with:

./mev exec alembic upgrade head

Tear down

First stop the running tilt window with Ctrl+C

Then run

tilt down

Inspect a block

Using the linked etherscan transaction, we can see the block number is 12914944.

To inspect this block, run

./mev inspect 12914944

Connect to Postgres

We'll connect to the Postgres database to see the data inspect found in that block

Let's start up a client container connected to the DB:

./mev db

When you see the prompt

mev_inspect=#

You're ready to query!

To make the data display nice, switch into "Expanded display" mode by running

\x

Query for arbitrage data

Let's find that arbitrage by querying the arbitrages table:

SELECT *
FROM arbitrages
WHERE
    block_number = 12914944 AND
    transaction_hash = '0xfcf4558f6432689ea57737fe63124a5ec39fd6ba6aaf198df13a825dd599bffc'

You should see output like this:

id                   | ff2deb13-c2c1-4ef5-a6ff-0ca813a07d6b
created_at           | 2021-09-27 15:26:58.193263
account_address      | 0x0000fee6275dab194ab538a01dd8b18b02b20000
profit_token_address | 0xc02aaa39b223fe8d0a0e5c4f27ead9083c756cc2
block_number         | 12914944
transaction_hash     | 0xfcf4558f6432689ea57737fe63124a5ec39fd6ba6aaf198df13a825dd599bffc
start_amount         | 70287643212620210176
end_amount           | 123848351154563483804
profit_amount        | 53560707941943273628

We can see this matches the original tweet description!

The profit_token_address is the address for WETH, our start_amount is 70 WETH (assuming 18 decimals), and our end_amount is 123 WETH

Query for arbitrage swaps

We can learn about the swaps involed in this arbitrage by joining against the arbitrage_swaps and swaps tables

note

You'll need to switch in the id you got in the first query for arbitrage_id

SELECT s.*
FROM swaps s
JOIN arbitrage_swaps arb_swaps ON
    s.transaction_hash = arb_swaps.swap_transaction_hash AND
    s.trace_address = arb_swaps.swap_trace_address
WHERE arb_swaps.arbitrage_id = 'ff2deb13-c2c1-4ef5-a6ff-0ca813a07d6b';

You should see output like this:

-[ RECORD 1 ]-----+-------------------------------------------------------------------
created_at        | 2021-09-27 15:26:58.180131
abi_name          | UniswapV3Pool
transaction_hash  | 0xfcf4558f6432689ea57737fe63124a5ec39fd6ba6aaf198df13a825dd599bffc
block_number      | 12914944
protocol          |
pool_address      | 0x88e6a0c2ddd26feeb64f039a2c41296fcb3f5640
from_address      | 0x7ec0b75a98997c927ace6d87958147a105147ea0
to_address        | 0x0000fee6275dab194ab538a01dd8b18b02b20000
token_in_address  | 0xa0b86991c6218b36c1d19d4a2e9eb0ce3606eb48
token_in_amount   | 283588902010
token_out_address | 0xc02aaa39b223fe8d0a0e5c4f27ead9083c756cc2
token_out_amount  | 123848351154563483804
trace_address     | {0,0}
error             |
-[ RECORD 2 ]-----+-------------------------------------------------------------------
...

Query for miner payment

Lastly, we can see how much was paid to the miner for this transaction by querying by the transaction hash:

SELECT *
FROM miner_payments
WHERE transaction_hash = '0xfcf4558f6432689ea57737fe63124a5ec39fd6ba6aaf198df13a825dd599bffc';

You should see results like this:

created_at                       | 2021-09-27 15:26:58.245444
block_number                     | 12914944
transaction_hash                 | 0xfcf4558f6432689ea57737fe63124a5ec39fd6ba6aaf198df13a825dd599bffc
transaction_index                | 1
miner_address                    | 0x5A0b54D5dc17e0AadC383d2db43B0a0D3E029c4c
coinbase_transfer                | 48204637147748941824
base_fee_per_gas                 | 0
gas_price                        | 0
gas_price_with_coinbase_transfer | 200463421638605
gas_used                         | 240466
transaction_to_address           | 0x00000000454a11ca3a574738c0aab442b62d5d45
transaction_from_address         | 0xd80276cd0348e9b3c5d017e1f7529f0a785fec3a

gas_price is the gas price paid directly as gas (it includes the EIP-1559 base fee)

coinbase_transfer is the amount of ETH paid directly as a transfer to the validator's address

gas_price_with_coinbase_transfer is the gas price including both original gas and coinbase transfers

So in total, this searcher paid 48.2 ETH to make 53.5 ETH for a net profit of 5.3 ETh

Next steps

To see what other data is available for querying, check out the data section

To learn about inspecting blocks in bulk or listening for new blocks as they come in, check out the inspecting section