246: Securing the Mempool: Loring Harkness on Shutter Network’s War Against MEV Attacks

Can encryption make Ethereum more fair?

In this episode, I speak with Loring Harkness, the ecosystem lead at Shutter Network, about a crucial — and often ignored — issue: malicious MEV. Loring explains how MEV bots extract value from unsuspecting users through front-running and sandwich attacks — and how Shutter uses threshold encryption to stop it.

We talk about encrypted mempools, the recent whitepaper proposing encrypted mempools for Ethereum, and how commit-and-reveal encryption is already protecting DAOs, auctions, and bounties via Shutter’s API.

Loring also shares his journey from building financial inclusion tools in Myanmar to becoming a passionate advocate for privacy and credible neutrality in Web3.

Whether you're building a dApp, trading onchain, or want a fairer Ethereum — this episode is for you.

Key Timestamps

[00:00:00] Intro: Sam introduces Loring Harkness and the mission behind Shutter Network

[00:01:00] Origin Story: How a coup in Myanmar inspired Loring’s pivot from TradFi to Web3

[00:04:00] What is Shutter?: Commit-reveal threshold encryption explained

[00:06:00] Understanding MEV: How front-running and sandwich attacks work

[00:08:00] Shielded Trading: How Shutter encrypts transactions to blind MEV bots

[00:10:00] Integrations: Shielded trading on Gnosis and plans for Ethereum mainnet

[00:11:00] The Cost of MEV: Over $1.3B lost to MEV since 2020

[00:12:00] Ethereum Whitepaper: How Shutter’s proposal was received

[00:14:00] The Shutter API: Making commit-reveal encryption accessible to dApps

[00:16:00] Game Theory: Loring’s live demo using rock-paper-scissors

[00:20:00] Scaling Up: How Shutter supports many use cases and transactions

[00:23:00] Real-World Adoption: Shielded voting on Snapshot and Paddle Battle auctions

[00:25:00] The Real Threat: Why Ethereum must align with its own values

[00:27:00] Community Ask: Why users and developers must demand fairness

[00:29:00] Wrap-up: Links and next steps for integrating Shutter Network

Connect

https://www.shutter.network/

https://x.com/ShutterNetwork

https://x.com/LoringHarkness

https://www.linkedin.com/in/loringharkness/

Disclaimer

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