Smart Contracts
Intermediate
What is
Front-Running?
Exploiting advance knowledge of pending transactions to profit, common in DeFi on account-based chains.
Front-running occurs when someone sees your pending transaction and submits their own with higher fees to execute first, profiting at your expense. This is rampant on Ethereum DeFi. Ergo's eUTXO model largely prevents front-running because transactions reference specific boxes - there's nothing to front-run.
Key Points
- Exploits pending transaction visibility
- Common MEV extraction method
- Costs DeFi users billions yearly
- eUTXO makes front-running impractical
- Transactions reference specific boxes
- No global state to exploit
Related Infographics
Related Articles
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about Front-Running
Common questions about this topic
How to use Spectrum DEX on Ergo?
Connect your Nautilus wallet to Spectrum Finance, select tokens to swap, review the rate and slippage, then confirm. Spectrum uses AMM liquidity pools for instant trades. You can also provide liquidity to earn fees. All trades are atomic - they complete fully or not at all, with no front-running possible.
How-to
DeFi
How to build DeFi on Ergo?
Building DeFi on Ergo starts with understanding the eUTXO model and ErgoScript. Unlike account-based chains, Ergo's box model provides deterministic execution, no MEV by design, and predictable gas costs. Use Oracle Pools for price feeds, and leverage existing patterns from Spectrum Finance and SigmaUSD.
How-to
DeFi
Is Ergo better than Ethereum for DeFi?
Ergo offers structural advantages for DeFi: no MEV extraction, deterministic gas costs, and no reentrancy attacks due to eUTXO. Ethereum has larger ecosystem and liquidity. Choose Ergo for security-critical applications, fair trading, and predictable costs. Choose Ethereum for maximum composability with existing protocols.
Comparison
DeFi
What can I do with Ergo?
Ergo supports a full ecosystem: trade on Spectrum DEX, use SigmaUSD stablecoin, mix transactions with ErgoMixer, collect NFTs on SkyHarbor, mine with GPUs, lend/borrow on DuckPools, bridge to other chains via Rosen, and build dApps with ErgoScript. It's a complete platform for decentralized finance and applications.
Explainer
Getting Started