The Robust Incentives Group is a research team of the Ethereum Foundation. We specialise in incentive analysis for protocols, using methods from game theory, mechanism design, empirical analysis and simulations. Since our foundation, we actively participated in research on EIP-1559 and Proof-of-Stake Ethereum. Find our releases, posts, and papers on this homepage!
RIG Open Questions (ROPs)
We propose a set of Open Questions we're looking to collaborate on. Find more details on the ROPs homepage!
Projects
Proof-of-Stake
Research on Ethereum Proof-of-Stake consensus
Beacon Runner: Proof-of-Stake digital twin
Ongoing effort to produce an incentives-focused testing environment for the consensus layer.
Data analysis
Consensus layer and validator analytics.
- Beacon chain data analysis library (in R)
- Beacon chain April 2021 incident + Script (in R)
- Exploring the first 1000 epochs
- Visualising the 7-block reorg on the Ethereum beacon chain
Fee markets
abm1559: Agent-based modelling of the fee market
Simulations and analysis of transaction fee markets, specifically EIP-1559.
Data analysis
- A dashboard for EIP-1559 (Dune)
- Gas weather report, July 21st-July 27th + source
- Exploring blocks, gas and transactions + source
Financial products for blockspace
Other publications
Rollups
- The road to Ethereum: Visualising a rollup-centric future
- Understanding rollup economics from first principles + Dashboard
Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS)
Publications
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Schwarz-Schilling, C., Neu, J., Monnot, B., Asgaonkar, A., Tas, E. N., & Tse, D. (2021). Three Attacks on Proof-of-Stake Ethereum. arXiv preprint arXiv:2110.10086. arXiv link
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Reijsbergen, D., Sridhar, S., Monnot, B., Leonardos, S., Skoulakis, S., & Piliouras, G. (2021). Transaction Fees on a Honeymoon: Ethereum's EIP-1559 One Month Later. arXiv preprint arXiv:2110.04753. arXiv link
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Leonardos, S., Monnot, B., Reijsbergen, D., Skoulakis, S., & Piliouras, G. (2021). Dynamical Analysis of the EIP-1559 Ethereum Fee Market. arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.10567. arXiv link
Talks
Meet the RIG and check our previous talks!
| Talk | Speaker | Location | Date | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time in Ethereum | Caspar | Devcon 6 | 12 October 2022 | Video + Slides |
| ELI5 Cryptoeconomics | Julian | Devcon 6 | 11 October 2022 | Video + Slides |
| Updates on Proposer-Builder Separation | BarnabΓ© | Devcon 6 | 11 October 2022 | Video + Slides |
| Making sense of rollup economics | BarnabΓ© | EthCC[5] | 20 July 2022 | Video + Slides |
| Modelling blockchain protocols: Consensus and fee markets | BarnabΓ© | SMGT Erice | 14 May 2022 | Slides |
| Let me in! Let me IIINNNN! A longitudinal study of the transaction supply chain from CryptoKitties to MEV-Boost to PBS | BarnabΓ© | mev.day @ Devconnect | 22 April 2022 | Video + Slides |
| Notes on Ethereumβs circulating supply equilibrium and the prospect of perpetual deflation via minimum viable issuance under proof of stake | Anders | ETHconomics @ Devconnect | 21 April 2022 | Video + Slides (TBA) |
| ETHconomics | RIG team | ETHconomics @ Devconnect | 21 April 2022 | Videos + Schedule |
| Three Attacks on PoS Ethereum | Caspar | Financial Cryptography 2022 | 19 April 2022 | Video + Slides |
| Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS) | BarnabΓ© | Protocol R&D Workshop @ Devconnect | 19 April 2022 | Slides |
| Robust incentives testing at the Robust Incentives Group | BarnabΓ© | Workshop on Incentive Mechanism Validation (WIMV) @ Devconnect | 18 April 2022 | Video + Slides |
| The road to Ethereum (2022 version) | BarnabΓ© | SUTD Guest Lecture | 11 April 2022 | Slides |
| Protocol Cryptoeconomics | BarnabΓ© | NTU Blockchain workshop | 20 December 2021 | Slides |
| Economics of EIP-1559 | BarnabΓ© | Berlin Ethereum Meetup | 4 November 2021 | Slides |
| The Game of Reorgs in PoS Ethereum | Caspar | LisCon 2021 | 20 October 2021 | Video + Slides |
| Employing a reinforcement learning-based framework to analyze incentive mechanism attacks on Ethereum blockchain | Shyam | EDCON 2021 | 28 August 2021 | Video |
| Post-London EIP-1559 Assessment | BarnabΓ© | EIP-1559 breakout call #12 | 13 August 2021 | Video |
| Protocol cryptoeconomics with the RIG | BarnabΓ© | EthCC[4] | 20 July 2021 | Video + Slides |
| Ethereum : Un protocole en mutation | BarnabΓ© | EthCC[4] | 20 July 2021 | |
| PEEPanEIP #37: EIP-1559: Fee market change with Tim Beiko, BarnabΓ© Monnot, Micah Zoltu | BarnabΓ© | Ethereum Cat Herders | 21 June 2021 | Video + Slides |
| The road to Ethereum | BarnabΓ© | Online (SUTD) | 9 April 2021 | Blog post |
| En route pour eip1559 | BarnabΓ© | Online (Ethereum France, in French) | 10 November 2020 | Video + Slides |
| Strategic issues in EIP 1559 | BarnabΓ© | Online (ETHTaipei) | 15 October 2020 | Video + Slides |
| Ethereum's new transaction fee market design, EIP 1559 | BarnabΓ© | Online (SUTD) | 25 September 2020 | Notes/slides |
| cadCAD community call #2 | BarnabΓ© | Online | 28 August 2020 | Video + Slides |
| Eth Magicians EIP 1559 panel | BarnabΓ© | Online | 29 July 2020 | Video |
| RIG Bouillabaisse | BarnabΓ© | EthCC[3] | 3 March 2020 | Slides |
| OpenSUTD Blockchain development IAP | BarnabΓ© | SUTD | 16 January 2020 | Slides |