Transaction Interception

Definition ∞ Transaction interception refers to the act of unauthorizedly capturing or altering a digital transaction before it is confirmed on the blockchain. This can involve manipulating the data within a transaction or preventing it from reaching the network as intended. Such actions pose a direct threat to the integrity of financial operations.
Context ∞ The current discussions on transaction interception are primarily concerned with techniques like miner extractable value (MEV) and front-running within decentralized exchanges. These activities exploit the ordering of transactions in the mempool to gain an advantage. Future developments will likely involve more advanced techniques for transaction privacy and novel consensus mechanisms designed to mitigate the impact of transaction reordering.