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If you ever traded in defi, you probably have seen coins getting sniped at the very second of their launch and drastically inflating the prices.

I assume these bots are written in js, ad using web3 and other blockchain API to interact with smart contracts. In theory, I can assume that the algorithm basically buys those coins that are recently launched with high gas, and since it is an algorithm it performs this faster than any other human.

However, my question is how are these sniper bots really work? How do they time the launch so well? Sometimes a launch can get delayed, in that case when they send queries to blockchain aren't they losing money?

For instance, this BOT just made 1 million dollars by just sniping PAID Network in 2 minutes.

But, what if the launch was delayed how was it going to execute trades? If it started sending 'buy' queries before the launch would it not lose money?

Any opinions on this subject?

I would really appreciate if you enlighten me about this, I've been wondering about this for some time now

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  • "We all probably have seen coins getting sniped at the very second of their launch." I suggest you add more technical details to your question like transaction links, historical launches, etc. instead of speculation, because now readers need to speculate what you have in your mind.
    – Mikko Ohtamaa
    Commented Jan 25, 2021 at 10:04
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    Here, I elaborated on that. Do you have a have answer now?
    – Itsjonie
    Commented Jan 25, 2021 at 16:11
  • most likely this is a front running robot, it hunts large unswap orders and front runs them. this subject is very well documented on the net
    – Nulik
    Commented Jan 25, 2021 at 17:13
  • flash boys 2.0 is your PDF to read
    – Nulik
    Commented Jan 25, 2021 at 19:51

1 Answer 1

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A good overview of frontrunning, and related miner extractable value (MEV), problems are well established and well known at this point. The difference between these two modes of frontrunning that in MEV it is the miners who frontrun you, whereas normal frontrunning bot use the same mempool for transactions are other Ethereum clients.

Here are some articles

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    The list wouldn't be complete without the sequel: Escaping the Dark Forest
    – Richard Horrocks
    Commented Jan 25, 2021 at 19:29
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    Thank you Richard. Added to the list.
    – Mikko Ohtamaa
    Commented Jan 25, 2021 at 19:55
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    Another one to go with Nulik's: Phil Daian's Flash Boys 2.0 presentation from Devcon 4. (youtube.com/watch?v=i-oWE8hg6-0)
    – Richard Horrocks
    Commented Jan 25, 2021 at 20:32
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    This is a great list! I do feel that in the spirit of the platform that a brief direct answer to OPs question should be included, probably with a brief description of the mempool (OP's question seems to largely revolve around it).
    – The Renaissance
    Commented Apr 21, 2021 at 11:55

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