What Is a Private Transaction Relay and Why Is It Effective against MEV?

A private transaction relay is a network service (like Flashbots) that allows users to send transactions directly to block producers (miners/validators) without broadcasting them to the public mempool. This prevents front-running bots, which rely on monitoring the public mempool, from ever seeing the pending order.

The block producer can include the transaction in a block while keeping it private, effectively eliminating the MEV opportunity for external actors.