Boosting Bottom Lines: 7Block Labs on Maximizing DeFi ROI

The specific headaches draining your margin

That "affordable L2" you’ve been eyeing might not seem like such a steal when you consider the wild swings in price. So, after the Dencun update, rollups have started using EIP‑4844 blobs to post their data. It's pretty interesting--those prices can really swing up and down depending on how much demand there is! Since March 13, 2024, it’s been great to see fees take a nice dip. But with the new blob fee market in play, things like when you batch your transactions and how your calldata is structured still play a big role in determining your base costs. If you're not getting into blobs, you’re pretty much missing out on easy cash with every swap on Optimism, Base, or Arbitrum. I mean, those little cents might not seem like much at first, but they can really add up in the long run! (blog.ethereum.org).

Storage is slowly but surely munching away at every update for swaps and liquidity pools. So, those pesky SLOADs (which burn about 2,100 gas) and SSTOREs (ranging from 5,000 to a whopping 22,100 gas) are still major headaches when it comes to handling complex transactions. If you’re not already using EIP-1153 for transient storage or MCOPY, you’re probably missing out on some serious gas savings! (eips.ethereum.org).

You're still missing out on MEV opportunities. Using open-mempool routing and basic routing setups can lead to a whole bunch of problems, like sandwich attacks and backruns. Absolutely, private order flow can be a game changer, but the way you handle it really makes all the difference. Flashbots Protect and MEV-Share have successfully secured millions of transactions, and projects like CoW and MEV-Blocker are demonstrating that “refunds” can genuinely serve as a solid revenue stream. However, it seems like not many teams are considering this when they're calculating their profits and losses. (collective.flashbots.net).
So, Account Abstraction is really starting to take off, which is exciting! But watch out for those unmanaged paymasters--they can really eat into your budget if you’re not careful. With ERC-4337 and EIP-7702 in the mix, we've been able to unlock some pretty cool smart features right at the protocol level since 2025. And you know what? Ever since we hit those big milestones in 2024, adoption has just skyrocketed! Just a heads-up: if you don't have some solid policy controls in place for things like quotas and pricing, gas sponsorship can really throw a wrench in your customer acquisition costs and how well you keep your customers around. (blog.ethereum.org).

It looks like user experiences on the bridge are still leading to people leaving. So, there’s been a shift in the timelines lately. Arbitrum just introduced BoLD, which is this cool permissionless validation dispute protocol. Plus, OP Mainnet has rolled out permissionless fault proofs. Because of all this, the guarantees around withdrawals and settlements have really stepped up. It's definitely an exciting time in the space! If your withdrawal and incident playbooks haven't been updated in a while, you could be putting your operations at more risk than you think. (theblock.co).

Hey, just a heads up--you might be a bit out of the loop on Uniswap v4's idea that "hooks = product surface." The time it takes to build pools and add custom logic has really changed - what once took “months” is now down to just “weeks.” It’s pretty impressive how much quicker things are moving these days! So, it looks like competitors are already launching market makers that are tuned into MEV, along with liquidity pools that integrate lending features using hooks. It's pretty interesting to see how quickly things are evolving in this space! If your routing and liquidity incentives aren't aligned with v4, you're missing out on daily opportunities that you could totally avoid. (defi-planet.com).

So, here's the deal: we ended up missing shipping deadlines, our cost of goods sold (COGS) and transaction costs are way higher than we wanted, fill rates took a hit, and honestly, we can't seem to get Finance on board to give us any incentives. It's been a bit of a struggle!

The risks to deadlines, GTM, and ROI

It looks like we’re running into some issues with blob fee mispricing and not batching properly, which is making it tough for us to hit our quarterly margin goals. Since the Dencun upgrade, many Layer 2s have seen their fees drop significantly. However, if teams haven't adjusted their batch windows and encodings, they're still facing higher data costs every single day. It's a bit of a mixed bag, really! (blog.ethereum.org).

Latent MEV continues to disrupt how users experience things. We're noticing some really encouraging protective volumes lately--take MEV-Blocker for example; they’ve reported over $200 billion in protected flow for 2025! However, it's a bit of a downer that public mempool paths are still experiencing some price drops and reversals. This can be frustrating for frequent users, for sure. Hey, so here's something interesting: research has found that after people dig into sandwiches, they often switch to private routing. If you're not paying attention to this trend or weaving it into your overall strategy, you might be missing out on keeping your users around longer. Just a heads up! (outposts.io).

If we don't have solid governance in place for ERC-4337/7702, it could really open the door to budget overruns. In 2024, we hit a huge milestone with more than 100 million UserOps and a ton of paymaster activity. However, we need to keep an eye on unmanaged sponsorships because they can really drive up customer acquisition costs (CAC). Plus, they tend to draw in airdrop hunters and those one-time accounts, which isn’t ideal for keeping our customer lifetime value in a healthy spot compared to CAC. (etherspot.io).

Just a quick note: you can’t really consider security to be all good just because of the unit tests. So, there have been some recent reports on formal verification, and one of them focused on Lido's dual governance. It turns out they uncovered a few critical issues. Invariant testing is really gaining traction these days, especially with the release of Foundry v1. So, here’s the scoop: x is rolling out coverage-guided fuzzing and storage-aware inputs. If your testing setup isn’t really zeroing in on invariants while keeping an eye on those gas budgets, you might end up letting some regressions slip through the cracks when you ship. Just a heads up! (certora.com).

Cross-chain operations have really evolved a lot. Hey there! Just wanted to share that OP Stack has officially moved into Stage 1, and it's got permissionless fault proofs now, which is pretty exciting. Plus, Arbitrum One and Nova are up and running BoLD. Cool stuff happening! This definitely affects how we handle withdrawal guarantees, keep an eye on things, and respond to incidents based on our service level agreements (SLAs). Just a quick heads up--make sure your bridge policies and the messages you send to users are in sync with these changes. It’s important they match up! (optimism.io).

Uniswap v4 has officially launched its programmable liquidity feature, and it's already live and kicking. We’ve got some exciting new features rolling out across several chains! You can now take advantage of dynamic fees with hooks, enjoy MEV-aware ordering, and explore built-in yield options. It’s all live and ready for you to check out! This is a major perk for anyone who's in a hurry to get things done. If you take too long to make a move, you might end up missing out on LPs and order flow. It's definitely worth keeping an eye on the timing! (defi-planet.com).

7Block Labs’ methodology to turn engineering into ROI

We're all about creating real changes that genuinely make a difference for both the EVM and your business goals. Take a look at our playbook for the 90-day sprints down below!

1) Fee Floor Engineering (post‑Dencun reality)

Blob‑aware batching: So, when you're working on your batching, it’s a good idea to play around with the size and timing to catch those dips in the blob basefee. Keep a lookout for how much you're spending per kilobyte on calldata compared to blobs. If you notice the BLOBBASEFEE going up, you might want to think about breaking your payloads into different time slots. That way, you can save a bit and make the most of the situation! If you want to dive deeper into the details, you can find more info here. Happy reading!
Calldata shape: If you’re sure there won’t be any collisions, go ahead and replace ABI encoding with packed encodings (abi.encodePacked) for those static fields. It’s a handy little tweak! Oh, and don’t forget to compress those dynamic arrays! Keep an eye on the non-zero bytes, since they rack up 16 gas, while the zeros only hit you for 4 gas. It’s all about managing those costs! If you’re looking to explore this topic even further, check out degencode.com. They’ve got some really in-depth info that you might find super helpful!
Storage austerity: Hey, have you thought about shifting those write-once payloads over to SSTORE2? You can access them with EXTCODECOPY, which could be pretty handy. Also, why not consider pushing historical data into events? Just make sure to keep an eye on benchmarking the savings for each approach you take. It’s definitely worth looking into! If you're looking for more details, check out this GitHub page. It's got all the extra info you might need!

Expected impact: We're anticipating a possible drop in on-chain data costs by around 10-40% for the typical swap and liquidity provider routes. This could make things a lot more affordable! On top of that, we should expect to see a steadier range of fees, even when there’s a big spike in demand for blobs. Hey, if you're looking to dive into the world of L2 fees, you should definitely take a peek at the internal L2 fee baselines from the l2fees/L2BEAT guide. It’s super helpful for figuring out which networks to choose based on various market segments. Happy exploring! ).

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2) Gas Optimization at the opcode level

Transient Storage (EIP‑1153):
This is a total game changer! If you switch out those storage-based reentrancy guards and the per-transaction context for TLOAD/TSTORE, you’re going to see a huge reduction in gas costs. When you're scaling up, the costs for guards can really drop from roughly 7,100 gas down to just about 200 gas! That’s some serious savings, right? It’s crazy to think about how much more efficient things can get. (chain-industries.medium.com).
MCOPY (EIP‑5656): Hey, have you considered using MCOPY instead of getting stuck in those memory copy loops? It’s a real game changer! For example, if you’re copying 256 bytes, it’ll only cost you around 27 gas. That’s a huge difference compared to the nearly 96 gas you’d burn if you’re using unrolled loads and stores. Trust me, you’ll save a lot of resources! Hey, that's a pretty cool little boost! Check it out here: eips.ethereum.org.
Cold/warm accounting (EIP‑2929):
Here’s a clever tip: try rearranging your SLOAD/SSTORE calls so that you access the frequently used slots first. That way, you can cache those addresses and improve your efficiency! This way, you can avoid those annoying repeated cold penalties! Super efficient! (eips.ethereum.org).
Patterns: Alright, let’s dive into some strategies. First up, consider using custom errors instead of just string reverts; they can really streamline the process. Next, if you're not planning to loop through things, mappings are usually a better bet than arrays. Oh, and for those read-only actions, using calldata instead of memory can really save you some hassle. Trust me, these little tweaks can make a big difference! Just a quick reminder: whenever it’s safe, go ahead and use static-type packing! It's a good practice to keep in mind. (code4rena.com).

Expected Impact: We're anticipating some solid drops--like double-digit percentages--in L2 gas for every swap or LP update. Those savings are going to add up nicely when you combine them with what we're saving from blobs.

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3) MEV Defense as a Profit Center

Orderflow design: Let's kick things off with private routing on the mainnet using Protect/MEV-Share. And hey, don’t forget to set your refund preferences while you're at it! It’s super important to make sure you factor in those builder rebates when you're looking at the unit economics, too. (collective.flashbots.net).
Intents‑based execution: Hey there! So, here's the scoop: you can hook up UniswapX for those sweet gas-free trades that keep an eye on MEV. Plus, don’t forget to use CoW routing whenever it can snag you better prices than the AMMs. Also, it’s a good idea to tap into auctions to make the most of any extra cash you might have. Happy trading! (docs.uniswap.org).
Measurement: Make sure to pay attention to “MEV leakage per trade” and “refunds per user.” It’s a good idea to align those liquidity provider incentives with MEV-aware hooks whenever possible.

Proof Point: MEV-Protected Order Flow Across the Ecosystem.

Wow, the numbers we're looking at are really impressive! We're talking about hundreds of billions in order flow being safeguarded, and it's amazing to see those refund shares on the rise. Teams that have started to roll this into their P&L reports are really reaping the benefits -- they're seeing better realized prices and a noticeable drop in reverts. It's exciting to see the impact this is having! If you want to dive deeper into it, head over to outposts.io. There's some really interesting stuff to explore!

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4) Account Abstraction (ERC‑4337) and EIP‑7702 with budget checks

Smart account design:
Dive into those 7702-enabled EOAs to simplify batching and sponsorship. You can get everything rolling without dealing with any initial deployment headaches! Keep using bundlers and paymasters to make the user experience even better. They really help streamline things. (blog.ethereum.org).
Paymaster policy: Make sure to establish user or session quotas, keep the budgets flexible, and think about the lifetime value when you're handing out sponsorships. We can tackle those annoying airdrop farmers by using some clever behavior tricks from BundleBear-style data. The heavy paymaster activity we saw in 2024 really showed us where budgets can start to go off track. (etherspot.io).

Expected impact: We’re looking at better conversion rates, all while making sure we don’t go overboard on customer acquisition costs (CAC). On top of that, we're going to cut down on those “single-use” accounts that are just draining our sponsorship resources.

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5) Uniswap v4 Hooks as GTM

Hook Playbook: We're getting into some pretty exciting stuff! We're working on dynamic fees that adjust based on how much the oracle is bouncing around. Plus, we’re adding some cool MEV-aware sequencing modules and incorporating LP vault hooks to make use of any idle liquidity. It’s kind of like what you see with Euler or Arrakis, just to give you an idea of the direction we're headed.
Take a look at this! You can check it out here: dwf-labs.com.
Router Changes: Hey there! We’ve rolled out some awesome upgrades to our pathfinding system. Now, it not only considers pool ticks but also factors in hook-specific fees and rebates. Pretty neat, right?
Audit Posture: The hook attack surface is pretty distinct because it zeroes in on aspects like reentrancy and callback context. We're planning to set up some transient storage "context slots" and make sure we have strict access controls in place to keep everything safe and sound.

Outcome: Exciting news, everyone! We’ve got something special with our product! With v4 now launching on various chains, we're already witnessing some fantastic results. There's been a solid improvement in how well our liquidity pools are holding up, plus a significant increase in swap volumes from one quarter to the next. Feels great to see our efforts paying off! If you want all the juicy details, make sure to click here. You won't want to miss it!

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6) ZK Where It Pays (not where it’s fashionable)

Prover selection: If you're diving into coprocessors and proofs-of-computation, it's definitely worth checking out some of the latest zkVMs, like the Succinct SP1 Turbo with GPU support or those built on Plonky3. It’s a smart move to benchmark them against your specific workload to see how they perform. The newest releases are pretty amazing, boasting speed improvements of anywhere from 4 to 28 times faster than before. Plus, we've seen costs drop really quickly, which is a nice bonus! Take a look at this: (blog.succinct.xyz). You might find it interesting!
Aggregation strategies: You might want to think about using proof wrapping and aggregation methods, like what you see with Plonky2 or Plonky3. These approaches can really help cut down on verification costs. Hey, did you know there are these awesome sub-second wrappers for zkEVM attestations? They can really help slash those gas costs when you’re verifying stuff on-chain. Pretty cool, right? If you're curious to learn more about it, check it out here: telos.net. You’ll find a lot of interesting info!
Business test: We take a pretty hands-on approach when it comes to checking out ZK implementations. Basically, we look at each one individually and ask ourselves, “Does the cost of verifying the proof and any possible delays make it worth it compared to the benefits we get from having some level of trust along with monitoring?” If we find that the pros outweigh the cons, that’s when we jump in and start building! If that's not an option, no worries! We can just simulate it for now and then revisit it during the next funding round.

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7) Bridge UX + L2 Security Posture

Update guarantees: Don’t forget to weave in OP Mainnet’s permissionless fault proofs along with Arbitrum’s BoLD when you’re crafting user messages and setting those bridge timers. Also, make sure to adjust the risk controls to fit the challenge windows, which are roughly around 6. 4 to 12. It's an 8-day journey, following that route. (optimism.io).
Forced‑withdraw runbooks: It's really important to make sure we have everything about forced exits, proof generators, and user communication for liveness events well documented. Oh, and remember to keep an eye on the "time-to-cash" for your top three chains. It's super important!

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8) Security that scales with shipping velocity

Invariant-first testing:
Foundry v1. X has rolled out some pretty awesome features, including storage-aware fuzzing, coverage-guided invariants, and an optimization mode. You can use these to help manage rounding errors and avoid those worst-case gas scenarios. Oh, and don't forget to bring Echidna into the mix for a well-rounded strategy! (getfoundry.sh).
Keeping it professional when needed:
It’s a good idea to zero in on the property-related specs for the key areas in governance and auctions. Recent reports, including one from Lido, have pointed out that even formal verification isn't foolproof and can overlook some pretty major issues. (certora.com).
Production controls: Hey, have you thought about using timelocks and PauseGuardians? It could be really helpful to look at how Compound and OpenZeppelin handle these features for some inspiration. It's really crucial to make sure we set clear emergency powers that won’t accidentally mess up the way we run things. (openzeppelin.com).

Take a look at our security audit services if you want to really get into the nitty-gritty of keeping your systems safe! We've got you covered.

1) Swap Path Refactor on OP-Stack L2 (Gas + MEV)

We're switching things up a bit! Instead of using the storage-based reentrancy guard and callback context, we're going with EIP-1153. We're making some changes, like moving long constants and lookup tables over to SSTORE2. We're also packing calldata for a couple of our go-to methods. Plus, we're routing mainnet legs through MEV-Share and leaning towards refunds when we can.

So, here's what we've been noticing lately: So, if we use transient storage and MCOPY, we could see a 6-12% drop in L2 gas on those hot paths. But here’s the cool part: if we make sure to pack the calldata in a safe way, that drop could actually jump to anywhere between 8-25%. Pretty neat, right? (chain-industries.medium.com). We're seeing that when we use private routing or UniswapX instead of the public mempool, our revert rates are lower and we're getting better pricing overall. Pretty cool, right? (docs.uniswap.org).

2) Liquidity Productization via Uniswap v4 Hooks

Let’s introduce a “volatility-scaled fee hook” paired with an “MEV-aware ordering module.” This combo will prioritize trades that offer rebates to our liquidity providers (LPs), giving them a nice boost in fills. Oh, and how about we add an LP vault hook? This way, any idle liquidity can be sent over to a lending market while swaps are taking place.

So, why’s this important right now? Well, version 4 is officially live on all the big chains, and teams are jumping in to set up MEV-aware markets and roll out some pretty cool integrated yield strategies. It's an exciting time! This isn't just a bunch of theories anymore--it's actually happening right now! Check it out over at defi-planet.com.

3) Account Abstraction Growth with Sponsorship Controls

How about we introduce EIP‑7702 support for EOAs? So, what this means is that we can get a sponsor to cover the "first X swaps" by using a paymaster. This setup allows us to put user limits in place and tweak the budgets on the go. Pretty flexible, right? Also, we really need to address those random farming behaviors that have shown up in the 2024 data. (coindesk.com).

4) Bridge Runbook Upgrade

Hey team, just a heads up that we need to refresh the UI timers and the documentation. We should make sure to include details about the OP permissionless fault proofs and the Arbitrum BoLD dispute windows. Thanks! Don't forget to get those forced-exit scripts ready ahead of time! It’s super important. And while you're at it, set up some canary monitoring too--just to keep everything in check. Oh, and make sure to whip up some templates for user communications. They'll definitely come in handy!

So, what are we really aiming for? Ultimately, we want to see a drop in support tickets, boost our Net Promoter Score when things go sideways, and ensure we're keeping up with the latest security standards. (optimism.io).

Best emerging practices to implement next sprint

Gas optimization Hey, let’s make the most of EIP‑1153 for tackling reentrancy and context issues. We can use MCOPY for those internal copies. Also, let’s unroll those cold accesses while we’re at it! Switching to custom errors is a good move too. And don’t forget to pack those static parameters with abi.encodePacked. Sounds like a solid plan, right? Also, we can save on storage by using SSTORE2 write-once payloads. (eips.ethereum.org).
Intents/MEV Let's make private routing the default on the mainnet. We should also get UniswapX integrated. Plus, it’s important to showcase those “refunds captured” metrics in the app, so users can easily see them. (docs.uniswap.org).
v4 hooks Alright, let’s dive right into it! First up, we’ve got this cool thing called a dynamic fee hook. After that, we’ll get into the nitty-gritty of MEV-aware ordering. Sounds good? Let’s go! Once we wrap up the audit, we’ll be all set to add the vault hook! It’s smart to test this out on a smaller L2 first. It’ll help save some money while you work through different versions. (dwf-labs.com).
AA controls Hey team,

We should definitely set up those paymaster quotas and focus on sponsoring only the “qualified events,” you know, like cross-sell actions. This will help us manage our Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) more effectively. Plus, let’s keep an eye on cohort retention when it comes to those sponsorships. It'll give us a better idea of how we're doing! (etherspot.io).

Testing and governance Alright, folks! It’s time to take our unit tests and turn them into invariant suites that can handle storage-aware inputs. Also, let’s make sure we get the Timelock and PauseGuardian patterns down pat by creating some straightforward runbooks. This will really help us keep everything organized and on point! (getfoundry.sh).

Prove it -- the GTM metrics we own in 90 days

We make sure our sprints line up with the business goals, and we keep everyone in the loop with weekly updates. Here are some examples:.

Unit economics
COGS/tx: We’re noticing a nice decrease of around 15-35%! This drop is mostly thanks to our awesome mix of blob-aware batching, calldata packing, MCOPY, and transient storage. Pretty cool, right? We've compared this with the benchmarks from before Dencun and looked at how it stacks up against the current blob market. (blog.ethereum.org).
MEV leakage: So, on the mainnet flow, we're seeing a pretty significant drop of 30-70% thanks to MEV-Share/Protect. Plus, there are some cool perks like "refunds/user" whenever those auction-based intents, like UniswapX and CoW, come out on top. It's nice to see some positive changes happening! (collective.flashbots.net).
Growth and retention
Boosting onboard conversions with AA: We’ve definitely seen a rise in our completion rates thanks to 7702 and those guarded paymaster policies. We're really aiming to amp up those multi-use ratios, especially when you compare them to the single-use smart account trend we noticed back in 2024. (etherspot.io).
Liquidity and execution
LP net yields: We're pretty excited about the boost we've noticed from those MEV-aware hooks and dynamic fees in our v4 deployments. We're really looking forward to getting some solid comparisons with static-fee pools soon! (dwf-labs.com).
Fill quality: We're working on getting better prices and cutting down on return rates by using private routing. Plus, we’ll soon be launching some comparison dashboards to help with that!
Risk and ops
Time to withdraw: We’ve set up some straightforward timers that match up with the BoLD and fault-proof stages. Because of that, we’re noticing a drop in support tickets and fewer escalations when incidents pop up. (optimism.io).
Security posture We're diving into invariants, setting up gas-budget alerts in our CI process, and putting together formal specifications for our governance and auction code paths. This is especially important given the recent critical issues we've seen with verified codebases. (certora.com).

Why 7Block Labs

We’re definitely engineers at heart, but we also know a thing or two about Finance! Our teams dive deep into the numbers that really make a difference to your bottom line, not just checking boxes for audits.

Join us on this journey: Take a look at our awesome DeFi development services, check out our smart contract development, or jump into the world of DEX development. We’d love to build something great together!
Stay secure with us: Make sure your projects are right on track by checking out our security audit services. We’ve got your back!
Linking Chains: We're super into developing those cross-chain solutions and building blockchain bridges.
Got products to ship: Excited to get started? Let’s dive into dApp development and check out what our web3 development services can offer you!

Closing: The money phrase

If you’re hoping to snag a quick return on your investment in DeFi right now, one solid approach is to concentrate on setting up that fee floor, turning MEV into something you can trade like a commodity, and crafting some productized hooks. Don't forget to check in on your progress every week! Keep an eye on your COGS per transaction, any price changes, and how well you're retaining customers. It's a great way to stay on top of things!