On-chain penalty enforcement, and the MEV vectors it opens

The DMQ framework makes "panic states" programmatically enforceable: penalties execute on-chain rather than living in off-chain policy. The author deployed it to Sepolia and collected real execution data instead of stopping at a model.

Why it matters: the moment a penalty is an on-chain state transition, it becomes an MEV surface. Anyone who can order, front-run, or trigger the enforcement tx can extract value or grief the penalized party. Proof-of-execution on testnet is exactly where these vectors show up before mainnet.

Takeaway: if your protocol enforces slashing or penalties on-chain, treat the enforcement path as adversarial ordering. Assume the trigger can be MEV'd and design for it (commit-reveal, private submission, or making the penalty ordering-independent).

ethresear.ch: DMQ Framework
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