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George Hristov

_CoW Swap, a DEX trading platform, has undergone a remarkable transformation over the last few years._

_The platform has transformed substantially from its early days as a dutch auction swap to a leading authority on intents forging new ground through conditional programmatic orders. In a recent presentation, Alex Vinas, the Product Marketing Manager at CoW Swap, traced CoW Swap’s journey and offered insights into its history, pivotal developments, and the promise of the brand new_ [_Programmatic Order Framework_](/learn/introducing-the-programmatic-order-framework-from-cow-protocol) _(Please Note: At the time of the presentation, the Programmatic Order Framework was known as “Composable CoW.”)_

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6dA4V_yYn8A?si=M5UYcWadWAU5Mifo" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

_What follows is a transcript of Alex’s talk:_

## A Brief History of CoW Swap

![1-navigating-the-evolution-of-cow-swap.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_navigating_the_evolution_of_cow_swap_ebc6a318b6.webp)

Cow Swap’s journey began back when its current team was a part of Gnosis. At the time, the team was working on decentralized mechanisms for trading prediction market outcomes. It was this work that helped bring to life the famous “x*y=k” formula for AMMs back in 2017 — earlier than even the founding of Uniswap.

### Dutch Auctions

While their initial ideas were good, Gnosis recognized the vulnerabilities of the traditional AMM design and its weakness toward MEV, so the team pivoted to Dutch auctions.

However, this mechanism also came with its own set of downfalls.

It worked well for initial coin offerings and wasn’t susceptible to MEV, however it fell short when faced with the growing diversity of tokens on Ethereum. Dutch auctions also had to compromise on speed, resulting in a slow trading experience for users.

### Batch Auctions

The team realized they needed a new auction mechanism for trading large amounts. It was here that the batch auction was born.

After cycling through several different iterations of batch auction DEX’s, CoW Protocol was born in 2021. CoW Protocol was built on the learnings from earlier projects and introduced innovative features like an intents-based architecture and comprehensive MEV protection.

The product was designed to address the challenges faced by retail users, smart contract accounts, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). At the core of the protocol is a delegated trading execution model in which bonded third parties known as “solvers” handle order execution on behalf of users.

The delegated trading model of CoW Protocol offers several benefits:

-   **For retail users**, it abstracts away Ethereum complexities such as gas fees, MEV, and the need to search for the most up-to-date AMM pools
-   **For smart contract wallets,** it enables a seamless trading experience. Before CoW Swap, smart contract wallets often had their trade execution paths expire by the time they gathered signatures. Today, smart contract wallets only commit to a particular  _price_  (rather than a specific trading path), leading to more flexibility and optimizing order execution
-   **For DAOs**, features like the  [Milkman](/learn/what-is-milkman-cow-swaps-solution-for-delayed-execution-trading)  contract bridge the gap in time between a governance proposal and an on-chain swap by allowing the DAO to specify an on-chain price feed from which to pull real-time prices (rather than specifying a fixed price)

### The Path Toward Smart Contract Intents

Initially, gasless trading was limited to EOAs since smart contract wallets don’t have private keys and thus can’t sign messages. It wasn’t until the introduction of  [ERC-1271](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1271)  smart orders that gasless trading was enabled for smart contracts using a new method called “isValidSignature.” This allowed smart contracts to delegate order placement while maintaining control through interactive signature verifications.

The first implementation of smart orders in CoW Swap was the  [native ETH flow](https://medium.com/@cow-protocol/moooove-over-weth-native-eth-trading-is-now-live-on-cow-protocol-96f107e53a49)  which allowed traders to trade ETH just like they would any other ERC-20 token. The second implementation was the  [Milkman](/learn/what-is-milkman-cow-swaps-solution-for-delayed-execution-trading)  contract. Milkman protects governance-based swaps from price exploitation as users specify an on-chain data source from which to pull prices rather than specifying a fixed amount and slippage. This allows the “minOut” variable of a swap to be modular and enables much more streamlined governance-based swaps.

While ERC-1271 smart orders have advantages including conditional on-chain guarantees, they also have drawbacks: they are gas-heavy for autonomous execution, require trust in an intermediary contract holding funds, and are limited to one order per signature.

## Enter the Era of Programmatic Orders

Programmatic orders build on top of batch auctions to enable even more user-friendly, trustless, and autonomous trading.

Programmatic orders take advantage of ERC-1271 smart orders to unlock intents for smart contracts. This has been transformative for the ecosystem, as it allows smart contracts to delegate order placement while still ensuring secure and customizable trading conditions.

[The Programmatic Order Framework from CoW Protocol](/learn/introducing-the-programmatic-order-framework-from-cow-protocol)  allows users to execute unlimited smart orders in parallel, with enhanced gas efficiency and full self-custody. The Framework opens the door to a number of use-cases including automated fee collection, DAO payrolls, TWAP orders, and even private conditional orders such as stop-loss.

### Understanding the Programmatic Order Framework Architecture

Programmatic orders operate through a decentralized architecture that ensures trustless execution by holding assets in the user’s safe.

![2-navigating-the-evolution-of-cow-swap.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_navigating_the_evolution_of_cow_swap_93d6afc424.webp)

The Programmatic Order Framework involves four main customizable parameters which combine with the order handling of CoW Protocol to allow developers to deploy ANY codeable strategy.

Each conditional order has the following properties or data available at settlement:

-   _handler_  — verifies the conditional order parameters via a smart contract (Programmatic Order Framework)
-   _salt_  — allows for multiple conditional orders of the same type and data (Merkle root)
-   _staticData_  — data available to ALL discrete orders created by the conditional order
-   _offchainData_  — data optionally provided from off-chain to a discrete order

## The Future of Programmatic Orders

Programmatic Orders open a world of possibilities by allowing users to turn their Safes into autonomous traders. While the Programmatic Order Framework is currently developer-focused, it unlocks a wide range of use-cases for retail users as well. The integration of  [CoW Hooks](/learn/cow-hooks-you-are-in-control)  in the future could further enhance the user experience, combining composable smart orders with additional functionalities.

In conclusion, CoW Swap’s journey to perfect DeFi orders embodies the protocol’s commitment to users and innovation. The Programmatic Order Framework emerges as a pivotal milestone, showcasing CoW Swap’s adaptability and dedication to meeting the evolving needs of the crypto community.

large_navigating-the-evolution-of-cow-swap-from-market-orders-to-programmatic-orders-cover-photo.png

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Navigating the Evolution of CoW Swap: From Market Orders to Programmatic Orders

## TL;DR

-   During the month of  **November**, CoW Protocol handled a total volume of  **$1.49B**, and generated a surplus of  **$11.2M**
-   In terms of Governance, CoW DAO executed CIP-33 and received two important CIP drafts in regards to charging protocol fees and changing the method in which the protocol collects fees
-   In exciting news, CoW Protocol launched a new class of orders called “Programmatic Orders,” launched a configurable CoW Swap widget, took over Istanbul during Devconnect, and participated in several Twitter spaces and podcasts

## Protocol Stats

This month, CoW Protocol settled a total of  **$1.49B.**

![1-November-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_November_2023_highlights_ff892a4ef9.webp)

The top 3 batches worth highlighting are the following:

-   **Batch with the highest % of CoW trades**  ([Transaction details](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x3dea3947bfd480bdfed6251c4a31ff4d040c14cc430338afa110ba7885e3de17?tab=graph)**)**. The total batch volume was  **$747,799.76** , and it was created by two traders who were perfectly CoWed for  **98%**  ($734,793.86) of their volume. One trader was buying tBTC for  **$371,378.52**, and the other trader was selling tBTC for  **$384,428 via a partially fillable limit order**.

![2-November-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_November_2023_highlights_2d2caf95bb.webp)

-   **Batch containing the highest volume**  ([Transaction details](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x0c41ee0a2d1c75034c9258579069dd2e8e7a2a5e59703865e2c0ac47343102c7?tab=graph&vis=transfers)**)**: The total batch volume was  **$8,813,659** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **$8.8M of USDT**  **for**  **$8.7M of USDC**.

![3-November-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_November_2023_highlights_550a6dba21.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest amount of surplus**  ([Transaction details](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0xb9a63242596218936cb0cd83d2cc460bf7504c563d54a4c2b3e8674f38975d20/?tab=graph&vis=transfers)**)**: The total batch volume was  **$133,898** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **RLB**  **for**  **USDC**. This trader achieved the largest surplus for the month of  **November**  by getting 99.33% surplus, which at the time of trade was roughly $**133,002 USDC**, proving once again that solvers are here to improve your trades, not to attack them.

![4-November-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_November_2023_highlights_90bab101e1.webp)

During the month of  **November**, the top 10 traders traded a total of  **$56M.**

![5-November-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/5_November_2023_highlights_79e346c7a3.webp)

In the table below you can see the total volume for this month’s biggest trades. The most active trader executed a whopping  **$27M**  in trades with CoW Protocol this month.

![6-November-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/6_November_2023_highlights_de62650639.webp)

## Solvers

In  **November**, solvers generated a total of  **$11.2M**  in surplus, which is money in the pockets of traders.

![7-November-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/7_November_2023_highlights_09eda2bfdd.webp)

Below you can find a breakdown of how each solver performed in November.

![8-November-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/8_November_2023_highlights_a807afb001.webp)

## Governance

It has been a steady month in terms of governance! The CoW cannot be stopped 💪

### Executed Proposals

This month the DAO executed one important proposals:

-   [CIP-33: Should the CoW Treasury Core unit be added to the MEVBlocker Rebates Safe?](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x999a4840ecb71e7edb4102caf19ea5f9ee7b237ece649a0d22eec74f7c1f1c16)

### Draft Proposals

This month, there was 2 new proposals asking for feedback before moving into the next phase, final CIPs, in their current form:

-   [CIP-Draft: Testing Fee Models for CoW Protocol](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-draft-testing-fee-models-for-cow-protocol/1984)
-   [CIP-Draft: Solver Computed Fees & Rank by Surplus](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-draft-solver-computed-fees-rank-by-surplus/2061)

Make sure to read them and leave comments — your feedback is highly appreciated and will help move these important topics forward. If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the CoW DAO, make sure to use the following  [template](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-0-template/28).

## CoWmunity News

-   [Launched a new class of orders with the release of the Programmatic Order Framework](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1722735351972983030?s=20)
-   [Launched a CoW Swap widget](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1724037068610056354?s=20)  to make it easier for projects to integrate with CoW Protocol and enjoy its benefits
-   [Proposed to CoW DAO an entirely new fee collecting method](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1729508014686601621?s=20)  aimed to reduce the selling pressure of $COW tokens by solvers.
-   [Took over Istanbul with our packed participation across different events during the Devconnect week](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1722341346827202687?s=20). Here are all the available talks:
  → Arbitrageurs’ profits, LVR, and sandwich attacks: batch trading as an AMM design response
-   Intent.wtf →  [Talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OXMPmpzFXU)  → Advancing Beyond Swap Intents |  [Panel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gxweVY9edU)  → The Role of Intent-Driven Transactions in DeFi’s Evolution
-   Good intentions →  [Talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTwC204N-68)  → CoW Swap more than swap intents |  [Panel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n2ChWn1ksQ)  → Intents and MEV Panel
-   Decentralized Scaling summit →  [Talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evyjRRteZCg)  → The rise of smart orders |  [Panel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Y-hf5BTWk)  → How do we balance privacy and surveillance?
-   MEV & Intents Day →  [Talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoFVSFn181Y)  → The rise of smart orders |  [Panel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xauLHm98zYc)  → Intents
-   [Sponsored the ETH Global Hackthon Istanbul where we had a great list of submissions for our bounties](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1726242733466280436?s=20)
-   Appeared on  [the Bell Curve Podcast to do a breakdown of Frequent Batch Auctions](https://x.com/thebellcurvepod/status/1725193559748272441?s=20), covering why they are superior to other auction types when it comes to DEX trading
-   [Mastercow launched his own treasure hunt](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1725579868581306859?s=20)  to make developers race for a treasure and understand the inner workings of the new Programmatic Order Framework
-   [Brave wallet improved the signing modal for CoWSwap](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1723027440472400107?s=20)  trades to make it easier for their users to understand what the intent they were signing was
-   Wrote an article about the DAO tooling product “[Milkman](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1727326002202935304?s=20)” explaining what it is, and how it works to your DAO’s benefit
-   Joined a Twitter space organized by Taiko debating if “[intents exists outside of Twitter](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1729818776013840586?s=20)”
-   Got featured by Chainpatrol.io on  [“Case studies in web3 brand protection”](https://x.com/ChainPatrol/status/1720096549009838328?s=20)
-   Covered CoW Swap in  [Spanish extensively at the DeFi Lab podcast](https://x.com/DeFi_LaB/status/1720113820624974279?s=20)
-   Wrapped up the MEV series articles with our latest article explaining  [what backrunning is](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1720143397527368001?s=20)
-   Posted a draft on the  [CoW DAO forum listing the reasons on why adding a protocol fee for CoW Protocol](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1720513622474920157?s=20)  is beneficial to the ecosystem and how CoW DAO should approach it
-   CoW Swap got  [integrated into Caddi Finnance](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1721559378401034573?s=20)
-   Jumped on a twitter spaces with Diego Defi to explain to our  [Hispanic community what CoW Swap is](https://x.com/diego_defi/status/1721921766132478295?s=20)  (Alta falopa ;) )

## Product Updates

**Backend**

The backend team has been working hard to improve the product infrastructure. In  **November**, we:

-   Worked on several Driver Colocation tests in prod for the new solver set up
-   Fixed error parsing score_cap CLI argument (caused slightly suboptimal score bidding)
-   Optimised driver pipeline (solve → encode → verify / simulate)
-   Worked on several performance optimization fixes for fetching liquidity for quoting
-   Worked on the liveness/readiness probe for the driver to improve rollover when deploying to the cluster
-   Migrated shadow competition to colocated setup (helps debug performance issues)
-   Worked on several performance improvements for the Enso simulator used in the solver submission checks

**Frontend**

The frontend team has been pushing hard for several improvements in the UI front, as well as the overall UI infrastructure. In  **November**, we:

-   Worked on the landing page for the CoW Swap widget, as well as on the configurator website
-   Widget codebase has been reiterated a few times
-   Improved the performance of loading balances on the CoW Swap UI
-   Improved the robustness of the WatchTower for TWAP orders
-   Worked on expanding the WatchTower capabilities to allow the indexing of all new programmatic order types by implementing an allow/deny list
-   Added widget theming 🌈 to allow teams to configure it to their branding

## Open Job Positions

The CoW Protocol team is currently not hiring

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Welcome back to another CoW update, where we break down the most notable developments of the last few weeks at CoW Protocol.

CoW Protocol November 2023 Highlights

_Blockchains enable reliable, trustless transactions on a large scale, however the automated nature of the technology leaves room for price manipulation by bots and malicious actors. In this talk, Olga Fetisova of CoW Protocol takes a look at Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) and its impact on the Ethereum ecosystem._

_The first part of the talk focuses on defining MEV and considering metrics, while the second part covers transparency initiatives, challenges, and solutions._

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hbgJYZlSU1k?si=IXHbjvmu9cdhWKC4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

_What follows is a transcript of Olga’s talk:_

## What is MEV?

![1-mev-transparency-a-dappcon-talk.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_mev_transparency_a_dappcon_talk_f6131f7a7a.webp)

Blockchain technology is great at ensuring the validity of all transactions and creating new blocks with no downtime, however not all transactions are ordered in the same manner that they are submitted.

While block producers have full autonomy over selecting which transactions to include in each block, they usually opt to maximize profits by ordering transactions based on the highest gas price. This means that validators may censor or re-order transactions before creating the block. Re-ordering transactions with a profit motive is known as “maximal extractable value” (MEV).

In other words, MEV is the profit extracted by miners or other actors in the blockchain network who insert, remove, and re-order transactions.

According to  [Flashbots](https://www.flashbots.net/), a research and development organization focusing on MEV, over $500 million in MEV has been extracted just since The Merge. This value is only the recorded amount paid out to Ethereum validators; the attackers themselves have earned much more.

As we can see, MEV creates a set of skewed incentives. On certain days, Ethereum validators earn more ETH from extracting MEV than from network fees themselves.

Some MEV activities are indeed legitimate, as the practice makes sure that transactions are ordered in an optimal way. Overall, however, the practice creates unfair advantages for a small minority.

Today we will talk about the most common types of MEV.

**Frontrunning attacks**

Frontrunning is when a bot sees a profitable transaction in a public mempool, duplicates it, and places their own order in front of the victim transaction, extracting its value for themselves.

**Backrunning attacks**

Very similar to frontrunning, but in reverse. In backrunning, the attacker places a transaction after the victim transaction to capitalize on any arbitrage left by the victim’s order.

Frontrunning and backrunning transactions are not very common by themselves, but a combination of the two, known as a “sandwich attack,” accounts for most MEV.

**Sandwich attacks**

Sandwich attacks combine frontrunning and backrunning, placing a buy order before the victim transaction and a sell order directly after. This creates a “sandwich” of the victim transaction.

Let’s take a deeper look into sandwich attacks.

## Sandwich attacks on the blockchain

![2-mev-transparency-a-dappcon-talk.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_mev_transparency_a_dappcon_talk_8e1295469d.webp)

A sandwich attack begins after a user places a transaction in the mempool.

During order placement, the user indicates a slippage tolerance. Slippage is the necessary deviation in price that a trader is willing to accept for their transaction. Since the user indicates that they are willing to accept a particular sub-optimal price, MEV bots take this opportunity to exploit the price of the asset and capture the value for themselves.

The bot frontruns the user by placing a transaction directly in front of the victim’s trade. This strategically raises the price of the token by the exact amount necessary to make the victim transaction clear at its maximum slippage tolerance.

After the user’s transaction goes through (at the max slippage), it pushes the price of the asset up even further. The bot places a sell transaction (backrunning) directly after, benefiting from this artificial price arbitrage.

In essence, the bot places a transaction at a low price, rides the user’s slippage and price impact up, and sells at a higher price.

The user loses out, as they have to pay more than they would have otherwise and they receive fewer tokens for their trade. This is not fair.

## MEV Attacks in Practice

We can look at the chain to examine sandwich attacks directly. If we see the same token trading multiple times in one block, this may be an indicator that MEV attacks are occurring.

![3-mev-transparency-a-dappcon-talk.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_mev_transparency_a_dappcon_talk_0bf4aae45b.webp)

In a block analyzed by the research organization  [ZeroMEV](https://zeromev.org/block?num=15956603), we can see that the DAI token was traded multiple times, suggesting actions by MEV bots.

The ZeroMEV analysis indicates that this block contains nearly $40 of lost value. The last transaction in the block was a payment to the miner in the form of 0.41 ETH, meaning that the attacker themselves earned an even higher amount.

![4-mev-transparency-a-dappcon-talk.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_mev_transparency_a_dappcon_talk_6d599f75e5.webp)

To put this into perspective, the average MEV payout per block is about $100. On certain days of volatile market activity, however, this value can be much higher.

![5-mev-transparency-a-dappcon-talk.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/5_mev_transparency_a_dappcon_talk_f76cf0cd60.webp)

![6-mev-transparency-a-dappcon-talk.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/6_mev_transparency_a_dappcon_talk_aa4faee6ce.webp)

Looking at  [a block from November 2022](https://zeromev.org/block?num=15957277)  around the time of the FTX crash, we can see a completely different set of numbers.

In just one block, a bot caused over $5,000 in user losses and the validator received a kickback of over 3.5 ETH, suggesting, once again, that the gains for the MEV bot were significantly higher.

One notorious MEV searcher is known as “jaredfromsubway.” In a report by  [The Block](https://www.theblock.co/post/230218/jaredfromsubway-mev-bot), this searcher earned $34 million through MEV extraction in just the span of 3 months.

Using  [on-chain data](https://transparency.flashbots.net/), we can break down MEV price exploits by DEX. In the below image, we can see that Uniswap V2 and V3 account for over 90% of all MEV attacks on Ethereum.

![7-mev-transparency-a-dappcon-talk.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/7_mev_transparency_a_dappcon_talk_d48aacf263.webp)

This, of course, is primarily as a result of Uniswap capturing the majority of trading liquidity — the more trades, the more potential MEV.

Thankfully, it’s quite simple to check if you have been MEV attacked. One of the easiest methods is by entering your Ethereum address on  [ZeroMEV’s website](https://zeromev.org/). You can also use a transaction hash or a particular block number.

![8-mev-transparency-a-dappcon-talk.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/8_mev_transparency_a_dappcon_talk_60f3ba93f7.webp)

## Transparency Initiatives

Several organizations specialize in tracking MEV. These include Flashbots, Eigenphi, and ZeroMEV, among others. There are, however, practical ways that you can protect yourself from MEV exploits.

One of the most effective methods involves using a specialized RPC (remote procedure call) endpoint. RPC endpoints send calls to the blockchain for data and stand as an intermediary between your wallet and the blockchain itself.

RPC endpoints can be swapped out by the user depending on their needs. Most wallet applications such as MetaMask make it relatively straightforward to add custom RPC endpoints. Some well-known examples of specialized RPC endpoints include  [MEV Blocker](https://mevblocker.io/),  [MEV-Share](https://docs.flashbots.net/flashbots-protect/mev-share), and  [BackRunMe](https://backrunme.com/).

## MEV Blocker

![9-mev-transparency-a-dappcon-talk.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/9_mev_transparency_a_dappcon_talk_08bc87a2fd.webp)

[MEV Blocker](https://mevblocker.io/)  was developed by CoW DAO and, as the name suggests, it provides MEV protection for users.

When a user submits a transaction using MEV Blocker, rather than sending it to the public Ethereum mempool, the RPC sends the transaction to a specialized private pool. This conceals the transaction from public exposure, protecting it from exploitation by MEV searchers.

As an extra layer of security, MEV Blocker generates fake transactions that prevent probabilistic exploitation by advanced searchers. In addition, MEV Blocker offers rebates on trades by capturing value from potential backrunning opportunities. If a user transaction creates a backrunning opportunity, MEV Blocker guarantees that at least 90% of the backrunning value will be forwarded back to the user in the form of a rebate.

While it’s relatively new, MEV Blocker has already enjoyed a meteoric rise. So far, the RPC endpoint accounts for $16 billion in protected volume and 370 ETH in user savings.

To add MEV Blocker to your wallet, check out the MEV Blocker website:  [https://mevblocker.io/](https://mevblocker.io/)

## Dedicated dApps

While RPC endpoints protect against price exploitation, the most extensive MEV protection comes at the application layer.

One dApp that provides comprehensive MEV protection is  [CoW Swap](https://swap.cow.fi/). CoW Swap is a meta-DEX aggregator that matches orders with the best liquidity available on-chain and protects trades from MEV exploitation.

CoW Swap actually sends all transactions through MEV Blocker by default, but the dApp also uses some extra techniques to combat MEV.

1.  **Delegated Trade Execution**: On CoW Swap, dedicated parties known as “[solvers](https://docs.cow.fi/solvers/solvers)” execute transactions on behalf of the users. This means that users are never directly exposed to the chain, as they only sign an “intent to trade” message which the solvers execute as a blockchain order.
2.  **Coincidence of Wants (CoW)**: CoW Swap enables users to trade off-chain with each other through a peer-to-peer trading mechanism. These trades don’t have to go through the public mempool, so they avoid the dangers lurking there.
3.  **Uniform Clearing Prices**: Transactions on CoW Swap get grouped together into “batches.” Each time a particular asset (such as WETH) trades in a batch, it trades for a constant price. This mechanism obviates the price advantages of reordering transactions, preventing MEV exploits.

These two categories of protection — RPC endpoints and dedicated dApps — are the current ways that we can protect ourselves from MEV attacks. It’s important to remember, however, that MEV is a broader problem that evolves quickly, with bots constantly finding new ways to attack us and steal our precious ETH.

## Conclusion

There are many challenges in combating MEV.

For one, there is a lack of data availability. Centralized exchanges, for example, don’t share their data so it’s difficult to understand the full scale of the MEV problem and come up with a complete solution.

While lots of organizations focus on combating MEV, the issue continues to pose a significant challenge. This also creates opportunities, however, for the community to come together, innovate, and ensure that Ethereum remains the gold standard in the blockchain world.


## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, market makers, and community contributors on a mission to create a fairer, more protective financial system. CoW DAO currently supports  [CoW Swap](http://swap.cow.fi/),  [CoW Protocol](https://cow.fi/), and  [MEV Blocker](https://mevblocker.io/)  — DeFi products that leverage order flow auctions to protect users from MEV attacks and give them more than they ask for.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)


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A DappCon Talk by Olga Fetisova of CoW DAO


MEV Transparency: Ensuring Fairness In DeFi Markets

On CoW Protocol, rather than sending on-chain transactions with predefined swap instructions, users submit signed  [intent-to-trade messages](/learn/cow-protocol-glossary#:~:text=Intent%20to%20Trade). These messages contain some order details, like which assets to trade in which amounts, but leave other details to be optimized by  [solvers](https://docs.cow.fi/cow-protocol/tutorials/solvers).

One important parameter of these intents is min_out — the minimum amount of buy tokens a user is willing to receive for their sell tokens (or the buy amount, minus the maximum allowable slippage set by the user). Min_out works really well when a trade is intended for immediate or near-immediate execution, because it allows solvers to improve prices for users while protecting them from unfavorable price movements. However, when prices fluctuate a lot, min_out can be overly-restricting.

## **What is delayed execution trading?**

Simply put, delayed execution trades are trades intended to execute at some point far in the near future.

Many smart contract wallet users, such as DAOs, frequently need to create these types of orders. Take the following examples:

-   DAOs that need trades to execute after passing a governance process
-   Groups that need hours to collect signatures to execute trades from a multisig wallet
-   Applications that process automated swaps years in the future (e.g. for payroll or treasury management)

With extra time, prices can fluctuate wildly — and this creates a dilemma for traders:

If the buy token price falls and the min_out is too high, the order might not execute. But if the min_out is too low, the trader risks getting an unnecessarily poor execution price. (CoW Protocol solvers compete against each other to give users better prices, but placing such a high level of trust in solvers can be undesirable for very high-volume traders.)

![1-what-is-milkman.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_what_is_milkman_0518ebe1f4.webp)

If a user signs an intent to swap 1 ETH for a “min out” of 2000 USDC, there is no way for the trade to return any less than 2000 USDC

![2-what-is-milkman.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_what_is_milkman_08ab1cbaac.webp)

But setting a low “min out” risks leaving money on the table

## **What is Milkman?**

Milkman is a smart contract that solves the above dilemma for smart contract wallets.

It does this by allowing smart contracts to specify an on-chain data source (such as an oracle) to use as a reference for min_out — effectively turning min_out into a dynamic price backstop for their trade.

Let’s say you want to sell 1000 ETH for USDC, but you want to do it far in the future. To protect yourself from volatile price movements, you can supply Milkman to create the order based on with the Chainlink price feed for ETH/USDC, and Milkman at the time of order placement will dynamically adjust the minimum amount you’ll receive based on that price feed.

When the time comes to execute your trade, CoW Protocol will receive it with a min_out that accurately reflects prices at that point in time; and solvers will compete to improve the price on top of that, as they always do.

![3-what-is-milkman.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_what_is_milkman_7f4ab32979.webp)

## **Milkman for DAOs**

Milkman is particularly well-suited to many DAO-related use cases, because DAO governance processes often delay trades and because amounts traded by DAOs can be very large.

Several well-known DAOs, including  [Aave](/learn/aave-trade-breakdown)  and  [ENS](/learn/ens-trade-breakdown), have already used Milkman to trade over $20M worth of tokens. Beyond allowing these DAOs to count on reliable prices, Milkman lets them reduce their overall number of governance votes and gives them standard CoW Swap benefits like best price execution and  [best-in-class](https://eigenphi.substack.com/p/sandwich-mevs-impact-on-cow-swap)  MEV protection — critical for large trades.

Milkman is also natively integrated as a  [recipe on Tally](/learn/tally-recipe-for-cow-swaps), the widely-used DAO management platform — removing even more trading friction for DAOs.

## **Technical details**

Milkman follows a UniV2-style interface. To interact with Milkman, smart contracts need only to call the following function:

> _function requestSwapExactTokensForTokens(_
> 
> _uint256 amountIn,_
> 
> _IERC20 fromToken,_
> 
> _IERC20 toToken,_
> 
> _address to,_
> 
> _address priceChecker,_
> 
> _bytes calldata priceCheckerData_
> 
> _)_

The priceChecker is the data feed provider, and priceCheckerData is an array of arbitrary bytes that the function passes to the price checker (e.g. the desired slippage tolerance).

Price checkers have been deployed for Chainlink, Curve, SushiSwap, Uniswap V2, Uniswap V3, and combinations of these. The core Milkman code can be found  [here](https://github.com/cowdao-grants/milkman). Anyone can run a  Milkman bot, which simply functions as a hook that watches for new swap requests and surfaces them to CoW Protocol. Running a bot is fairly easy if you have a Kubernetes cluster; the instructions are in the repo.

Milkman was developed by  [Yearn Finance](https://yearn.fi/)  in partnership with CoW Protocol, through the  [CoW Grants Program](https://grants.cow.fi/).

Long live Milkman! And may you benefit from his commitment to bringing you favorable prices!

![4-what-is-milkman.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_what_is_milkman_185027226b.webp)


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Milkman is a simple contract that lets DAOs and other smart contract wallet users set dynamic price backstops for orders that will execute in the future!


What is Milkman? CoW Swap’s Solution for Delayed Execution Trading

## TL;DR

-   During the month of October, CoW Protocol handled a total volume of  **$998M**, and generated a surplus of  **$6.3M**
-   In exciting news, CoW Protocol launched  [fully gasless transactions](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1714633297408696409?s=20),  [dressed up for Halloween](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1717873465028682130?s=20), got some  [love from Binance Research](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1714387540457947396?s=20), and much more

## Protocol Stats

This month, CoW Protocol settled a total of **$998M.**

![1-october-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_october_2023_highlights_132809a9ad.webp)

The top 3 batches worth highlighting are the following:

**Batch with the highest % of CoW trades**  [(Transaction details)](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x924c98ee2a6da650ce0828a2bc722c35f6924e4b490c5ed41f4153f75d85f8aa?tab=orders): The total batch volume was  **$3,078,084.40,** and it was created by two traders who were perfectly CoWed for  **51% ($1,576,169.65)** of their volume. One trader was buying  **DAI for FRAX**, and the other trader was buying  **FRAX for DAI**.

![2-october-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_october_2023_highlights_d343c2eba3.webp)

**Batch containing the highest volume**  [(Transaction details)](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x9b86f6189c18116fadccb4f262b6cd5bb41c77ab5a988663dc8424b6f89809b3?tab=orders&vis=transfers): The total batch volume was  **$9,150,950.72** and it was created by three traders who were swapping  **DAI**  to  **USDC, DAI** to **ETH, and ETH** to **JOE**.

![3-october-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_october_2023_highlights_a69b0be379.webp)

**Batch with the highest amount of surplus**  [(Transaction details)](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x6413df8b8351d6177af1da8b0bc0440e01b7a5f160d3d3802c3f784636c7f165/?tab=orders&vis=transfers): The total batch volume was  **$9987,355** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **USDC**  **to ETH**. This trader achieved the largest surplus for the month of October by getting 62 ETH, which was roughly  **$100K (11% surplus),**  extra.

![4-october-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_october_2023_highlights_00ed78e3c6.webp)

During the month of  **October**, the top 10 traders traded a total of  **$71M.**

![5-october-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/5_october_2023_highlights_1b9fdad0ec.webp)

In the table below you can see the total volume for this month’s biggest trades. The most active trader executed a whopping  **$66M**  in trades with CoW Protocol this month.

![6-october-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/6_october_2023_highlights_81ec197430.webp)

## Solvers
In  **October**, solvers generated a total of  **$6.3M**  in surplus, which is money in the pockets of traders.

![7-october-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/7_october_2023_highlights_04c5a108b4.webp)

Below you can find a breakdown of how each solver performed in October.

![8-october-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/8_october_2023_highlights_8a1bd1b03b.webp)

## Governance

It has been a hectic month in terms of governance. CoW DAO executed 3 proposals! After a relaxing month in September, the CoWs came back in force for October 💪.

![9-october-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/9_october_2023_highlights_c5eeb5d39e.webp)

### Executed Proposals

This month the DAO executed three important proposals:

-   [CIP-31: Change CoW DAO’s (cow.eth) Snapshot space settings](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x6dd13bfc9eae35a5f597cea373f21947d4c701ba7ce065c66934c560847484cc)  (As well as  [CIP-31.2: Change CoW DAO’s (cow.eth) Snapshot space settings](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0xf6ff58bd97c8c591d0fd4db3a9082864b7fa85c45734234af49f61f7f770cfb8))
-   [CIP-32: MEV Blocker Funding](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x18ed839f7e3f10615ca28fe05b164856ba4e9cfa5f7d7f7a5fcbc89523392560)
-   [CIP-33: Should the CoW Treasury Core unit be added to the MEVBlocker Rebates Safe?](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x999a4840ecb71e7edb4102caf19ea5f9ee7b237ece649a0d22eec74f7c1f1c16)

### Draft Proposals

This month, there was one new proposal asking for feedback before moving into the next phase, a final CIP, in its current form:

-   [CIP-Draft: Testing Fee Models for CoW Protocol](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-draft-testing-fee-models-for-cow-protocol/1984/1)

Make sure to read the CIP draft proposal and leave comments — your feedback is highly appreciated and helps move these important topics forward. If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the CoW DAO, make sure to use the following  [template](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-0-template/28).

## CoWmunity News

-   Announced  [gasless approvals](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1714633297408696409?s=20), reducing CoW gas emissions and enabling fully ETH-less trading for a wide range of tokens
-   For Halloween, the CoW Swap website got a  [spooky makeover](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1717873465028682130?s=20)  including a custom theme,  [Halloween-themed fortune cookies](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1718609373973324187?s=20), and a  [special Layer3 Quest](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1719021671372533793?s=20)
-   Stackly launched a  [DCA solution built on top of CoW Protocol](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1716533044117389624?s=20)  to Mainnet
-   CoW Swap received coverage in a Binance Research report on  [intents](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1714387540457947396?s=20)
-   The team hosted an Intent.wtf  [Twitter space](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1716762010442940724?s=20)  with Particle Network and the Enso solver
-   The team  [hosted a happy cow-hour](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1715321314594955532?s=20)  on Discord unveiling the new solver-driver architecture. As a special community treat, the team waived all CoW Swap fees for the duration of the hour
-   A grant proposal for the development of a Milkman Safe App  [passed in voting](https://snapshot.org/#/cowgrants.eth/proposal/0x37cb0d505bed0e78283b69779dc6e963382f3a0f050026c4e3ced565a48d3710)  on Snapshot
-   The CoW Protocol team published several articles to the blog:  [Announcing Gasless Approvals on CoW Swap](https://blog.cow.fi/announcing-gasless-approvals-on-cow-swap-0bb803d900c2),  [What is Backrunning? — MEV Attacks Explained](https://blog.cow.fi/what-is-backrunning-mev-attacks-explained-38692250690c), and  [Understanding Order Flow Auctions](https://blog.cow.fi/understanding-order-flow-auctions-5532d4ef2f40)

## Open Job Positions

The CoW Protocol team is currently not hiring

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)



Welcome back to another monthly CoW update, where we break down the most notable developments of the last few weeks at CoW Protocol.


CoW Protocol October 2023 Highlights

As a pioneer in the field of intents, CoW Swap has consistently brought faster, easier, and safer trading to DAOs and DeFi enthusiasts.

As DeFi grows and transactions become ever-more complex, the friction of having to sign and make orders manually becomes more pronounced. Traders looking to place recurring orders as a part of a complex trading strategy, DAO operators responsible for managing a treasury, and individuals tired of signing repetitive transactions could all benefit from a system that allows for automated order placement.

Today, CoW Protocol is proud to announce the release of two features that take the pain out of order placement and open up a wide range of possibilities for automation.

To start off, we’re introducing a new order primitive to the world of DeFi. We call it “Programmatic Orders”. Programmatic Orders are orders that create more orders. They require just one signature to create, then execute when on-chain conditions (prices, volumes, balances, times, etc.) are met. Programmatic Orders can execute indefinitely into the future, automating everything from complex trading strategies to advanced order types, portfolio management, DAO operations, and more.

Alongside Programmatic Orders, CoW Protocol is launching the Programmatic Order Framework. As the name implies, it’s a framework that allows for the easy creation of Programmatic Orders.

Below, we take a deeper look at Programmatic Orders, the Programmatic Order Framework, and the technical details necessary for implementation. We also call on the DeFi ecosystem to submit proposals for building applications on top of the Programmatic Order Framework through the  [CoW Grants Program](https://grants.cow.fi/).

## The current state of programmatic actions

The DeFi space currently supports very simple programmatic actions — for example, individual limit orders. Unfortunately, users have to trust a centralized operator to execute these actions correctly and fairly.

Despite the rise of autonomous agents in the wake of initiatives like ERC-1271, the vast majority of interactions are performed manually, which means there is a dependency on individuals, and a central point of failure.

Even when orders are executed properly, users still have to sign a transaction every time they want to place a new order. This may not be an issue for one-off transactions, but it starts to become a nuisance for frequent, recurring transactions.

The Programmatic Order Framework is built to address these problems.

## The Programmatic Order Framework: A decentralized solution for automated orders

At its core, the Programmatic Order Framework brings simplicity to order creation by automating the boilerplate code necessary for order placement. This allows DeFi users to programmatically create any set of orders and automatically approve them for execution with just a single signature.

Users can create advanced order types (such as Stop Loss and TWAP orders), automate DAO payrolls, and create or destroy multiple orders with just one on-chain transaction. Thanks to a “WatchTower” relayer, orders built with the Programmatic Order Framework execute automatically whenever certain on-chain conditions are met, eliminating the need for tedious and repetitive signatures for programmatic actions.

The framework is a plug-and-play system that takes in order logic and executes orders in perpetuity based on on-chain conditions. Creating orders only requires coding the order logic itself. The rest of the swap components like order creation, order validation, signature validation, API calls, order placement, and order settlement are provided by the framework itself.

![1-programmatic-order-framework.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_programmatic_order_framework_5ee644e722.webp)

The key unlock of the Programmatic Order Framework is the low cost of deploying, updating, and deleting orders in large quantities. Developers only need to write code specifying the particular type of order they’d like to execute and the framework takes care of everything else — storing the data, validating parameters, and placing orders.

The WatchTower relayer verifies that order conditions are met, validates the order signature, and places the order on behalf of the user’s smart contract. To make deploying Programmatic Orders easy, CoW Protocol runs a default WatchTower that users can route orders through. However, users can also run their own WatchTower instance for maximum privacy.

## The all-in-one order automation kit

With the Programmatic Order Framework, a single signature can create hundreds of Programmatic Orders. The WatchTower monitors on-chain order conditions continuously and places orders whenever these conditions are met.

For example, a DAO with a diverse treasury can set up conditional orders for each token within its treasury. Based on these conditions, the framework may initiate a swap to rotate into stables when the treasury value rises above a certain threshold, or it may initiate a payout for DAO contractors on a given day of the month.

As the treasury receives various tokens, the framework executes trades accordingly, making DAO financial operations simple and automatic.

## Benefits of the Programmatic Order Framework

The Programmatic Order Framework unlocks a world of convenience for individuals and on-chain organizations:

-   **Leverage on-chain conditions**: Build highly complex use-cases that rely on custom conditional order logic through the Programmatic Order Framework. Create orders that get picked up by the WatchTower on a certain date, once the balance of your contract or wallet is above a defined threshold, or based on other on-chain conditions
-   **Deploy orders en masse**: Create hundreds or even thousands of orders with a single on-chain transaction. Developers can also mass-update orders all at once with a single gas payment by simply updating the Merkle root with another transaction
-   **Execute many orders in parallel**: In a traditional smart contract wallet, orders execute sequentially. With the Programmatic Order Framework, the WatchTower monitors your orders and executes them as soon as the on-chain conditions are met, meaning you can execute many orders simultaneously

Most importantly, the framework is  **fully decentralized**, providing 100% trustless execution with no intermediate contracts or centralized parties.

## Examples & use-cases

With the Programmatic Order Framework, you can program a limitless number of use-cases:

-   **Special order types**: Gone are the days of centralized exchanges offering order types you can’t get in DeFi. Program intricate order types like stop-loss, good-after-time, and take-profit orders — plus many more. CoW Swap’s very own  [TWAP feature](https://blog.cow.fi/why-twap-25d9a0f690f4)  is built using the Programmatic Order Framework
-   **Automated DAO operations**: Blockchain-native organizations like DAOs process hundreds or even thousands of transactions every month. Thanks to the Programmatic Order Framework, your DAO can automate payroll, treasury diversification, fee collection, or any other type of repetitive transaction
-   **Portfolio rebalancing**: Set up order logic to programmatically rebalance assets based on a portfolio value. Automatically diversify based on market conditions or use custom logic to manage loan risk, farm yield, or hedge positions
-   **Private conditional orders**:  Thanks to the framework’s support for private WatchTower configurations, traders can place highly complex conditional orders while simultaneously keeping them private. Buy and sell tokens through a recurring strategy while keeping your parameters hidden
-   **Protocol integrations**: The Programmatic Order Framework isn’t  _just_  for Safe! DeFi protocols can leverage its power to assist with recurring protocol-level transactions like loan liquidations
-   **Easy transaction modules**: Program custom functionality into any order type. Companies can build DAO tooling with a fraction of the complexity. Focus on building adoption rather than fiddling with backend tech

With just a few lines of code, the Programmatic Order Framework brings convenience and predictability to all types of DeFi actions.

## What will you build, anon?

CoW Protocol is bringing Programmatic Orders to Ethereum through the Programmatic Order Framework. Create any order type you can imagine and deploy it instantly — all within the security of your own smart contract wallet.

The  [CoW Grants Program](https://grants.cow.fi/)  is also putting out a request for proposals relating to the Programmatic Order Framework. Have an idea for a solution built on top of the framework (especially one that includes a UI)? Submit a grant proposal!

The Programmatic Order Framework is now live. Read the documentation  [here](https://hackmd.io/pmZX_qT2Q1yw59KiiT6TPQ)  to get started.

Have questions? The CoW Protocol team is here to help: join us on  [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/cowprotocol)  or send us a  [Twitter DM](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap).

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

large_introducing-the-programmatic-order-framework-from-cow-protocol-cover-photo.webp

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Programmatic Orders enable a world of possibilities in DeFi; they’re now easier to create than ever thanks to CoW Protocol’s Programmatic Order Framework

Introducing the Programmatic Order Framework, from CoW Protocol

## Overview

-   Backrunning is one of the three main types of MEV, but it’s the least harmful as it only involves capturing arbitrage left over after a large trade
-   When a trader places a large trade that artificially inflates the price of an asset on an AMM, an MEV bot can backrun the trade and profit from the arbitrage
-   CoW Swap eliminates backrunning opportunities through its delegated trading mechanism, while MEV Blocker pays out rebates for any backrunning opportunities user trades create when transacting anywhere on Ethereum

![what-is-backrunning-mev-attacks-explained-cover-photo.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/what_is_backrunning_mev_attacks_explained_cover_photo_7573e1bea9.webp)

Backrunning is a specific type of MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) which causes some traders to miss out on potential profit opportunities from their trades.

In practice, backrunning involves strategically executing a transaction immediately after another, high-value transaction. By doing this, the backrunning transaction capitalizes on the arbitrage opportunity left over from the  [price impact](/learn/cow-protocol-glossary#:~:text=Price%20impact) of the initial transaction.

Backrunning involves the tactical use of the information contained within the Ethereum mempool — a holding area for all pending transactions — to place transactions immediately after high-value trades in order to profit.

Out of the three types of MEV ([frontrunning](/learn/what-is-frontrunning),  [sandwich attacks](/learn/what-is-a-sandwich-attack-and-how-can-you-protect-yourself), and backrunning) backrunning is considered the least harmful. In fact, if performed by itself, this method simply captures the arbitrage opportunity left over by a large trade without affecting the initial trade itself. Backrunning is only harmful to the user when combined with a  [frontrunning attack](/learn/what-is-frontrunning), which results in the worst kind of MEV —  [the sandwich attack](/learn/what-is-a-sandwich-attack-and-how-can-you-protect-yourself).

For advanced traders who are capable of capturing the leftover arbitrage from their trades, backrunning may be considered a missed opportunity since it’s technically money left on the table.

Thankfully, not everyone has to be an experienced trader to capture the backrunning profits from their trades. Retail traders can automatically benefit from backrunning opportunities through specialized RPC endpoints such as  [MEV Blocker](https://mevblocker.io/).

## How backrunning works

The most common perpetrators of backrunning are MEV bots programmed to monitor pending Ethereum transactions. These bots place strategic trades directly after existing trades in order to capture the arbitrage left over from their price impact.

The process takes advantage of the mechanisms of  [automated market makers (AMMs)](/learn/cow-protocol-glossary#:~:text=amm). Whenever a large trade goes through, it imbalances the liquidity pools of the AMM, causing the price of the asset being sold to go down, and the price of the asset being bought to go up. This price imbalance leaves an arbitrage that MEV bots correct by placing a follow-up trade, earning a profit in the process.

## Backrunning example

To better understand the concept of backrunning, let’s consider an example scenario. In this example, a user named Alex initiates a substantial trade, selling $10,000 of ETH to buy COW on Uniswap. Due to the nature of AMMs, this swap leads to a jump in the value of COW and a drop in the value of ETH on this particular exchange (Uniswap).

At the same time, an MEV bot notices Alex’s large transaction and springs into action. The MEV bot acquires Alex’s sell token (ETH) at this lower price and immediately turns around and sells it for a higher price on a different exchange where this price arbitrage has not yet been reflected. The bot profits from the price difference between the assets on these two exchanges.

From a technical perspective, Alex’s transaction doesn’t result in any realized loss for him, since he still got the price he was quoted for his trade. However, his trade created an arbitrage opportunity that he didn’t capture, leaving money on the table.

The actions of the MEV bot have broader implications for the DeFi ecosystem. Bots monopolize arbitrage opportunities between exchanges and deny regular users the chance to benefit from the price impact their trades create.

## Related MEV tactics

[**Frontrunning**](/learn/what-is-frontrunning)**:** In a frontrunning attack, an MEV bot spots a profitable transaction, duplicates it, and offers a higher gas fee so that validators execute the duplicate transaction before the original one. In effect, the MEV bot hijacks the profits of the original transaction and keeps them for itself.

[**Sandwich Attacks**](/learn/what-is-a-sandwich-attack-and-how-can-you-protect-yourself)**:**  This tactic combines frontrunning and backrunning. An attacker first executes a frontrunning transaction before a valuable trade, pushing the price of the asset up to the slippage tolerance set by the victim trade. This increases the price of the purchased asset. The victim trade then goes through at this new higher price and its price impact raises the price of the asset even more. Finally, the attacker performs a backrunning attack which captures the newly-created arbitrage, generating a profit in the process.

## How harmful is backrunning?

Backrunning is not as harmful as the other types of MEV attacks since it doesn’t result in traders receiving a worse price for their trades. Rather, it simply means that traders leave money on the table by not capturing the arbitrage opportunities from their large trades.

This opportunity cost primarily affects advanced traders who would otherwise be able to capture this arbitrage for themselves. Everyday traders are usually not sophisticated enough to backrun their own trades, so backrunning does not really result in measurably worse outcomes for them.

However,  [MEV Blocker](https://mevblocker.io/)  can help anyone trading on Ethereum automatically capture any backrunning opportunities that their trades create.

## How CoW Swap protects against backrunning

CoW Swap has developed an innovative set of mechanisms for mitigating harm from all types of MEV, including backrunning. The system relies on  [Order Flow Auctions](/learn/understanding-order-flow-auctions)  that gather and consolidate user orders into a batch before execution. Specialized parties known as “[solvers](https://docs.cow.fi/cow-protocol/tutorials/solvers)’’ compete to find the most optimal execution path and provide the best settlement solution.

The design of CoW Swap helps protect against MEV attacks in several ways:

1.  **Delegated trade execution**: When users submit orders on CoW Swap, they are not directly initiating a blockchain transaction, like they would on Uniswap for example. Instead, users submit orders as signed “[intent to trade](/learn/cow-protocol-glossary#:~:text=Intent%20to%20Trade)” messages which include the details of the intended trade, but don’t actually get submitted to the blockchain. The solvers then find the best execution path for the specified trade and execute the trade on-chain on behalf of the user.
2.  **Uniform clearing prices:**  The batch auction system ensures that each asset in the batch only executes for a single price, even if there are multiple trades using that asset. This negates the price variations inherent to AMMs that result in different prices for trades within the same block due to sequential transaction processing. Uniform clearing prices nullify the strategy of transaction re-ordering, thereby mitigating the impact of MEV.
3.  **Liquidity:**  CoW Swap’s unique solver design executes trades optimally without leaving room for arbitrage opportunities. Thanks to Uniform Clearing Prices, all token pairs traded in the same batch will clear at the same price, leaving liquidity pools balanced with no opportunity for arbitrage.

In addition, CoW Swap leverages off-chain interactions known as “[Coincidences of Wants](/learn/what-are-cows-on-cow-swap)” (CoWs) to swap user assets peer-to-peer, leaving zero room for MEV. Furthermore, the protocol’s Order Flow Auction mechanism ensures that user trades are maximally protected from all types of MEV.

Backrunning is prevalent in the DeFi space, leaving everyday traders with suboptimal outcomes at the expense of searchers & MEV bots. However, innovative solutions like CoW Swap are combating the issue of backrunning and MEV as a whole through innovative Order Flow Auction design.

## MEV Blocker — Profit from backrunning

On  [CoW Swap](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=backrunning-article), your orders are protected from all types of MEV, including backrunning, sandwich attacks, and frontrunning.

CoW DAO has taken MEV protection a step further, however, with  [MEV Blocker](https://mevblocker.io/). MEV Blocker is a custom RPC endpoint that you add to your crypto wallet which routes all of your transactions through a trusted network of searchers that scan for backrunning opportunities, but cannot frontrun or sandwich your trades. The best part? The RPC passes the profits from backrunning opportunities back to you in the form of rebates. This means you can make money from any backrunning opportunity you create just by routing your transactions through MEV Blocker.

MEV Blocker works on all types of transactions across all of DeFi. Just  [add the RPC endpoint to your wallet](https://mevblocker.io/#rpc)  and start trading.

While MEV Blocker should be part of every Ethereum user’s arsenal, it’s still optimal to use CoW Swap when doing swaps. CoW Swap is specifically engineered to give traders the best prices and protect against all types of MEV without leaving backrunning opportunities.

Remember: if you’re swapping, use CoW Swap. For everything else, rely on MEV Blocker.

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

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What is Backrunning? — MEV Attacks Explained


The CoW Swap team is excited to release a simpler trading experience for its users. Gasless approvals allow traders to swap over 150 tokens completely gaslessly through CoW Swap.

Before the launch of gasless approvals, CoW Swap users benefitted from gasless trading thanks to CoW Swap’s  [intent-based](/learn/cow-protocol-glossary#:~:text=Intent%20to%20Trade)  execution model. However, they still needed to pay gas fees (in ETH) to execute approval transactions the first time they wanted to trade any token.

With gasless approvals, CoW Swap now allows users to sign a message (gas free!) that gives  [solvers](https://docs.cow.fi/solvers/solvers)  permission to execute the approval transaction on their behalf. Solvers then bundle the approval transaction with the first swap, and users pay fees in the sell token.

The result? Users can now do an entire swap, even for a new token, without spending a gwei in ETH, or even holding any ETH in their wallet at all. That’s a smoooooother (and cheaper) user experience. Moo-gnificent!

## Benefits of gasless approvals

This new upgrade comes with a host of benefits relevant to EOA and multisig wallets alike.

-   **Fully ETH-less swaps:** New users and fresh wallets can complete swaps end-to-end without needing ETH — that’s especially nice for airdrop farmers and privacy seekers
-   **Faster trades**: CoW Swap users don’t have to wait for an approval transaction to execute before the swap — traders can now swap right away, even with tokens they haven’t traded before
-   **Bundling efficiency**: Approval transactions execute alongside orders, in the same block — shielded from fluctuating gas prices, for a more cost-efficient experience overall
-   **Enhanced security**: Only an approved spender can execute transactions on behalf of a trader — users can trust that CoW Swap is as secure as ever

## Gasless approvals under the hood

Gasless approvals rely on  [ERC-2612: Permit Extension for EIP-20 Signed Approvals](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-2612).

Essentially, a function creates a signature that can call approvals directly on behalf of the owner. This allows a third party, such as a solver, to spend funds on behalf of the user. For security, gasless approvals rely on nonces which indicate the number of times a permit signature has been used. (There is also a time window in which the signature must be used.) This protects users from replay attacks because it is impossible to replicate an approval with the same nonce.

Each Ethereum transaction has a minimum fixed transaction cost associated with it. When executing transactions individually, this cost is usually higher per action than if users bundle multiple transactions together. So, in addition to creating a better user experience for traders, gasless approvals also lower the overall cost of trading on CoW Swap.

## Now live on CoW Swap

Gasless approvals are now live on  [CoW Swap](https://swap.cow.fi/#/1)  for Ethereum Mainnet. See which tokens are currently supported by checking out the  [CoW Swap Permittable Tokens List](https://hackmd.io/@mastercow/cowswap-gasless-approvals).

As always, on CoW Swap:

-   Orders are free to place and cancel
-   Traders never pay for failed transactions
-   Fees that cover settlement costs are paid in traders’ sell tokens
-   Traders are fully protected from MEV

Happy trading!

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

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Announcing Gasless Approvals on CoW Swap


## TL;DR

-   During the month of September, CoW Protocol handled a total volume of $**772M**, and generated a surplus of  **$4.8M**
-   In exciting news, CoW Protocol ran the  [TWAP-tember trading contest](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1697638081082556725?s=20), integrated oSnap for  [better decentralized governance](https://medium.com/@cow-protocol/cow-dao-integrates-osnap-for-decentralized-governance-42b8f6c42660), hosted a booth at  [DappCon](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1701193378208137377?s=20), and much more

## Protocol Stats

This month, CoW Protocol settled a total of **$772M.**

![1-september-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_september_2023_highlights_a3af17e6e8.webp)

This month, the top 3 batches worth highlighting are the following:

-   **Batch with the highest % of CoW trades**  [(Transaction details)](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x7e1ec020695aa5797d9372f0513970d369fbece8b4ec9b7fea21c06dc7ca8612?tab=orders). The total batch volume was  **$1,571,462.41**, and it was created by two traders who were perfectly CoWed for  **61% ($966,799.56)** of their volume. One trader was buying  **$cbETH**, and the other trader was selling  **WETH**.

![2-september-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_september_2023_highlights_9ae329c916.webp)

-   **Batch containing the highest volume**  [(Transaction details)](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x4aef2109d2c99e6822bff66f3a508858cea5ab14bc932ce306f542aef6b95c63?tab=orders&vis=transfers): The total batch volume was  **$20,834,561.93** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **USDC**  to  **DAI**.

![3-september-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_september_2023_highlights_223272ee64.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest amount of surplus**  [(Transaction details)](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x6ef290e2a8d35b7b050319ee182345b6933ed24de690d67ceb64bb2268c535ba?tab=orders): The total batch volume was  **$97,406.4226** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **BOND**  **to**  **DAI**. This trader achieved the largest surplus for the month of  **September**, by getting  **$76,201.52 (11% surplus)**  extra in DAI.

![4-september-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_september_2023_highlights_eb51f8d53a.webp)

During the month of  **September**, the top 10 traders traded a total of  **$80M.**

![5-september-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/5_september_2023_highlights_5b1431f313.webp)

In the table below you can see the total volume for this month’s biggest trades. Our most active trader executed a whopping  **$55M**  in trades with CoW Protocol this month.

![6-september-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/6_september_2023_highlights_82c11c4600.webp)

## Solvers

In  **September**, solvers generated a total of  **$4.8M**  in surplus, which is money in the pockets of traders.

![7-september-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/7_september_2023_highlights_bee4ae7db8.webp)

Below you can find a breakdown of how each solver performed in September.

![8-september-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/8_september_2023_highlights_3028469d9c.webp)

## Governance

It was a quiet month in terms of governance. The CoWs were just chilling.

![9-september-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/9_september_2023_highlights_8b9340ebd6.webp)

### Draft Proposals

This month, there was one new proposal asking for feedback before moving into the next phase, a final CIP, in its current form:

-   [CIP-Draft: Change CoW DAO’s (cow.eth) Snapshot space settings](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-draft-change-cow-daos-cow-eth-snapshot-space-settings/1897/1)

### Technical Discussions

As an “agora” for technical topics on batch auctions or CoW Protocol-related topics, the forum surfaced some very interesting posts:

-   [Guidelines for solver-computed fees for long-standing limit orders as implied by past CIPs](https://forum.cow.fi/t/guidelines-for-solver-computed-fees-for-long-standing-limit-orders-as-implied-by-past-cips/1921/1)
-   [Implementing Liquidations using CoW Protocol](https://forum.cow.fi/t/implementing-liquidations-using-cow-protocol/1922/1)

Make sure to read them and leave comments — your feedback is highly appreciated and will help move these important topics forward. If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the CoW DAO, make sure to use the following  [template](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-0-template/28).

## CoWmunity News

-   September was  [TWAP-tember for the CoW Swap herd](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1697638081082556725?s=20)! The grand prize was free trading on CoW Swap for the entire month of October, and we’ve announced the winners  [here](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1709221631338725599?s=20)
-   CoW DAO integrated oSnap for more decentralized protocol governance. Read how oSnap directly executes Snapshot proposals on-chain  [here](https://medium.com/@cow-protocol/cow-dao-integrates-osnap-for-decentralized-governance-42b8f6c42660)
-   The CoW team traveled to Berlin to  [attend DappCon](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1701193378208137377?s=20)! The team hosted a booth and delivered talks on Composable CoW, MEV, and how to deploy a solver
-   Dune published a  [case study](https://dune.com/case-studies/cow-protocols-journey-into-automated-payments-and-understanding-user-behavior)  on how CoW Swap uses the analytics tool to monitor exchange volume and the DeFi ecosystem as a whole
-   Uniswap  [integrated MEV Blocker](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1705272393651061037?s=20)  into Uniswap Wallet
-   We hosted a Twitter space titled “[How to execute large treasury swaps via Coinshift’s native CoW Swap app](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1706702796345467316?s=20)”
-   The DODO research team  [published an article](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/1707719113554997668?s=20)  on the benefits of CoW Swap compared to other DEX aggregators
-   The CoW team published several articles on our blog,  [CoW Protocol Glossary](https://medium.com/@cow-protocol/cow-protocol-glossary-ad7313a2c71),  [CoW DAO integrates oSnap for decentralized governance](https://blog.cow.fi/cow-dao-integrates-osnap-for-decentralized-governance-42b8f6c42660)  and  [Why TWAP?](https://blog.cow.fi/why-twap-25d9a0f690f4)

## Product Updates

**Backend**

The backend team has been working hard to improve the product infrastructure. In  **September**, we:

-   Implemented a change so that external solvers now provide revert risk of their solutions instead of a complex composite score
-   Made price estimation logic more streamlined
-   Spent time deploying solver driver colocation on Gnosis chain staging
-   Added some open-source contributions to the Enso simulator for features we could use
-   Added support for score computation logic for the colocated driver

**Frontend**

The frontend team has been pushing hard for several improvements in the UI front as well as the overall UI infrastructure. In  **September**, we:

-   Added a “new” badge for TWAP to the swap widget on our website
-   Added more unit tests for SDK
-   Set up CMS for cow.fi based on Strapi
-   Made significant UI progress on the CoW Swap widget
-   WatchTower: Arrived at zero errors, polished the indexers, fixed some errors, improved logs, handled race condition

## Open Job Positions

CoW Protocol team is currently looking to hire:

### Engineering

[Backend Engineer with Rust Remote or Lisbon](https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/cowswap/jobs/4208538101)

### Operations

[Operations Manager Remote or Lisbon](https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/cowswap/jobs/4219633101)

For more information on our latest job openings, visit:  [https://cow.fi/jobs](https://cow.fi/jobs)

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

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Welcome back to another CoW Update, where we break down the most notable developments of the last few weeks at CoW Protocol.

CoW Protocol September 2023 Highlights

CoW Swap has recently become one of the first DeFi projects to launch native support for Time-Weighted Average Price (TWAP) orders. TWAP orders spread out large trades into multiple smaller orders. This reduces slippage & price impact and helps traders enter or exit a market position at an average price.

TWAP has been around for a while on centralized exchanges, but CoW TWAP — CoW Swap’s version of TWAP — comes with several important benefits that traders won’t find on CEX alternatives.

## Benefits of TWAP orders

### Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA)

TWAP orders help automate the dollar-cost averaging (DCA) investment strategy. DCA involves investing a fixed amount of money in an asset at regular intervals, regardless of the asset’s price, in order to reduce the impact of market volatility.

In highly volatile markets like crypto, the risk of making a large investment just before a sudden price shift is significant. TWAP minimizes this risk by breaking down your investment into smaller, evenly distributed purchases over time. This finds an average market price and helps smooth out market volatility. Want to buy an asset but you’re not sure exactly when to click the “Swap” button? TWAP-enabled DCA means you can forget about timing the market and get the average price instead.

Investors can also use TWAP to sell their positions through dollar-cost averaging. Simply switch the assets you’re swapping and TWAP will help you exit the market for an average price.

Riding the crypto waves has never been so s-moooo-th! 🐮

### Reduce your price impact

Large orders move markets and traders often get worse prices as a result. By splitting up large trades into multiple smaller orders, TWAP helps mitigate the negative effects of price impact. A bunch of smaller orders affect prices much less than one big order, meaning you end up getting a better deal for your trades.

### Reduce your slippage

Finding the right slippage can be tricky. Set it too low and your order might not go through, too high and you could fall prey to MEV. Using TWAP to split up a large order into smaller parts allows you to use a smaller slippage tolerance for each part. The MEV bots can stay hungry…

## Why TWAP with CoW Swap?

Those familiar with CoW Swap know there’s always something extra in our barn 😉. Below are some exclusive benefits you’ll only find on CoW TWAP.

### Always receive 100% of your order surplus

CoW Swap searches for surplus opportunities on every order and TWAP orders are no exception. In fact, since TWAP orders are split up into different parts, each part is another opportunity to find surplus for your trade.

In our tests, selling 1,000 ETH in four parts of 250 ETH each allowed us to get a price for the order that was 3.5% better than selling the 1,000 ETH all at once! This was in large part thanks to CoW Swap’s batch auctions that include finding  [Coincidence of Wants](https://blog.cow.fi/what-are-cows-on-cow-swap-e72baaa4678a)  and other price improvements.

### Get price protection
![1-why-twap.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_why_twap_bd8b2c362b.webp)

After you select the assets you want to trade through CoW Swap’s TWAP interface, you’ll need to indicate the number of order parts you want to use, as well as the total duration over which you’d like your TWAP order to execute. From these selections, the interface automatically calculates each part duration and the amounts you will be buying and selling per part.

Unique to TWAPs on CoW Swap is the “price protection” feature. Price protection ensures that your order will stop executing if the market price of the assets moves by more than your specified percentage.

## Get started with CoW TWAP

To get started with TWAP orders on CoW Swap, you’ll first need to ensure that you have a Safe wallet. Currently, TWAP is only available through Safe but support for more wallets will be coming soon.

Don’t have a Safe? No problem! Create one  [here](https://app.safe.global/share/safe-app?appUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fswap.cow.fi&chain=eth). After you make a Safe, you’ll also need to upgrade your fallback handler. Learn what this means and how to do it  [here](https://blog.cow.fi/all-you-need-to-know-about-cow-swaps-new-safe-fallback-handler-8ef0439925d1).

Once your Safe is fully set up, you can access TWAP directly through the  [CoW Swap order interface](https://swap.cow.fi/#/1/advanced?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=why-twap).

TWAP orders on Ethereum Mainnet have a $5,000 minimum per order part. This ensures that gas costs are relatively low compared to the entire order size, even with multiple parts involved. Smaller traders can also enjoy CoW TWAP on Gnosis Chain where part minimums are only $5 (and the gas is much cheaper!)

You can find the full how-to guide on CoW TWAP orders  [here](https://blog.cow.fi/how-to-use-cow-swaps-twap-orders-via-safe-wallet-1a0854484dfb).

As always, on CoW Swap:

-   All prices are aggregated from the best available on-chain and off-chain liquidity
-   Traders are fully protected from MEV
-   Orders are free to place and free to cancel
-   Traders never pay for failed transactions
-   Transactions are gasless as fees are paid in the sell token

Happy TWAPping!
![2-why-twap.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_why_twap_6f088c5738.webp)

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How CoW Swap’s new feature, Time-Weighted Average Price (TWAP) orders helps you get better prices for your trades


Why TWAP?

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers, and various community members aligned with the vision of providing traders with the best prices and comprehensive MEV protection. CoW DAO is focused on building and maintaining CoW Protocol, a fair and decentralized trading system, and MEV Blocker, an RPC endpoint. CoW Protocol’s technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading through a unique “batch auction” system. This positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum. MEV Blocker is designed to protect transactions from MEV attacks such as front-running and sandwiching. In addition to protecting trades from harmful MEV, MEV Blocker leverages an Order Flow Auction between various searchers and builders to offer rebates to users for certain trades.

[oSnap](https://uma.xyz/osnap)  is a DAO governance tool built and secured by  [UMA](https://uma.xyz/). It allows communities to vote off-chain and automatically execute the successful proposals on-chain. oSnap automatically integrates with the DAO’s  [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/)  space and the Safe wallet holding the DAO’s treasury funds. Transactions approved by the community are validated on-chain and executed without the need for centralized multisig approval.

CoW DAO is looking forward to integrating oSnap, as it will give the DAO several advantages including:

-   A decentralized process to execute successful proposals that no longer requires the involvement of multisig signers → Instead of having the multisig owners push successful proposals on-chain themselves, the oSnap bot will automatically execute them
-   Extra on-chain guarantees through a challenge period → Through oSnap, voters will be able to challenge proposals during a “challenge period” that takes place after the successful passing of a proposal
-   One step closer to a more decentralized and resilient CoW DAO → Integrating oSnap allows CoW DAO to run 100% through on-chain governance without relying on any off-chain infrastructure or trusted parties

## How it works

On a technical level, Snapshot allows users to integrate transaction data into their proposals using its transaction builder tool. Community members can include specific transactions in their proposals for the DAO to execute. Once a proposal is published, Snapshot uses the decentralized hosting service IPFS to store and share this transaction data, assigning it a unique identifier in the process.

Once a proposal is approved, the oSnap system takes charge of submitting the transaction data to UMA’s optimistic oracle. The oracle then verifies that the transaction matches the data stored at the IPFS identifier. If the oracle confirms the match, the transaction is executed using funds from the DAO Safe. However, in the event of an invalid or malicious transaction, the system automatically removes the data before it reaches the blockchain.

This integration is a step forward for CoW DAO’s decentralization. If you are interested in participating in the CoW DAO governance process, you have several options:

-   [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  → CoW DAO’s forum is the main venue for governance-related discussion. Signing up for the forum allows community members to post and participate in discussions.
-   [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)  → CoW DAO’s Snapshot space is a simple voting interface that allows users to vote on proposals. Votes on Snapshot are weighted by the number of vCOW+COW held or delegated to the address used to vote.
-   [Discord](https://discord.gg/cowprotocol)  → The CoW DAO Discord server is currently the main discussion hub for the CoW community and an informal place for governance discussions. The “governance-discussion” channel is where governance matters and proposals are discussed.

## Learn more

[CoW DAO](https://cow.fi/)  is a decentralized organization maintaining CoW Protocol and  [MEV Blocker](https://mevblocker.io/)  for the effective protection of Ethereum traders across DeFi. CoW Protocol leverages batch auctions to find the best prices for user trades, while MEV Blocker maintains a decentralized network of searchers & builders who protect users from MEV and provide them with rebates from profitable backrunning opportunities.

[oSnap](https://uma.xyz/osnap)  is a governance tool secured by UMA and audited by Open Zeppelin. It is free to use and can be integrated in less than 60 seconds.

[UMA](https://uma.xyz/)  is an optimistic oracle that can validate any independently verifiable data on the blockchain. UMA ensures protocol security by incentivizing validators to identify and delete false information passing through the oracle. Since launching in 2020, UMA has secured more than 10,000 critical data assertions. It has never been corrupted.

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

[](https://blog.cow.fi/?source=post_page-----42b8f6c42660--------------------------------)

large_cow-dao-integrates-osnap-for-decentralized-governance-cover-photo.webp

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small_cow-dao-integrates-osnap-for-decentralized-governance-cover-photo.webp

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CoW DAO has integrated oSnap as a means of directly executing the results of future Snapshot votes on-chain. This integration eliminates the need for multi-signature wallets, creating a more decentralized and efficient execution process.

CoW DAO integrates oSnap for decentralized governance

## TL;DR

-   During the month of  **August**, CoW Protocol handled a total volume of  **$1.05B**, and generated a surplus of  **$5.3M**
-   In exciting news, CoW Protocol  [launched TWAP orders](https://blog.cow.fi/cow-swap-launches-twap-orders-d5583135b472), added  [native support for Trezor wallets](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1696902398164316377?s=20), and was  [featured on the 0xResearch podcast](https://twitter.com/0xResearch/status/1695065029563838767?s=20)
-   In terms of Governance, CoW DAO executed CIPS  [28](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x269163793f84ceded1b4c902ca1d368e49f4c5991cb4780493feca2a0b640f1b),  [29](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x22fde20fee09167dbde2981a8e9b7552dcb67af887474b0005d15eedb2a8a6d9), and  [30](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0xbb52a603325a81e2f4e2cb0bb17d6626d8929737f2511d18e184cdeb94f7f3de)

## Protocol Stats

This month, CoW Protocol settled a total of  **$1.05B.**

![1-august-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_august_2023_highlights_164dca9836.webp)

This month, the top 3 batches worth highlighting are the following:

-   **Batch with the highest % of CoW trades (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x549099b6116bbe176ae524b33ac56c92b768b92ab76fd88de351c94d25870f64?tab=graph)**)**. The total batch volume was  **$41,401,** and it was created by two traders who were CoWed for  **40%**  **($16,401)**  of the batch volume. One trader was buying  **stETH**  with  **DAI**, and the other trader was selling  **DAI**  for  **stETH.**


![2-august-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_august_2023_highlights_f74091792f.webp)

-   **Batch containing the highest volume (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x094f33db1244c18dd34a026e36bcf42653eaf51ce4731ea4b3cee663daa081dc?tab=graph&vis=transfers)**):**  The total batch volume was  **$9,988,935.71** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **USDT to**  **USDC**.


![3-august-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_august_2023_highlights_c84ee58c09.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest amount of surplus (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x55c195cbc41c7547d7e30e02a89d626abeddcaa0d6e6d4e5f48934c5414e0da0?tab=orders&vis=transfers)**)**: The total batch volume was  **3,545.97 ETH** and it was created by two traders who were swapping  **ETH**  to  **stETH** and  **ETH**  to  **DAI**. Combined, these two traders achieved the largest surplus for the month of  **August**, by getting  **$127,719.33K**  (**2.01%**  surplus) extra.


![4-august-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_august_2023_highlights_b536caa80f.webp)

During the month of  **August**, the top 10 traders traded a total of  **$109M.**


![5-august-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/5_august_2023_highlights_08c9d1d339.webp)

In the table below you can see the trade volume that CoW Swap traders have executed as well as the total volume for all trades. Our most active trader executed a whopping  **$100M** in trades with CoW Protocol this month.


![6-august-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/6_august_2023_highlights_46765e7ebb.webp)

## Solvers

In  **August**, solvers generated a total of  **$5.2M**, which is money in the pockets of traders.


![7-august-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/7_august_2023_highlights_7de2003217.webp)

Below you can find a breakdown of how each solver performed in August.


![8-august-2023-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/8_august_2023_highlights_62263bcf59.webp)

## Governance

It has been a hectic month in terms of governance; CoW DAO has executed 3 proposals! After a relaxing month of July, the CoWs came back in force for August 💪.

### Executed Proposals

This month we executed three important proposals:

-   [CIP 28 — Should CoW DAO send its profits to the CoW Treasury Core unit to generate extra revenues?](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x269163793f84ceded1b4c902ca1d368e49f4c5991cb4780493feca2a0b640f1b)
-   [CIP-29: Renewal of the solver rewards program](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x22fde20fee09167dbde2981a8e9b7552dcb67af887474b0005d15eedb2a8a6d9)
-   [CIP-30: Implementing oSnap for Optimistic Governance in CoW DAO](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0xbb52a603325a81e2f4e2cb0bb17d6626d8929737f2511d18e184cdeb94f7f3de)

### Draft Proposals

There has been a new proposal asking for feedback before moving into the next phase, a final CIP, in its current form:

-   [Fees and CoW bonding for MEVBlocker](https://forum.cow.fi/t/fees-and-cow-bonding-for-mevblocker/1876)

### Technical Discussions

As an “agora” for technical topics on batch auctions or CoW Protocol-related topics, the forum surfaced an interesting post:

1.  [Measuring and banning overbidding](https://forum.cow.fi/t/measuring-and-banning-overbidding/1874)

Make sure to read through it and leave comments — your feedback is highly appreciated and will help move important topics forward. If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the CoW DAO, make sure to use the following  [template](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-0-template/28).

## CoWmunity News

-   In August we  [launched the much anticipated TWAP (Time-Weighted Average Price) special order type](https://blog.cow.fi/cow-swap-launches-twap-orders-d5583135b472)  on Ethereum Mainnet and Gnosis Chain
-   Added  [native support for Trezor](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1696902398164316377?s=20)  — Trezor users can now interact with CoW Swap natively without having to connect via a third party wallet
-   CoW Swap’s co-founder and CTO, Felix, was a guest on the  [0xResearch podcast](https://twitter.com/0xResearch/status/1695065029563838767?s=20)  where he discussed strategies for eliminating MEV
-   Participated in a  [Twitter space on “Intent-ifying the future”](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1689268085574758400?s=20)  with Across Protocol
-   MEV Blocker was featured in the  [Our Network newsletter](https://ournetwork.substack.com/p/ournetwork-issue-178)  as a solution to the problem of MEV
-   CoW DAO’s treasury manager, Karpatkey, built out a  [slick dashboard](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1689649381925163008?s=20)  showcasing the treasury operations of CoW DAO
-   Keystone wallet partnered with CoW Swap to give customers  [15% off its new CoW-branded Keystone 3 Pro](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1691554495296160073?s=20)
-   [Coinshift integrated CoW Swap](https://twitter.com/0xCoinshift/status/1694029063042871365?s=20)  to bring CoW’s multi-sig swap functionality to Coinshift apps
-   A grant proposal for a Software Engineer Core Contributor was  [posted to the forum](https://forum.cow.fi/t/core-contributor-software-engineer-aug-2023-jan-2024-inclusive/1870)  and  [passed in voting on Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cowgrants.eth/proposal/0x0202a88c6792d1bd1e534cf1da94769130f495e72247e666b4afff8b22da9db0)
-   A grant proposal for a Copywriter Core Contributor was  [posted to the forum](https://forum.cow.fi/t/core-contributor-copywriter-september-2023-february-2024/1873/2)  and  [passed in voting on Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cowgrants.eth/proposal/0xd1efd4784310bbbdb8ea1d566202d11e8dda26eb73711307076433a25a475f97)
-   Published several articles on our blog:  [What is price improvement and why is it unique to CoW Swap?](https://blog.cow.fi/what-is-price-improvement-and-why-is-it-unique-to-cow-swap-e21d86e756be),  [Aave Trade Breakdown](https://blog.cow.fi/aave-trade-breakdown-e17a7563d7ba),  [ENS Trade Breakdown](https://blog.cow.fi/ens-trade-breakdown-a8eb00ddd8c0),  [Nexus Mutual Trade Breakdown](https://blog.cow.fi/nexus-mutual-trade-breakdown-4aacc6a94be8),  [CoW Swap Launches TWAP Orders](https://blog.cow.fi/cow-swap-launches-twap-orders-d5583135b472),  [How to use CoW Swap’s TWAP orders via Safe Wallet](https://blog.cow.fi/how-to-use-cow-swaps-twap-orders-via-safe-wallet-1a0854484dfb), and  [All you need to know about CoW Swap’s new Safe fallback handler](https://blog.cow.fi/all-you-need-to-know-about-cow-swaps-new-safe-fallback-handler-8ef0439925d1)

## Product Updates

**Backend**

The backend team has been working hard to improve the product infrastructure. In  **August**, we:

-   Worked on storing more required data in colocated mode
-   Implemented a new strategy for fetching the current block to reduce system lag by 1 block
-   Made a strong push towards verified quotes and CIP-27
-   Implemented a change so that solvers are no longer allowed to give strange values from the score (specifically overbidding), the driver will now always calculate the score
-   Improved driver colocation by deploying Goerli as expected and refactoring how we setup legacy estimators in the infrastructure
-   Launched TWAP
-   Implemented a metrics fix for determining which solver provides the “winning” quote
-   Removed a bunch of code related to surplus fee computation

**Frontend**

The frontend team has been pushing hard for several improvements in the UI front as well as the overall UI infrastructure. In  **August**, we:

-   Released CowSwap 1.44.0
-   Worked on integration of hardware wallets (Trezor, Ledger)
-   Added support for permitable tokens (EIP-2612)
-   Made lots of progress on TWAP and released the feature
-   Added support for WalletConnect v2
-   Did lots of work on the WatchTower — an important piece of infrastructure for TWAP and Composable orders
-   Exposed the interface to composable orders via cow-sdk

## Open Job Positions

The CoW Protocol team is currently looking to hire:

### Engineering

[Backend Engineer with RustRemote or Lisbon](https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/cowswap/jobs/4208538101)

For more information on our latest job openings, visit:  [https://cow.fi/careers](https://cow.fi/careers)

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)


Welcome back to another CoW Update, where we break down the most notable developments of the last few weeks at CoW Protocol.


CoW Protocol August 2023 Highlights

## TL;DR

-   During the month of  **July**, CoW Protocol handled a total volume of  **$865M**, and generated a surplus of  **$4.8M**
-   In exciting news, CoW Protocol  [launched CoW Hooks](https://thedefiant.io/cowswap-enables-complex-swaps-with-hooks), completed a big  [overhaul of surplus notifications](https://blog.cow.fi/announcing-cow-swap-surplus-notifications-f679c77702ea), processed a  [$27.3 million swap for Nexus Mutual](https://www.theblock.co/post/240750/nexus-mutual-diversifies-27-3-million-into-rocket-eth-using-cow-swap?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social), and much more

## Protocol Stats

This month, CoW Protocol settled a total of  **$865M.**
![1-july-2023-highlight.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_july_2023_highlight_47dd26561a.webp)

This month, the top 3 batches worth highlighting are the following:

-   **Batch with the highest % of CoW trades (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0xf5fcc8147ebc22122407d514770e2473c2536ff5768780e560076cfe8b020feb?tab=orders&vis=trades)**).** The total batch volume was  **$514,649.23**, and it was created by two traders who were CoWed for  **10% ($49,916)** of the batch volume. One trader was selling  **GHO** with **USDC**, and the other trader was selling  **USDC**  with  **GHO**.
![2-july-2023-highlight.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_july_2023_highlight_11e4b6d7ec.webp)

-   **Batch containing the highest volume (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x1371ea08e02d465f3225a98f6c73b90473b49493adb6791e5443112173adc974?tab=graph)**)**: The total batch volume was  **$26,737,269.23** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **ETH**  **to**  **rETH**.
![3-july-2023-highlight.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_july_2023_highlight_51e10b7ef8.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest amount of surplus (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0xc54930ec6a9b45490e069bbf1a6159f056ea35b64f0c8fbfa4766ef869f5cf37?tab=graph)**):**  The total batch volume was  **2,300 ETH** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **ETH**  **to**  **stETH**. This trader achieved the largest surplus for the month of  **July**  by getting  **46 stETH**  extra, which at the time of trade was roughly  **$87,139.36K**  (**2.04%**  surplus).
![4-july-2023-highlight.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_july_2023_highlight_7887ec7eb7.webp)

During the month of  **July**, the top 10 traders traded a total of  **$27M.**
![5-july-2023-highlight.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/5_july_2023_highlight_40c0cc45e5.webp)

In the table below you can see the trade volume that CoW Swap traders have executed as well as the total volume for all trades. Our most active trader executed a whopping  **$7.5M** in trades with CoW Protocol this month.
![6-july-2023-highlight.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/6_july_2023_highlight_d1c9054351.webp)

## Solvers

In  **July**, solvers generated a total of  **$4.8M**, which is money in the pockets of traders.
![7-july-2023-highlight.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/7_july_2023_highlight_5efbb058a2.webp)

Below you can find a breakdown of how each solver performed in July.

![8-july-2023-highlight.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/8_july_2023_highlight_544663fea9.webp)

## Governance

It has been a quiet month in terms of executed proposals, the CoWs were relaxing!
![9-july-2023-highlight.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/9_july_2023_highlight_a85b28a529.webp)

### Draft Proposals

This month, there were two new proposals asking for feedback before moving into the next phase, final CIPs, in their current form:

-   [Adjust Solver Rewards to Allow for a Higher Cap](https://forum.cow.fi/t/adjust-solver-rewards-to-allow-for-higher-cap/1842/1)
-   [CIP-28: Should CoW DAO send its profits to the CoW Treasury Core unit to generate extra revenues?](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-28-should-cow-dao-send-its-profits-to-the-cow-treasury-core-unit-to-generate-extra-revenues/1805)

### Technical Discussions

As an “agora” for technical topics on batch auctions or CoW Protocol-related topics, the forum surfaced some very interesting posts:

1.  [Merge Settlement Contract and Uni v4](https://forum.cow.fi/t/merge-settlement-contract-and-uni-v4/1769)
2.  [Automated Treasury Management Methodology](https://forum.cow.fi/t/automated-treasury-management-methodology/1799)
3.  [Fast Liquidity in CoW](https://forum.cow.fi/t/fast-liquidity-in-cow/1841)

Make sure to read them and leave comments — your feedback is highly appreciated and will help move these important topics forward. If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the CoW DAO, make sure to use the following  [template](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-0-template/28).

## CoWmunity News

-   Launched  [CoW Hooks](https://thedefiant.io/cowswap-enables-complex-swaps-with-hooks), allowing users to execute multiple DeFi actions like swapping, bridging, staking, depositing, borrowing, & more through a single intent
-   Released a CoW Swap widget that allows any dApp to inject the CoW Swap UI directly into their website
-   Upgraded surplus notifications on  [the swap page](https://swap.cow.fi/)  to show users how much surplus they have received after every trade, as well as their overall surplus through the wallet overview page
-   Nexus Mutual used CoW Swap to  [diversify $27.3 million into Rocket Pool ETH](https://www.theblock.co/post/240750/nexus-mutual-diversifies-27-3-million-into-rocket-eth-using-cow-swap?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social)
-   Aave DAO swapped aBAL & aWETH into an 80/20 Balancer pool  [in a trade worth close to $2 million](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1678498134195044361?s=20)
-   Andre Canidio from the the CoW Research Team  [published a paper](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1679883540740325376?s=20)  exploring a novel method for making batch AMMs more efficient
-   The CoW Swap team  [headed to Paris](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1680848132173713408?s=20)  to take on ETH CC where CoW Swap  [hosted an MEV day](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1671216421660147712?s=20)  and  [participated in a “Desiging a DEX” panel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K-QX6HtoiM)
-   MEV Blocker  [surpassed 4 million transactions](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1684602457056563200?s=20), protecting over $11 billion of trading volume
-   A grant proposal for “Improvement and Enhancement of the CoW Swap Explorer” was  [approved through Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cowgrants.eth/proposal/0xa9bedf14d3b6fc01c5944390c9ef2a153e0cecc56f4354e198a2ba873900fb18)
-   A grant application for v2 of the Milkman contract  [was posted to the forum](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-milkman-2-0/1840?u=middleway.eth)
-   Published several articles on our blog:  [CoW Hooks: You are in control](https://blog.cow.fi/cow-hooks-you-are-in-control-480ccb40044a),  [Announcing CoW Swap Surplus Notifications](https://blog.cow.fi/announcing-cow-swap-surplus-notifications-f679c77702ea)  and  [What is Frontrunning?](https://blog.cow.fi/what-is-frontrunning-b2641ad7af21)

## Product Updates

**Backend**

The backend team has been working hard to improve the product infrastructure. In  **July**, we:

-   Deployed arak to start indexing liquidity-related events
-   Identified and proposed fixes for CIP-20 support in co-located driver
-   Recorded order events into a database for accurate measurements for our SLAs
-   Stored solver addresses with the winning quotes for CIP-27
-   Ran more price estimators
-   Made minor driver bug fixes and consistency changes

**Frontend**

The frontend team has been pushing hard for several improvements in the UI front as well as the overall UI infrastructure. In  **July**, we:

-   Deployed a hotfix with WalletConnect v2 support
-   Worked on displaying all parts and filled % for the TWAP UI
-   Added default UTMs for links (to credit volume to people that found CoW Swap using cow.fi)
-   Made bug fixes and put final touches on TWAP
-   Made AppData changes to the frontend stack (app-data, SDK, Explorer, CoW Swap)
-   Implemented a Google analytics update for the Grants website

## Open Job Positions

The CoW Protocol team is currently looking to hire:

### Engineering

[Backend Engineer with RustRemote or Lisbon](https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/cowswap/jobs/4208538101)

For more information on our latest job openings, visit:  [https://cow.fi/careers](https://cow.fi/careers)

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

CoW Protocol July 2023 Highlights

**Intent to Trade:** When users submit orders on CoW Swap, they are not actually initiating a blockchain transaction, like they would on Uniswap. Instead, orders are submitted as signed “intent to trade” messages which include the details of the intended trade, but are not actually submitted to the blockchain. From here, independent parties known as “[solvers](https://docs.cow.fi/cow-protocol/tutorials/solvers)” find the best execution path for the specified trade and execute the trade on-chain on behalf of the user. If a trade route cannot be found for any reason, the transaction will not execute and the user will not be charged a fee for the failed transaction.

**Delegated trade execution**: When it’s time to actually execute a settlement (which can contain multiple trades),  [solvers](https://docs.cow.fi/solvers/solvers)  lock in the execution path and submit the transaction to the blockchain. Note here that it is the solvers who are completing the transaction on behalf of the user, meaning that they determine the correct slippage tolerance to use, the right amount of gas fees, as well as taking on the risk of negative price movements or MEV.

The delegated trading model also means that traders using CoW Swap do not have to spend ETH to cover gas. Instead, gas fees come out of the sell token when making trades.

**AMM**: Automated Market Makers, also known as “DEXs,” are trading mechanisms that allow traders to buy and sell assets in real-time. Unlike traditional “orderbook” trading, which relies on counterparties for every transaction (you need a seller in order to buy and a buyer in order to sell), AMMs work by maintaining a constant ratio between the prices of two assets. For example, ETH and COW. AMMs use the formula “x*y = k” to determine a fair price based on the ratio between two assets (x and y) in the liquidity pool.

Any time a trade alters this ratio by depleting the supply of one asset and increasing the other, the prices of the assets adjust in order to preserve the established ratio. For instance, if a trader buys COW and sells ETH, the COW price rises and the ETH price falls. The opposite happens when traders sell COW and buy ETH.

**Slippage Tolerance**: When placing a trade, traders set a “slippage tolerance” for their transactions which represents the maximum price difference they’re willing to accept for their trade. For example, if ETH is trading at $2,000 and you place an order to buy ETH with a 5% slippage tolerance, you’re willing to buy ETH at up to $2,100. If ETH goes above $2,100, however, your trade will fail as it’s outside your slippage tolerance.

Some amount of slippage tolerance is always necessary because the prices of crypto assets are constantly fluctuating. By the time your trade executes, the price may have moved. Setting your slippage tolerance too high, however, leaves room for searchers to sandwich your trades.

**Price Impact**: Crypto markets, like all markets, are based on supply and demand. AMMs maintain “liquidity pools” of assets which they use to fill trades. Each trade drains some amount of this liquidity and moves the asset's price. This price movement is known as “price impact.”

The larger the trade, the bigger the price impact. A trade of $100 ETH will not move the price of ETH very noticeably, since it only makes up a tiny fraction of the available liquidity. A trade of $1,000,000 ETH, however, will noticeably move the price of ETH.

**Transaction Reordering**: Blockchain transactions do not always enter the block in the order that they were submitted. Searchers can “bribe” the validators responsible for creating the block to get them to arrange transactions in a specific sequence. This transaction reordering is what makes all of MEV possible.

**EOA Wallets:**  Externally owned accounts (EOAs) are Ethereum accounts controlled by private keys. EOA wallets — for example: MetaMask, Rainbow, and Rabby Wallet — allow users to (1) send, hold, and receive Ethereum-native tokens, and (2) interact with smart contracts. Unlike smart contract wallets, EOA wallets are usually generated with a seed phrase and do not have any code associated with them.

**Milkman**: The  [Milkman](https://github.com/charlesndalton/milkman)  smart contract ensures trades are executed for the real-time price or better by utilizing a price checker, such as a Uniswap pool or an oracle. Instead of setting a fixed slippage tolerance based on the current market price, DAOs can utilize Milkman to determine a maximum percentage deviation from a real-time price sourced from a price checker, guaranteeing that their trade will finalize at a fair market price. If a trade can’t be executed within the defined price or better, the order remains pending until the price condition is met, or until the trader cancels the order.

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A list of terms & definitions related to CoW Protocol


CoW Protocol Glossary

To celebrate the  [recent launch of TWAP orders](https://blog.cow.fi/cow-swap-launches-twap-orders-d5583135b472), the CoW team is running a trading raffle with several prizes up for grabs. To enter,  **all you have to do is make at least one TWAP trade during the month of September (TWAP-tember)**!

At the end of the month, the CoW team will select one Safe address to receive the grand prize:

> **_🏆 FREE CoW Swap orders for the month of October (aka, Up-tober_**_📈_**_)*_**

That’s right, Swap for free all month long… how’s that for greener pastures?

But we’re not done milking the fun, while only one lucky winner will receive the grand prize, there’s still more up for grabs:

-   **⌚5 people**  will receive CoW Swap-branded watches, to help time your trades
-   **💳 10 people**  will receive custom CoW Swap-branded  [Gnosis Pay](https://gnosispay.com/)  cards

Keep in mind, Ethereum mainnet TWAPs start at a minimum of $5k per part, but you can  [TWAP on Gnosis Chain](https://swap.cow.fi/#/100/advanced/WETH?utm_campaign=twap-tember-medium)  with only $5 per part! **In fact, TWAPs on Gnosis Chain have lower fees (thanks to lower gas costs) and lower $$ minimums than mainnet** (which should also come in handy for Safe deployment).

So what are you waiting for anon? Grab your  [Safe](https://safe.global/)  wallet and head over to  [CoW Swap](https://swap.cow.fi/#/1/advanced/WETH?utm_campaign=twap-tember-medium)  to get your TWAP on. If you’re new to TWAP, we’ve created a handy  [how-to guide](https://blog.cow.fi/how-to-use-cow-swaps-twap-orders-via-safe-wallet-1a0854484dfb)  to help you with your first trade.

## 🐮 Let TWAP-tember begin! 🐮

Visit  [CoW Swap today to TWAP](https://swap.cow.fi/#/1/advanced/WETH?utm_campaign=twap-tember-medium)  your way to the top.

The winning addresses will be announced on the  [CoW Swap Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  so keep an eye on it for instructions on how the winners can claim their physical prizes!

_Terms & Conditions: To receive waived fees, orders must take place between the 1st and 31st of October, 2023. A maximum of $5000 in fees will be refunded._

**———————————————————————**

**UPDATE:**  The winners of TWAP-tember have been announced!

**Grand Prize Winner:** 0x4cb5eE1ad8Bf1B9d75422f9aD086Da2F84BD91B4

**Winners of the CoW-branded Watch & Gnosis Pay Card:**

1.  0xef5e42549886b9b060ee0381a3819ecaf0fdaeda
2.  0x38fe3792cea65f37cac5474dca8fff887e6d90b1
3.  0x2a4e4ab5e6680b76e00ad4555e39d2dcca42a659
4.  0x23a02d9e5d6ad9419128663976315689204be895
5.  0xf4a82a72faf46b2c55cdad3bcf7c0c1b564bab30

**Winners of just the Gnosis Pay Card**:

1.  0x3bc0cb287f74504347d50fe3ada6d90214e6f512
2.  0x952656cb0121d79a320bb0a7188fb4abb2b5dd94
3.  0x2855159d938d09d00d4fccf42f69ccb8f5b620e2
4.  0xdb72b7dc6ddf0c95468ce19b6539b9a44e561679
5.  0x3e23fd468f65e77aea8f548ebd382e86e7a99309

Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who participated!

To claim your prize, please  [DM us on Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  by November 1st.

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

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Attention all traders, the CoW Swap herd is thrilled to announce TWAP-tember, the greatest trading extravaganza of the year!


Introducing TWAP-tember

Don’t worry, trade happy! CoW Swap has been busy cooking up Conditional Orders, an architecture that allows developers (and their users) to create sophisticated orders of all kinds. At the core of this system is a flexible smart contract wallet that allows the protocol to implement its unique logic. What’s better than standing on the shoulders of giants in the ecosystem and within the Gnosis family  [Safe](https://safe.global/)?

Wait? Smart contract wallet?

That’s right: CoW Swap pioneered intents across the Ethereum space for EOAs (think MetaMask, Trezor, Trust Wallet, etc.), but what’s less well-known is that the protocol can actually work in a similar way for smart contracts by relying on a flexible intents system with the ERC-1271 integration. It sounds technical, but this standard is basically designed to allow smart contracts to “Sign” a message like any other EOAs. This is a familiar procedure for the seasoned CoWmunity, but Conditional Orders now allow anyone to define a set of conditions and have the smart contract wallet do the clicking for you.

Incubated through the  [CoW Grants Program](https://grants.cow.fi/), and supported by the Safe team throughout the testing/auditing process, the ExtensibleFallbackHandler is now live. Sounds complicated, we know! Put simply, this is a way to add extra powers to your Safe, while preserving the strong security guarantees that the Safe is well known for.

Upgrading your Safe’s fallback handler is a secure process, all you have to do is tick a box when placing an order, and your Safe upgrade will be batched with your order, making for a single-transaction order placement and upgrade. The contracts that implement this system have been audited both by an independent auditor, and an external auditor from Ackee Blockchain (You can read the final audit reports  [here](https://github.com/cowprotocol/composable-cow/tree/ab3addad9bc05acdbf5fb040eb5c336209b58e31/audits)).

The owl-eyed among you would be aware that smart contracts have always been able to use CoW Protocol, though this required both a transaction on chain to signal your intent, and that the orders be fixed (not conditional). Wave goodbye to these limitations!

With an ExtensibleFallbackHandler+ComposableCoW-enabled Safe you now benefit from all the CoW Swap features directly from your smart contract wallet: MEV protection, no failed swap transactions, at-execution path discovery, conditional orders, and batching if you need to do pesky things like approve or wrap ETH.

If you’re technically inclined, check out how you can  [start building with conditional orders using ComposableCoW](https://hackmd.io/@mfw78/HyuvoGt9h#), or drop into  [#tech-talk on our discord](https://discord.gg/cowprotocol)! While you’re busy reading up on how to write the latest and greatest conditional order, you could also be gradually buying up more of your favorite token using TWAP!

## What is a Safe fallback handler?

Long story short, Safe is designed to have strong security guarantees over basic operations (think executing transactions, spending your precious tokens, etc.), but there’s not enough time to program all functionality that a user may require. Therefore, the Safe can “forward” all function requests that it doesn’t recognize to another contract (the fallback handler).

**CRITICALLY**: Fallback handlers do  **NOT**  have the same authority as the Safe from which they were called. Due to the security architecture of Safe, it is not possible for the fallback handler to execute transactions on behalf of the Safe.

OK, the fallback handler can’t execute a transaction for you, so why should you care? Safe doesn’t by default (without a fallback handler) support ERC-1271 signatures. The standard deployment of a Safe deploys with CompatibilityFallbackHandler as the fallback handler, which has limited ERC-1271 support (meaning: it cannot read and thus, cannot be automated). CoW Swap intents super-charge this by allowing a Safe to also specify a smart contract that can sign messages for a particular application on its behalf.

This is where ComposableCoW takes over! 🐮🎶 You can think of ComposableCoW as an autonomous agent, signing orders that meet whatever conditions you have specified. After you create your first conditional order, the second transaction you see in the batch will enable ComposableCoW, which tells your Safe “I want ComposableCoW to be able to sign orders from CoW Protocol”. TWAP is just a conditional order type that works with ComposableCoW.

**CRITICALLY**: Due to the design of ERC-1271, all signature verification is  **read-only**  which means it is  **impossible**  for a ComposableCoW or any conditional order to directly access user funds (the movement of funds during a swap is initiated by the settlement contract  **ONLY**).

In summary, to make CoW Swap’s new TWAP order feature work:

-   Safe users need to upgrade their fallback handler(enables conditional signing)
-   Conditional orders are automatically placed in the CoW Protocol order book (now signed with the new handler)
-   Automated signing of orders means you may hear less of CoW’s trademark moo. Feel free to set  [this](https://github.com/cowprotocol/cowswap/blob/develop/apps/cowswap-frontend/public/audio/success.mp3)  as your phone’s notification tone if suffering withdrawal symptoms 🐄

CoW Swap takes security very seriously. The underlying Safe fallback handler code has been fully audited by both the Safe and CoW teams as well as by two independent external auditors, G0 and Ackee Blockchain. You can find all the audit final reports  [here](https://github.com/cowprotocol/composable-cow/tree/ab3addad9bc05acdbf5fb040eb5c336209b58e31/audits).

The solution presented follows Safe’s high security standards. What’s more, the fallback handler isn’t just about placing orders. It allows limitless and, as of yet, unknown functionality. Maybe you want to:

-   Define a custom method handler for any non-standard method (if you really want you can turn your Safe into an ERC-20 token)
-   Define a custom EIP-712 domain verifier, whereby a contract implementing ISafeSignatureVerifier can do your menial signing automatically (it is this interface that ComposableCoW implements to power the shiny new TWAP orders)
-   Define a set of methods (interfaceId) that your Safe supports, and report such using ERC-165

The architecture for the ExtensibleFallbackHandler can be viewed  [here](https://hackmd.io/@mfw78/HyuvoGt9h).

**NOTE**: Audits are not a guarantee that code is free from error. Use with caution.

We wish you much surplus and happy  [TWAP order trading](https://swap.cow.fi/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=fallback-handler)! Give  [TWAP orders a try](https://swap.cow.fi/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=fallback-handler)  today and let us know what you think by reaching out on  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  or  [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/cowprotocol)!

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

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Don’t worry, trade happy! Upgrading your Safe fallback handler is a secure process. This Safe fallback handler extension has been developed by the CoW Swap team in collaboration with the Safe team, and has undergone a successful audit.

All you need to know about CoW Swap’s new Safe fallback handler

> _Note: TWAP orders are most useful for big trades! So, when trading on Mainnet, the minimum TWAP order size is $5k. This minimum ensures that your savings from reduced price impact are not lost on execution fees (AKA gas fees). If you want to trade smaller amounts, head over to Gnosis Chain, where the TWAP order minimum is only $5 (and the gas fees are much cheaper!)_

TWAP orders are now available in the  [CoW Swap order interface](https://swap.cow.fi/#/1/advanced)  under the “Advanced” tab.

**Have a Safe?**  Awesome! You can try out TWAP  [here](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=TWAP-guide).

**Don’t have a Safe?**  Not a problem! Create one  [here](https://app.safe.global/share/safe-app?appUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fswap.cow.fi&chain=eth).

For the below guide, we already have a Safe created. To get started, navigate to  [CoW Swap](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=TWAP-guide)  and connect your Safe wallet via Wallet Connect, or directly using the CoW Swap Safe native app.

Once your wallet is connected, there are two ways to access TWAP orders:

-   Next to “Limit” in the center module, there is a tab that says “Advanced Orders” → clicking this opens the TWAP orders interface
-   On the top-left corner of the page, next to the CoW Swap logo, it says “Trade” → clicking this opens a drop-down menu that lets you choose between “Swap,” “Limit orders,” and “Advanced orders”

Once you have selected the “Advanced” tab, you will see the following screen:
![1-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_twap_how_to_6290090db4.webp)

After you click “Unlock TWAP orders (BETA)”, you will be taken to the TWAP orders interface.


![2-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_twap_how_to_0171b4ab6d.webp)

On the left side of this screen, you can see the order box where you input your TWAP order parameters. On the right, there is a panel that shows your open orders and order history.

In order to place a TWAP trade, you need to input your tokens and amounts, indicate how many parts you would like to split your order into, and select the time duration of your order.


![3-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_twap_how_to_c1d0d380d2.webp)

To get started, select the tokens you would like to swap from the token list.


![4-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_twap_how_to_961f05a961.webp)

Once you’ve chosen your tokens, you need to select the numbers of parts your TWAP order will be split into, as well as the duration of the TWAP order as a whole.


![5-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/5_twap_how_to_577542d502.webp)

As an added bonus, trading via a smart contract wallet like Safe automatically bundles your approval transaction and your trade together to save you time and gas.


![6-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/6_twap_how_to_bcfd7564ec.webp)

Below the Safe bundling banner, you will see a yellow notice. This notice is not related to your TWAP order itself, but to your wallet. TWAP orders are based on the “Composable CoW” conditional order framework which uses Safe fallback handlers to enhance the functionality of your smart contract wallet.


![7-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/7_twap_how_to_5563d17bc7.webp)

In order to use TWAP orders, you will need to upgrade your Safe fallback handler. This is a secure process; the code was co-developed by CoW Swap and the Safe team and it has undergone two external audits (you can find the final results of the audits  [here](https://github.com/cowprotocol/composable-cow/tree/ab3addad9bc05acdbf5fb040eb5c336209b58e31/audits)).

_Note: if you are interested in learning more about the fallback handler upgrade process, please refer to this_ [_article_](https://blog.cow.fi/all-you-need-to-know-about-cow-swaps-new-safe-fallback-handler-8ef0439925d1)_. If the fallback handler is new to you, please refer to this Safe_ [_article_](https://help.safe.global/en/articles/40838-what-is-a-fallback-handler-and-how-does-it-relate-to-safe) _for a full introduction to the concept._

Once you understand how the fallback handler interacts with your Safe wallet, you can check the “Modify Safe’s fallback handler when placing order” box in order to upgrade your wallet. This upgrade will take place alongside your trade and bundle any token approvals as a single transaction.


![8-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/8_twap_how_to_6aab5754fc.webp)

After you click “Approve”, you will be prompted to review your order one last time. Review all of your order details including the price protection, limit price, the minimum tokens you’re set to receive, and all your TWAP properties and ensure everything looks good.


![9-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/9_twap_how_to_39ea16bee1.webp)

To actually place your TWAP order, click “Place TWAP order” and review & sign your transaction from your Safe interface.


![10-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/10_twap_how_to_6a196bdf6b.webp)



![11-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/11_twap_how_to_e39305a40f.webp)

After you sign your order, you will see an “Order submitted” pop-up and your order will appear in the order panel on the side.


![12-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/12_twap_how_to_71bea598ed.webp)

In the order panel, you will notice that the order status is not “open,” but rather indicates that your order is still in the “signing” stage. The wallet used in this example requires 2 out of 3 signers to execute a transaction. By creating the transaction, we have performed one of the signatures, and to reach the threshold we need one more signer. To sign, the second signer would need to connect to the Safe wallet and navigate to the “Transactions” queue.


![14-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/14_twap_how_to_a703daa281.webp)

In the queue, we can see our pending transaction and confirm it with the last signature required.


![15-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/15_twap_how_to_f995c65744.webp)



![16-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/16_twap_how_to_43c9f04edd.webp)



![17-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/17_twap_how_to_21dd244dc5.webp)

After the last confirmation for the order is done, the order is placed and it will appear in the “Your Orders” UI.

The interface includes several ways to view your orders. You can get a high-level overview at a glance, expand to see the different parts of your TWAP order (in this example the first part executed immediately, which is why only 3 parts are shown), or click into the order to view a full list of details.


![18-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/18_twap_how_to_58564c545d.webp)



![19-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/19_twap_how_to_c6eab87d53.webp)



![20-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/20_twap_how_to_41156cc84e.webp)

Now that your TWAP order is placed, you can sit back, relax, and watch it get filled with CoW Swap’s signature MEV protection and best prices.


![21-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/21_twap_how_to_935598c651.webp)

We wish you much surplus and happy  [TWAP order trading](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=TWAP-guide)! Give  [TWAP orders a try](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=TWAP-guide)  today and let us know what you think by reaching out on  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  or  [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/cowprotocol)!


![22-twap-how-to.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/22_twap_how_to_07e8708fcb.webp)

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)


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How to use CoW Swap’s TWAP orders via Safe Wallet, step by step guide


How to use CoW Swap’s TWAP orders via Safe Wallet

TWAP orders allow traders to spread their trade over a specified period of time in order to smooth out fluctuations in market price and open a position for an average market price. A TWAP order consists of multiple smaller orders placed at regular intervals over a predefined time period.

> **In our tests, selling 1,000 ETH in four parts of 250 ETH each, allowed us to yield a price for the order that was 3.5% better than selling the 1,000 ETH all at once!**

## TWAP Order Interface

To get started with TWAP orders through the  [Safe](https://app.safe.global/)  app, you will first need to authorise a transaction signing request that contains a batch of transactions (we’re big fans of gas savings through batching ⛽🚫). This batch includes a “setFallbackHandler’’ function. TWAP orders are the first order type that runs on a new conditional order framework, super-charging your Safe.

In order for this framework to make complex trades on your behalf, an upgrade to Safe’s “fallback  handler” is required. Don’t worry though, you will be automatically prompted to upgrade in order to use TWAP.

![1-twap.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_twap_9fef6b1d70.webp)


The TWAP interface has several sections:

-   **Trading Assets**: Select the assets you want to swap and the amounts of each.
-   **Price Protection**: Provides protection against major price movements. Your TWAP order won’t execute if the market price dips more than this percentage (calculated from the asset price at the time of order submission).
-   **Number of parts**: Enter the number of parts you would like your order split into.
-   **Total Duration**: The total amount of time your order will take to execute.
-   **Part Duration**: Automatically calculated from your total duration and number of parts, part duration shows how long CoW Swap will wait between each part of your order.
-   **Sell & Buy per part**: Shows an estimate of how much CoW Swap will sell and buy with each part of your trade.

## Benefits of TWAP Orders

TWAP orders have been widely explored through research literature in traditional finance but haven’t yet seen the light of day in DeFi. They’re finally entering use on exchanges such as CoW Swap and they provide a range of benefits for traders.

**Reduce your slippage**: Breaking up a large order into smaller pieces allows you to set a smaller slippage tolerance for each piece than if you had executed the large order as one.

**Reduce your price impact**: As with slippage, breaking up a large order into small pieces allows you to spread your liquidity needs over time, reducing your price impact.

**Always receive 100% of your order surplus**: On CoW Swap, all order surplus is forwarded to you. If your order executes for a better price than your quoted price — thanks to  [Coincidence of Wants](https://blog.cow.fi/what-are-cows-on-cow-swap-e72baaa4678a)  or any other price improvement that solvers are able to find — the extra price improvement will be forwarded to you.

**Eliminate market fluctuations**: By giving traders the time-weighted average price, TWAP orders smooth out market volatility, which makes trying to predict prices a thing of the past.

**Customise your order parameters**: TWAP orders allow you to fine-tune your order by specifying the number of parts you’d like it split up into, as well as the time period you want it to execute over. On CoW Swap, TWAP orders also have a “price protection” option which protects your order from executing at an unfavorable price due to market volatility.

## Get Started with TWAP Orders on CoW Swap

TWAP orders are now available in the  [CoW Swap order interface](https://swap.cow.fi/#/1/advanced)  under the “Advanced” tab.

**Have a Safe?**  Awesome! You can try out TWAP  [here](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=TWAP-announcement).

**Don’t have a Safe?**  Not a problem! Create one  [here](https://app.safe.global/share/safe-app?appUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fswap.cow.fi&chain=eth).

The CoW Swap team is working on adding support for more wallets in the future.

One more thing to note: TWAP orders are most useful for big trades! So, when trading on Mainnet, the  _minimum_  TWAP order size is $5k. This minimum ensures that your savings from reduced price impact are not lost on execution fees (AKA gas fees). If you want to trade smaller amounts, head over to Gnosis Chain, where the TWAP order minimum is only $5 (and the gas fees are much cheaper!)

As always, on CoW Swap:

-   All prices are aggregated from the best available on-chain and off-chain liquidity.
-   Traders are fully protected from MEV.
-   Orders are free to place and free to cancel.
-   Traders never pay for failed transactions.
-   Transactions are gasless as fees are paid in the sell token.

Celebrating ComposableCoW’s conditional order superpowers, we are releasing it with TWAP (time-weighted average price) order support for enabled-Safe users.

Give  [TWAP orders a try](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=TWAP-announcement)  today and let us know what you think by reaching out on  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  or  [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/cowprotocol)!

![2-twap.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_twap_2220db98f0.webp)

We wish you much surplus and happy TWAP order trading! Give  [TWAP orders a try](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=TWAP-announcement)  today and let us know what you think by reaching out on  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  or  [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/cowprotocol)!

_Please note that TWAP orders currently require a_ [_Safe_](https://safe.global/) _wallet with a fallback handler. More wallets will be supported in the future._

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

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CoW Swap is excited to announce the launch of Time-Weighted Average Price (TWAP) orders! Available now as an advanced order type in the CoW Swap order interface.


CoW Swap Launches TWAP Orders

On February 9th, 2023, After a successful  [governance vote](https://www.tally.xyz/gov/ens/proposal/45461903078948131870051132081249892009497709518413744958551889217805827301425)  from ENS, CoW Swap processed a large trade for the ENS DAO using the exchange’s signature intent-based trading design and Milkman contract.

## Trade Details

[ENS DAO sold 10,000 ETH](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1623680760522612738)  in exchange for USDC in order to reduce its exposure to ETH.

-   **USD value of the trade**: $16,145,549.60
-   **Slippage tolerance:**  2%
-   **Actual slippage**: 0.5%
-   **Price surplus**: $80,992.87

## Why CoW Swap?

CoW Swap’s solver competition ensured that ENS received the best possible execution price, even after announcing trade details publicly in a governance proposal ahead of time.

CoW Swap provided several benefits for a trade of this size:

1.  Protection from attack vectors caused by the delayed execution
2.  Allowing ENS to create a governance proposal that includes the exact swap parameters and protects the trade with a price checker — guaranteeing that the trade receives some minimum amount determined at the moment of swap execution (not during the creation of the governance proposal)
3.  Use of the Milkman bot for protection against MEV, slippage, and re-entrancy risk

## Milkman

The CoW Grants Program-funded, and Yearn.fi-developed  [Milkman bot](https://github.com/cowprotocol/milkman-bot)  was critical to the ENS trade.

The Milkman bot ensures that trades execute for the real-time price or better by utilizing a price checker, such as a Uniswap v3 pool, Chainlink oracles, or a custom price checker. Instead of setting a slippage tolerance, DAOs can utilize Milkman to determine a maximum percentage deviation from the price checker, guaranteeing that their trade will finalize at a fair market price. Milkman also simplifies governance for trades as DAOs don’t have to define a fixed price re-vote if the market moves significantly.

For this swap, ENS DAO chose to use a Uniswap v3 ETH/USDC pool, with a maximum slippage of 2%, guaranteeing that they would receive no less than the minimum specified in the governance proposal.

## CoW Swap: The leader in DAO trading

The largest DAO trades take place on CoW Swap, and the exchange is single-handedly responsible for more than 30% of all DAO trades. Check out  [CoW Swap for DAOs](https://blog.cow.fi/cow-swap-for-daos-8d67831c2a13)  to learn why DAOs such as  [Aave](https://blog.cow.fi/aave-trade-breakdown-e17a7563d7ba),  [Nexus Mutual](https://blog.cow.fi/nexus-mutual-trade-breakdown-4aacc6a94be8), and more trust CoW Swap with their large trades.

If you’re a DAO looking to make a large trade on CoW Swap, get in touch with us on  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  or through our  [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/cowprotocol). You can check out CoW Swap for yourself  [here](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=ENS-trade).

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

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The smartest DAOs trust CoW Swap with their most-important trades


ENS Trade Breakdown

**Overview**

-   Many Ethereum traders receive suboptimal prices and face risks from MEV bots when trading on traditional decentralized exchanges (DEXs)
-   CoW Swap is a solution that provides price improvement technology to ensure traders get the best possible prices on their trades while also enjoying MEV Protection
-   CoW Swap uses batch auctions to find the optimal clearing price for all trades in a batch, as well as  [Coincidences of Wants (CoWs](https://blog.cow.fi/what-are-cows-on-cow-swap-e72baaa4678a)) that enable peer-to-peer transactions, among other types of optimizations
-   CoW Swap improves pricing and increases market depth, providing traders with greater access to liquidity and better overall trading conditions

For far too long, Ethereum traders have been forced to deal with suboptimal pricing when trading tokens.

Unfortunately, many traders are unaware they may receive a bad deal on their trades when using traditional Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs). To make matters worse, some traders may also fall victim to manipulative MEV bots, whose damages total billions of dollars in exploited value. To learn more about MEV, check out  [CoW Swap’s list of articles on MEV.](https://blog.cow.fi/list/understanding-mev-maximal-extractable-value-917614560f75)

## How does CoW Swap work?

![1-price-improvement.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_price_improvement_01d71021ba.webp)

_Figure 1: Showing how Batch Auctions work on CoW Swap_

CoW Swap has introduced a revolutionary approach to trading: A delegated trading model through an Order Flow Auction that runs on “batch auctions” to find the best settlement for all the trades.

When using batch auctions, traders submit their intent to trade a particular token pair without having to settle their raw Ethereum trades directly on-chain, as the  [solvers](https://docs.cow.fi/cow-protocol/tutorials/solvers)  (auction settlers) will be the ones creating the transaction for them. This innovative approach means that traders don’t have to fine-tune their own trading parameters — such as what liquidity pools to use and what slippage to set — all while enjoying better prices and MEV protection.

Unlike traditional DEX orders, intent-based trades protect traders from getting MEV’ed. This ensures that traders can execute their trades with greater confidence, security, and efficiency while getting the best possible price. With CoW Swap, users can trade without worrying about the typical pitfalls of trading on a DEX, and rest assured that any price improvement is forwarded to them (not kept by the protocol.)

### What is price improvement?

CoW Swap is revolutionizing how traders approach decentralized exchanges by providing price improvement technology (in the form of “surplus”) that ensures they get the best possible price on every trade.

Once a trader submits an intent to trade by submitting a signed order, it gets sent to an off-chain orderbook and inserted into a batch auction where solvers can search all available on-chain liquidity to find the optimal order clearing price. CoW Swap’s batch auction mechanism helps improve pricing by batching orders together and establishing a uniform clearing price. By doing this, CoW Swap creates a more liquid trading environment that matches  [Coincidences of Wants (CoWs)](https://blog.cow.fi/what-are-cows-on-cow-swap-e72baaa4678a)  and finds other optimizations which improve the trader’s price.

CoWs enable traders to conduct peer-to-peer transactions directly with each other, eliminating the need for intermediary AMM pools and providing a more efficient trading price.

Many times, CoWs allow traders to entirely bypass any on-chain liquidity and directly exchange tokens, avoiding slippage and any fees they might incur. In the trading UI, CoW Swap quotes the minimum price the trader will receive whenever the trade executes. In most cases, CoW Swap forwards price surplus to traders by giving them more of their purchase tokens.

![2-price-improvement.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_price_improvement_5d98d04842.webp)

_Figure 2: Showing CoW Swap’s UI_

To illustrate the power of CoW Swap, let’s take a look at  [this CoW Swap Batch Auction Settlement](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x0e9877bff7c9f9fb8516afc857d5bc986f8116bbf6972899c3eb65af4445901e?tab=orders).

In this settlement, 8 different trades were executed in a single batch, forming a CoW and also leveraging the best possible on-chain liquidity for all traders involved. If we take a close look at the settlement, we can see that some USDC-ETH traders are overlapping meaning a portion of their trade can be matched directly in a CoW instead of tapping into an AMM. For the rest of the trades, the settlement tapped into the best on-chain liquidity available.

Thanks to the batch auction mechanism, CoW Swap provided all traders with a surplus on top of their quoted price, maximizing their returns and minimizing their exposure to risks. In this example, the average surplus was 1.66%, giving traders a bunch of extra tokens than no other DEX can give since these price improvements are only possible by leveraging batch auctions as a trading mechanism.

![3-price-improvement.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_price_improvement_ed5d2db540.webp)

![4-price-improvement.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_price_improvement_6cb916a682.webp)

_Figure 3: Showing a Coincidence of Wants_

## Find the most price improvement on CoW Swap

In an ever-evolving DeFi landscape, CoW Swap redefines the trading experience on decentralized platforms. By integrating the innovative batch auction mechanism and leveraging Coincidences of Wants, the mooo-st efficient DEX offers traders price improvement not found anywhere else, all while protecting you from MEV-related threats.

[Place your first order](https://swap.cow.fi/#/1/swap/WETH?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=price-improvement)  on CoW Swap and start getting more for your trades!

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

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CoW Swap’s innovative approach to finding optimal prices while providing MEV protection


What is price improvement and why is it unique to CoW Swap?

## TL;DR

-   During the month of  **June**, CoW Protocol handled a total volume of  **$1.05 billion**, and generated a surplus of  **$5.8 million**
-   In exciting news, CoW Protocol launched the  [Tally Recipe for CoW Swap](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1671935101255688192), improved  [transaction bundling on Safes](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1666445091399933953?s=20), launched a  [brand new token page](https://cow.fi/tokens), and much more
-   In terms of Governance, CoW DAO executed CIPS 25, 26, and 27

## Protocol Stats

This month, CoW Protocol settled a total of  **$1.05B.**

![1-june-2023.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_june_2023_498a813c10.webp)

This month, the top 3 batches worth highlighting are the following:

-   **Batch with the highest % of CoW trades (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x531af4533af13645bb4fb54a6d4d4af75821257d6def1a0712482546f55909a9?tab=graph&vis=transfers)**)**. The total batch volume was  **$76K**, and it was created by three traders who were perfectly CoWed for  **91.8%**  of their volume. One trader was buying  **USDC-USDT,**  another trader was buying  **USDT-USDC**, and the last trader was selling  **USDC-USDT**.

![2-june-2023.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_june_2023_adad65cb9c.webp)

-   **Batch containing the highest volume (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x4469a8843ecdee0805daada813573576c2d5b31f9aedcf651d3569fb6307d4e0?tab=graph&vis=transfers)**):**  The total batch volume was  **$8.8M** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **USDT**  **to**  **USDC**.


![3-june-2023.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_june_2023_e17114917d.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest amount of surplus (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0xe99ff4114f37ce9cb6af40636084c125b11ab4a98f1fdab5c7c353350e7a5c25/?tab=graph&vis=transfers)**):**  The total batch volume was  **$800K** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **USDC**  **to**  **DAI**. This trader achieved the largest surplus for the month of  **June**, by getting  **80K DAI**  extra (**11%**  surplus).


![4-june-2023.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_june_2023_9c8fb4e4c8.webp)

During the month of  **June**, the top 10 traders traded a total of **$77M**.

![5-june-2023.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/5_june_2023_d2b3f40d9b.webp)

## Solvers

![6-june-2023.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/6_june_2023_afc3f98e04.webp)

You can find all of the solver statistics in the following table. Looking at this table, we can see that, on average for the month of  **June,**  solvers generated a total of  **$5.8M**, which is money in the pockets of traders. The highest generated surplus by a single solver was $**1.8M**.

![7-june-2023.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/7_june_2023_59f0fabb7a.webp)

## Governance

It has been a hectic month in terms of governance! The CoW cannot be stopped 💪

### Executed Proposals

This month we executed three important proposals

-   [CIP-25: Operational CoW DAO Safe](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x79fdcc006030d50ab0ffe0ffd7c474a409eb70448d1c8eba58919af7559a876e)
-   [CIP-26: Solver bond funds switch](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x1dd77a563722ac783c42276cee76754bf3e78a8895bf9dae7ac6fe5da61634f7)
-   [CIP-27: Incentives Mechanism for the Price Estimation Competition](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x64e061568e86e8d2eec344d4a892e4126172b992cabe59a0b24c51c4c7e6cc33)

### Draft Proposals

This month, there was one new proposal asking for feedback before moving into the next phase, a final CIP, in its current form.

-   [CIP-Draft: Incentives mechanism for the Price Estimation Competition](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-draft-incentives-mechanism-for-the-price-estimation-competition/1718/1)

### Technical Discussions

As an “agora” for technical topics on batch auctions or CoW Protocol related topics, the forum surfaced some very interesting posts.

1.  [Path to L2 Deployments](https://forum.cow.fi/t/path-to-l2-deployments/1774/1)

Make sure to read them and leave comments — your feedback is highly appreciated and will help move forward these important topics. If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the CoW DAO, make sure to use the following  [template](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-0-template/28).

## CoWmunity News

-   Launched the  [Tally Recipe for CoW Swap](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1671935101255688192)  which allows your DAO to embed a swap action in your governance proposal
-   Took  [transaction bundling on Safes](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1666445091399933953?s=20)  a step further, enabling wrap, approve, and swap in a single click
-   Revamped the  [CoW Grants Program website](https://cow-dao-grants.super.site/)  — take a look
-   Saw early results of the Balancer discount for CoW Swap solvers with  [massive savings on a trade](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1668973199340748800)
-   Shipped a  [token page](https://cow.fi/tokens)  that helps traders find out about each token CoW Swap supports
-   Published an article on  [Effective Treasury Management for DAOs](https://blog.cow.fi/effective-treasury-management-for-daos-84bf17b8d834)  alongside CoW DAO’streasury manager,  [Karpatkey](https://www.karpatkey.com/)
-   Integrated  [Sismo badges](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1669721583873822720?s=20)  that you can use to claim swag at ETH CC
-   Alex Vinyas  [gave a talk on Order Flow Auctions in the MEV Supply chain](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1667048909498359808) at Prague DeFi Summit
-   Integrated  [Trust Wallet with CoW Swap](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1673314050380529666)
-   Participated in an  [MEV Protection Twitter Space](https://twitter.com/blocknative/status/1673420044615946241?s=20)  hosted by Blocknative
-   Received a  [Grants proposal](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-composablecow-sdk-docs/1698)  for a new “Smart Order” framework called Composable CoW
-   Receive  [another Grants proposal](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-for-audit-of-composablecow-smart-contracts/1743)  for a second audit for Composable CoW and Extensible fallback handler smart contracts
-   Published several articles:  [What are CoWs on CoW Swap?](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1674087831696994305?s=20),  [What is a sandwich attack and how can you protect yourself?](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1669344064213491716?s=20),  [Grants Wave 2 Recap](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1664633266878414850?s=20)

## Product Updates

**Backend**

The backend team has been working hard to improve the product infrastructure. In  **June**, we:

-   Made progress on a new app data format
-   Brought the following internal hackathon projects to production: Surplus modal, and Arak (smart contract event indexer)

**Frontend**

The frontend team has been pushing hard for several improvements in the UI front, as well as the overall UI infrastructure. In  **June**, we:

-   Launched a new version of the  [CoW Explorer](https://explorer.cow.fi/)  that shows a new node (Buffers)
-   Released the bundling ETH Flow
-   Made progress on the TWAP interface including cancelations, incorporating orders table, and decoding pending safe transactions
-   Worked on internal hackathon projects including a surplus modal, widget improvements, a “Have I been MEV’d” page, and a trade graph
-   Worked on trying to implement Wallet Connect V2, but due to the lack of wallet support this has been put on hold.

## Open Job Positions

The CoW Protocol team is currently not hiring.

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

CoW Protocol June 2023 Highlights

[MEV bots](https://www.blocknative.com/blog/mev-and-creating-a-basic-arbitrage-bot-on-ethereum-mainnet)  monitor pending transactions in the mempool and place their transaction ahead of others, capitalizing on the order of transactions within a block. This approach allows them to gain a significant edge, profiting from traders placing transactions. Frontrunning occurs when an MEV bot monitors the mempool for a trader’s pending transaction. Spotting a potential trade, the bot quickly duplicates the users transaction so that they can be the one to get the tokens or the opportunity that the user detected.

This issue permeates various blockchain ecosystems — from decentralized exchanges to non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces.

According to recent  [data](https://dune.com/jhackworth/mevmevmev), over 2.7 million MEV transactions have been processed on Uniswap alone. This alarming statistic underscores the widespread and high-stakes nature of MEV exploitation.

## How frontrunning works

Frontrunning takes advantage of the open nature of the blockchain mempool, as anyone can view transactions. MEV Bots exploit this transparency to hijack trades. Here’s a basic rundown of the process:

1.  **Monitoring Pending Transactions:**  The first step involves monitoring the blockchain network’s mempool, a holding area for pending transactions. Here, frontrunners, who are often sophisticated bots, scan the mempool to identify transactions that can carry significant value that they want to snatch away or that could influence the price of a particular asset
2.  **Selecting Profitable Transactions:**  The frontrunner will analyze the potential market impact once such a transaction is identified. For instance, if a large buy order for a specific token is detected, the frontrunner knows that this transaction could increase the asset’s price once processed
3.  **Placing a New Transaction:** The frontrunner will initiate their buy order for the same asset, intending to get their transaction processed before the initially detected transaction. They typically give the validators a higher “tip” to execute their transaction first in the block in comparison to the target transaction

### Frontrunning examples

A notable example of DeFi frontrunning involves the notorious MEV bot named “[jaredfromsubway.eth](https://www.theblock.co/post/230218/jaredfromsubway-mev-bot).” In one case, a user,  [0x3a7822](https://zeromev.org/block?num=17508508), intended to trade 2 ETH for another token, $BOB. This trade was noticed by the bot jaredfromsubway.eth, which continuously monitors the mempool for transactions it could take advantage of.

Once the transaction entered the mempool, Jaredfromsubway.eth quickly executed its own transaction to buy $BOB with ETH, strategically placing it as the first in the block, and knowing that he would get the assets at a discount as the transactions behind will pamp the pricer. MEV allows validators to prioritize transactions that are of the most value to them. Consequently, the bot’s transaction, being the first one in the block, was confirmed ahead of the user’s transaction.

![1-frontrunning.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_frontrunning_6077287d3c.webp)

The frontrunning attack triggered an increase in the price of $BOB tokens due to the additional demand created before the user’s transaction was processed. When the user’s original order of 145M $BOB was executed, it was conducted at this now-inflated price, leading to user 0x3a7822 receiving way fewer $BOB tokens, hence losing out on the value they could have otherwise captured.

Jaredfromsubway.eth completed its MEV attack by  [selling](https://etherscan.io/tx/0xff31ba1a8a61933e0093bc4afba95018929e9e1599fec204a3f503c6b7851cb1)  its $BOB tokens at an increased price, resulting in a profit, a second move that made this MEV attack a  [sandwich attack](https://blog.cow.fi/what-is-a-sandwich-attack-and-how-can-you-protect-yourself-b101c9a9b9b3). In this scenario, the price slippage triggered by the frontrunning bot meant that user 0x3a7822 encountered a worse trade-off, ultimately making a loss while the MEV bot profited — an estimated gain of 0.1 ETH.

Another form of frontrunning would have been for example, if user, 0x3a7822 identified an liquidation opportunity faster than anyone else and sent its transaction to the mempool to get the discounted assets from the liquidation in the first place, then Jaredfromsubway.eth would have seen this and would have replaced the users transactions with the transaction of its own, but with a higher gas fee, and thus more likelyhood to get processed faster, and effectively stealing the opportunity of capturing value away from the user.

### How Harmful is Frontrunning?

While frontrunning may seem harmless or even clever to some, it can adversely affect individual traders and compromise the overall integrity of the Ethereum network. Here’s how:

1.  **Impact on Traders**: Frontrunning disrupts the fair operation of financial markets. By exploiting pending transactions, frontrunners manipulate market conditions to their benefit. This can lead to distorted prices, impacting regular traders who abide by market rules. What’s more, these traders miss out on the value they would have otherwise derived from their trades. But most importantly, frontrunning attacks prevent users from receiving the value of the trading opportunity they identified
2.  **Long-term Market Consequences**: Over time, persistent frontrunning can erode market confidence. As traders realize they are consistently at a disadvantage due to frontrunning, they may lose faith in the integrity of the market and choose to leave. This could result in diminished market participation and liquidity, both of which are critical for overall market health and efficiency
3.  **Network Effects**: Frontrunning can also have wider implications for the underlying network. It can cause network congestion, since unnecessary transactions in a block slow down transaction processing times

CoW Swap takes a firm stance against all forms of Maximal Extractable Value (MEV), including frontrunning, as they are detrimental to traders and the wider Ethereum ecosystem. CoW Swap was built to cultivate a fair and transparent trading environment that best serves the interests of all market participants.

### How to protect against frontrunning?

Mitigating frontrunning and other forms of MEV can pose a challenge, given the transparent and permissionless nature of the Ethereum blockchain. However, CoW Swap gives traders the necessary tools to outsmart the MEV bots:

1.  **Batch Auctions**: Instead of executing orders immediately, CoW Swap orders are gathered and grouped into collections known as “batches.”  [Solvers](https://docs.cow.fi/cow-protocol/tutorials/solvers), or the algorithms that provide an order settlement solution for a batch, compete to deliver optimized solutions. This batch auction method ensures all trades within a batch share the same uniform clearing price, preventing MEV Bots from reordering trades. Through batch auctions, CoW Swap affords traders the opportunity to pool liquidity among their orders, enabling users to trade directly with each other or access specialized markets to complete transactions that would otherwise be impossible to do in a peer-to-peer manner — this is known as  [Coincidence of Wants](https://blog.cow.fi/what-are-cows-on-cow-swap-e72baaa4678a)  (CoW)
2.  **MEV Blocker**:  [MEV Blocker](https://mevblocker.io/)  is a straightforward solution to the MEV problem. It is an RPC endpoint that protects all types of transactions from MEV. MEV Blocker organizes an auction among searchers, who are given the chance to backrun your transactions and forward up to 90% of the backrun value to the user. In exchange, they protect you from both frontrunning and sandwich attacks
3.  [**Use CoW Swap**](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=frontrunning-article)**:** CoW Swap is a meta DEX aggregator that uses batch auctions and facilitates an efficient trading process, preventing all forms of MEV, including frontrunning

### The CoW approach to frontrunning

CoW Swap distinguishes itself in the trading ecosystem with its innovative and comprehensive approach to combating frontrunning and other MEV tactics, thereby creating a safer trading environment for users. The platform has meticulously crafted multiple layers of protection, each targeting a distinct aspect of the MEV issue.

The initial line of defense is  **Delegated Trade Execution**. In conventional DeFi platforms, every transaction a user initiates is instantaneously visible in the public mempool, providing an opportunity for searchers to exploit it. As opposed to other exchanges, on CoW Swap, users sign an “intent to trade” which protects them from directly interacting with the mempool. CoW Swap directs all intents through a network of decentralized ‘[solvers](https://docs.cow.fi/cow-protocol/tutorials/solvers).’ These solvers are responsible for securing the best execution price for your trades, while also shielding you from direct exposure to the public mempool, effectively making you undetectable to MEV bots. Moreover, CoW Swap harnesses the power of  [‘Coincidence of Wants](https://blog.cow.fi/what-are-cows-on-cow-swap-e72baaa4678a)’ (CoW). This allows the platform to match orders off-chain, fostering peer-to-peer trades that not only save on gas and liquidity provider fees but also substantially reduce the risk of MEV attacks by circumventing public liquidity pools. CoWs that don’t rely on on-chain liquidity pools eliminate a key opportunity for MEV exploits.

The platform also introduces a  **Uniform Clearing Price**  for all orders in a batch. In a typical decentralized exchange, simultaneous trades clear at marginally different prices in the same block due to sequential transaction processing. This provides an opening for MEV attacks. CoW Swap counters this by ensuring all orders within the same batch auction are settled at the same clearing price within a block. As a result, the order of transactions within a batch becomes irrelevant, effectively preventing MEV attacks and giving users in the batch a fair price.

CoW Swap’s strategy to tackle frontrunning hinges on eliminating opportunities for searchers to exploit trades. This helps maintain the integrity of user transactions and safeguards user value. By leveraging its unique batching technology, CoW Swap remains resilient against frontrunning and other MEV attacks.

### Trade safe from MEV on CoW Swap

Given the severity and frequency of MEV attacks, protecting your trades from MEV should be a top priority. CoW Swap offers unparalleled protection with its pioneering anti-MEV features, making it an invaluable tool for every trader.

Get started with CoW Swap by  [placing your first trade](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=frontrunning-article)  and enjoy the freedom and peace of mind of the best prices and the best MEV protection!

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Frontrunning is a crypto strategy exploiting blockchain’s transparency to extract value from a transaction.


What is Frontrunning

Surplus notifications are now live on CoW Swap! Just navigate to your account page to see the total amount of price surplus CoW Swap has generated across all your trades.

Surplus notifications will also pop up after each trade, showing you how much extra you’ve earned for that trade!

![announcing-cow-swap-surplus-notifications-cover-photo.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/announcing_cow_swap_surplus_notifications_cover_photo_dbb7d409c9.webp)

## What is Surplus?

On CoW Swap, we call any improvement over your quoted price “surplus”.

-   **Positive Slippage**: Sometimes the market moves to your advantage and the asset you’re trading becomes cheaper between the time you’re quoted and the time of execution. On CoW Swap, that price savings is passed on to you
-   **Coincidence of Wants (CoWs)**: If your order is matched peer-to-peer with someone else, you save on gas costs and LP fees. That price surplus is also passed along to you
-   **Any other price improvement**: If the solvers can find a better source of liquidity than they originally quoted, or improve the price in any other way, this price improvement is forwarded to you.

## CoW Swap Passes Along the Most Surplus

CoW Swap is the only exchange that passes along all types of price improvements. Positive slippage, gas savings, and other optimizations usually end up in the protocol treasury for most DEXs and DEX aggregators. At CoW, we put our users first, so you can rest assured that if we find a better price, it’ll be you we tell first.

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

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Announcing CoW Swap Surplus Notifications

CoW Protocol is proud to announce the launch of CoW Hooks. You can now implement custom-coded DeFi actions that execute directly before and/or after your trades.  **CoW Hooks can be used to chain together complex actions such as trading, bridging, staking, depositing, and much more.**

The best part?  **CoW Hooks execute your entire sequence as a single transaction and, true to the CoW Protocol model, you pay gas fees in your sell token if, and only if, your transaction succeeds.**

> If you are interested in #BUIDLing, reach out, grants are available for great ideas @  [https://grants.cow.fi/](https://grants.cow.fi/)

## Background

In recent months, the crypto industry has been absorbed in discussions on “intent” messages on Ethereum and the new possibilities that this innovation unlocks.

So far, the only production-ready intents system live on Ethereum is CoW Swap. The rest has only been theory and research papers covering the possibilities of intents. What’s more, these papers frame the user transaction as an “intent” but they don’t usually allow for composability. This is why the CoW Swap model asks the user to sign the trade instead of executing it directly on chain… This allows solvers to optimize the order by composing it with other strategies and optimizations. Composability unlocks the real power of intents, as they are meant to abstract the user away from complex interactions.

CoW Swap has been the leader in the intent space for a while and has built one of the most widely-used intent-based models. On CoW Swap, users delegate their trade execution to a network of solvers that complete the transaction on their behalf. This delegated trading model makes way for composability as solvers can batch trades together, find  [Coincidence of Wants](https://blog.cow.fi/what-are-cows-on-cow-swap-e72baaa4678a)  (CoW) matches, update the trading path at the moment of execution (rather than the moment of creation) and more.

Today, CoW Swap is proud to announce the launch of an overhauled intents system that allows for composability of a wide range of actions before and after a swap.

It’s called CoW Hooks.

## What are CoW Hooks?
![1-cow-hooks.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_cow_hooks_801e54dabe.webp)

CoW Hooks are arbitrary Ethereum “calls” that attach to an order and execute before and/or after the order. Developers and advanced traders can use code to express an intent that performs some action before a swap (pre-hooks) and after a swap (post-hooks).

**Pre-hooks**  can be used to “set up” conditions for an order. Examples include executing the code necessary for validating an on-chain signature, or setting the required approvals through an EIP-2612 permit.

**Post-hooks**  execute after a swap takes place and the receiver address receives the funds. Post-hooks provide an opportunity to put the funds to use immediately through staking, liquidity providing, bridging tokens to L2s, and much more.

## How do CoW Hooks work?

CoW Hooks let you do anything you can imagine. You can use whatever you can encode on-chain as a pre or post hook. The only requirement is that your action includes a trade on CoW Swap.

With CoW Hooks, users define:

-   A list of pre-hooks intents
-   The swap intent
-   A list of post-hooks intents

The flexibility of creating CoW Hooks opens up a world of possibilities — all you need to do is encode your actions in the right order for your particular use-case.

### Fresh Address Receives tokens: Permit, Swap & Bridge

Let’s say that you receive USDC and you would like to bridge the funds to another chain. You can use CoW Hooks to execute a token approval, swap, and bridge all at once.

-   **Pre-hooks**: Use a pre-hooks action to approve the token for a swap
-   **Swap**: Use CoW Swap to swap your USDC to the token you would like
-   **Post-hooks**: Send your new tokens to the bridge contract as a post-hook

And just like that, you have received, swapped, and bridged your tokens to a different chain all in one set of transactions. As a bonus, all of your gas fees will be charged in your sell token (USDC in this case,) which means that you can move your received funds without first sending ETH to cover gas costs.

If you are interested in learning more about the code behind this example, we’ve created a walkthrough on how to reproduce this exact set of actions in our CoW Hooks  [documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/overview/cow-hooks), as well as on YouTube:

### Flash Loan payback adapter for CDPs via Stop loss orders

You can also use CoW Hooks to repay debt or manage collateral levels. In this case, your hooks actions might look like this:

-   **Pre-hooks**: Approve the tokens you would like to swap
-   **Swap**: Use CoW Swap to swap for the tokens you need to service your debt
-   **Post-hooks**: Repay your debt and close your position, or use your tokens to add collateral so as to not be undercollateralized

We’ve also put together a walkthrough for how to code this set of hooks, you can view it here:

## Use CoW Hooks for everything

The examples illustrated above are just some of the uses of DeFi assets, but the possible use-cases for CoW Hooks are really endless. Here are some more examples:

-   **Repaying a debt & staking**: You could use CoW Hooks to repay a debt, close a position, swap assets for a yield bearing token, and stake your tokens all-in-one. To do this, you would set your pre-hook action to repaying the debt and closing the position, then you would use CoW Swap to swap your assets, and finally use a post-hook to deposit your new assets into a staking vault.
-   **Opening an LP position**: You can also work with only a pre-hook and a swap or only a post-hook and a swap. For example, if you wanted to open an LP position, you could first swap some assets for ETH, and then use a post-hook for the rest. If you wanted to do this via a CDP, you could deposit your ETH as collateral, borrow stablecoins, swap some stables to the other LP token side, and open a liquidity provider position.
-   **JIT (Just-in-time) smart orders**: Say that you want to leverage the benefits of programmable smart contract wallets to deploy a Safe and also trade via the composable CoW framework (ERC-1271). Using CoW Hooks, you can express the entirety of your transaction sequence at no cost. Connect the deployment of the Safe, execute your custom smart contract approval and swap, and even add on another post-swap action all in one. The entire sequence is conditional on every step being able to execute, otherwise none of it goes through.
-   **NFT sniping & selling:** CoW Hooks also come in useful in the NFT world. You can, for example, sell an NFT and encode a CoW Hooks action to immediately swap those funds for a token of your choice. Or, alternatively, you could place a limit order to purchase crypto at a certain price and then buy an NFT directly after.
-   **Bridging to another chain**: If you want to swap some tokens and bridge them to another chain, you could use CoW Hooks. In your flow, you would first swap your tokens and then send them to a bridge contract in order to combine both the approval and the bridging.
-   **Claiming airdrops**: While they’re not as common as they used to be, airdrops are a core part of many Ethereum projects. You can use CoW Hooks to sell your airdrops without spending any ETH on gas. Simply approve the token in your wallet and add a swap transaction to sell it. Your gas fees will be taken in the sell token, so you can enjoy holding on to your precious ETH.
-   **Unstaking and restaking**: If you’re an Ethereum validator and you want to claim your rewards, you’ll first need to unstake your 32 ETH in order to perform any action with them. With CoW Hooks, you can unstake your ETH, approve and swap to a token of your choice, and then re-stake your new assets somewhere else, all in a single set of encoded transactions.
-   **Automatically growing your LP position:** Let’s say that you’re a liquidity provider for a EUR — USDC pool on Gnosis chain that rewards you in GNO tokens. You can use CoW Hooks to automatically convert your GNO to EUR/USDC in a 50/50 split through CoW Swap and then use each of the assets to increase your LP position.

## What are you going to build with this anon?

The best part about CoW Hooks? They’re fully-featured and already live at the protocol level! So, if you are a developer or an advanced technical user, get your wallets ready and step into a new era in DeFi!

To get started, check out our  [documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/overview/cow-hooks). We’re really excited about all the possibilities with CoW Hooks so if you need help implementing them or have an exciting idea, please reach out on  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  or by  [joining CoW Protocol Discord](https://discord.com/invite/cowprotocol).

Happy hooking!

## About CoW DAO

CoW DAO is an open organization of developers, traders, market makers and many more community members aligned with its vision. CoW DAO is focused on fair and decentralized trading systems — in particular, building, maintaining and advancing the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol technology powers a network of traders and solvers, enabling trustless and efficient peer-to-peer trading. Leveraging batch auctions as a key concept uniquely positions CoW Protocol as native trading infrastructure for discrete-time settlement layers like Ethereum and enables fair and accessible trading to its users.

🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)| 📒 [Documentation](https://docs.cow.fi/)| 💬  [Forum](https://forum.cow.fi/)  | 📊  [Analytics](https://dune.com/cowprotocol)  | 📸 [Snapshot](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth)

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The CoW Protocol intent language just got enhanced through CoW Hooks, making a single intent matching engine into a multi purpose intent execution engine!


CoW Hooks: You are in control!

CoW DAO develops the most user-protective products in Ethereum - so you can do more with less worry.

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