Glossary
Flashbots
A research-and-development organization that shipped the dominant MEV infrastructure on Ethereum: MEV-Boost, MEV-Share, Flashbots Protect.
Flashbots was founded in 2020 to study MEV and to redirect its extraction away from public mempool gas auctions (which were congesting Ethereum) into a more controlled environment. The team shipped Flashbots Auction (a private bundle relay), then MEV-Boost, then MEV-Share and Flashbots Protect (user-facing private order flow).
The organization has also funded a lot of public-good research on MEV, fair ordering, and PBS designs. Whether its market position is "good steward" or "single-point centralization" depends on whom you ask.