# For MEV Searchers

MEV searching on Solana shouldn't require a VIP pass. Toby opens the door to every searcher, from solo operators to established firms, with lower costs, fair auctions, and no gatekeeping.

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## The Problem Today

Solana's MEV market is dominated by closed systems. If you want to compete as a searcher, here's what you're up against:

* **Expensive infrastructure.** Running competitive MEV operations means investing in high-end hardware, co-located servers, and private data feeds. Jito's Firehose data feed alone demands major infrastructure spend just to keep up with real-time block data.
* **Gated access.** Most block engines and relay networks require whitelisting, private relationships, or institutional backing. You can't just show up and start submitting bundles. You need to know the right people.
* **Relationship-driven competition.** Winning isn't always about having the best strategy. In closed systems, established players with existing validator relationships get preferential treatment, regardless of bundle quality.
* **Inefficient markets.** When only a handful of searchers can participate, price discovery suffers. Limited competition means arbitrage opportunities persist longer than they should, liquidations happen slower, and the overall market operates below its potential efficiency.

A small circle of well-resourced operators captures the majority of MEV while capable searchers are locked out.

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## How Toby Fixes It

Toby's infrastructure is built around one principle: **the best bundle wins, period.**

* **Block Chef** is Toby's open, permissionless MEV auction system. Any searcher can submit bundles without whitelisting, applications, or private relationships. You connect, you submit, you compete.
* **Laser Stream** (powered by OtterFlow) delivers real-time market data at **30-50% lower hardware requirements** than Jito's Firehose. Same data quality, dramatically lower infrastructure costs. Solo operators and smaller teams can now compete without burning capital on server farms.
* **Fair competition** means bundles are evaluated on tip amount and validity, not on who submitted them. No backroom deals, no preferential routing. The auction is transparent and merit-based.
* **No sandwich tax.** Toby's infrastructure filters harmful MEV patterns like sandwich attacks. This isn't just ethical. By removing predatory strategies, honest searchers running arbitrage, liquidations, and backrun strategies face less noise and more opportunity.

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## How It Works

The searcher workflow on Toby is straightforward:

1. **Subscribe to Laser Stream** for real-time market data: transaction flow, price updates, and liquidity shifts across Solana DEXs.
2. **Identify MEV opportunities** using your own strategies. Arbitrage between DEXs, liquidation triggers, backruns on large trades, whatever your edge is.
3. **Submit bundles to Block Chef.** Package your transactions into a bundle and send it to the auction. No application process, no approval needed.
4. **Competitive tip auction determines the winner.** Your bundle competes against others targeting the same opportunity. Highest valid tip wins inclusion.
5. **Winning bundles get included in the next block.** Block Chef routes winning bundles to validators for on-chain execution.
6. **Profit from captured MEV.** Your strategy executes, you keep the spread minus the tip.

The entire process is permissionless from end to end. No human in the loop, no approval gates.

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## Key Benefits

* **30-50% lower infrastructure costs.** Laser Stream's efficient data delivery means you spend less on hardware and bandwidth compared to Firehose-based setups.
* **No gatekeeping.** Permissionless access from day one. Connect and start submitting. No whitelisting, no waiting periods.
* **Fair auction mechanics.** Best bundles win based on tip amount and validity. Your connections don't matter. Your strategy does.
* **Growing ecosystem = more opportunities.** As more protocols integrate with Toby's OpenMEV infrastructure, the volume of searchable transactions increases, expanding the opportunity set for all searchers.
* **Bundle encryption prevents front-running.** Your submitted bundles are encrypted until inclusion, so competing searchers can't copy or front-run your strategies.

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## Get Started

Ready to start searching on Toby?

* [Searcher Integration Guide](https://learn.toby.foundation/builders/searcher-integration): step-by-step setup for connecting to Block Chef and Laser Stream
* [Block Chef](https://learn.toby.foundation/products-and-infrastructure/block-chef): the permissionless MEV auction in detail
* [OtterFlow](https://learn.toby.foundation/products-and-infrastructure/otterflow): Laser Stream and the data infrastructure powering searcher operations