# 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. *** ## 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. *** ## 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. *** ## 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. *** ## 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. *** ## Get Started Ready to start searching on Toby? * [Searcher Integration Guide](/builders/searcher-integration.md): step-by-step setup for connecting to Block Chef and Laser Stream * [Block Chef](/products-and-infrastructure/block-chef.md): the permissionless MEV auction in detail * [OtterFlow](/products-and-infrastructure/otterflow.md): Laser Stream and the data infrastructure powering searcher operations --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. 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