Extractable Value refers to a wide class of economic attacks to public blockchains, where adversaries with the power to reorder, drop or insert transactions in a block can "extract" value from smart contracts. Empirical research has shown that mainstream protocols, like e.g. decentralized exchanges, are massively targeted by these attacks, with detrimental effects on their users and on the blockchain network. Despite the growing impact of these attacks in the real world, theoretical foundations are still missing. We propose a formal theory of Extractable Value, based on a general, abstract model of blockchains and smart contracts. Our theory is the basis for proofs of security against Extractable Value attacks.

翻译：可提取价值是指在公有区块链中广泛存在的一类经济攻击，攻击者通过重新排序、删除或插入区块中的交易，能够从智能合约中"提取"价值。实证研究表明，去中心化交易所等主流协议已成为这些攻击的主要目标，对用户和区块链网络造成负面影响。尽管这些攻击在现实世界中的影响日益加剧，但其理论基础仍显不足。基于区块链与智能合约的通用抽象模型，我们提出了一套关于可提取价值的形式化理论。该理论为抵御可提取价值攻击的安全性证明提供了基础。