# Grant Application: ZeroMEV Infrastructure Maintenance and Support **URL:** \ **Category:** CoW Grants Program\ **Tags:** complete\ **Created:** [February 27, 2025, 5:41am UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859 "2025-02-27T05:41:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Blackhawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@Blackhawk](https://forum.cow.fi/u/Blackhawk)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 5:41am UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/1 "2025-02-27T05:41:01Z")
**Grant Title** Grant Application - ZeroMEV Infrastructure Maintenance and Support **Author(s)** Zeeshan Github: z-eeshan **Experiences and qualifications:** Zeeshan is an experienced DevOps engineer who has previously worked with PMCgoohan on ZeroMEV infrastructure maintenance and deployment. He has direct experience with the ZeroMEV stack including .NET services, PostgreSQL databases, and node management. **Grant Description** This grant covers the deployment, maintenance, and technical support of the open-sourced ZeroMEV infrastructure on CoW Protocol-hosted servers. ZeroMEV provides essential MEV data services to the Ethereum community, enhancing transparency around MEV activities. **The scope includes:** - Deploying all ZeroMEV components on CoW-hosted infrastructure: - Extractor service for block/transaction timing - Classifier service for MEV analysis - Website and API servers - Four PostgreSQL databases (mev\_inspect, extractor, mevweb, zmapi) - Providing ongoing maintenance and support - Ensuring system reliability and performance - Coordinating with community node providers if needed for global distribution **Technical infrastructure includes:** - .NET 8 core components - Node.js API scripts - PostgreSQL databases - PostgREST API layer - Integration with Ethereum nodes The grant will enable continuous operation of ZeroMEV’s services while transitioning to community-maintained infrastructure, benefiting both CoW Protocol users and the broader Ethereum ecosystem through enhanced MEV transparency. **Server Requirements** Server for .NET Components: - 2vCPU - 4GB RAM - 80GB Storage Database Server: All databases are expected to fit on a server with the following requirements - 1-2 TB Storage - 16GB RAM - Average CPU MEV Inspect Setup Requirements: Specific requirements and adjustments needed for MEV inspect setup are described in the [ZeroMEV Github repository.](https://github.com/zeromev/zeromev-core) **Milestones** **Milestone 1 Specifics:** - Initial deployment and setup of all ZeroMEV components - Configure and test all four databases - Complete system testing - Expected time: 10 hours Funding: $900 Milestone 2-6 Specifics: - Monthly system maintenance and support - Monitor system health and performance - Address any issues that arise - Coordinate with node providers if needed - Document deployment process (If hours left) - Set up monitoring and maintenance procedures (If hours left) - Create maintenance documentation (If hours left) - Expected time per month: Up to 10 hours - Funding per month: $350 Total funding: $2,650 for up to 60 support hours. **Length** 6 months from the date of successful passing of the proposal on Snapshot. **Type of Grant** Time-based grant with monthly milestones **Funding Request** Total: $2,650 (in xDAI) - $900 for the first month ( For Initial Setup) - $350 per month for 5 months - Up to 10 hours of support work per month (60 hours total) - Rate justified by technical expertise required and critical nature of infrastructure 2500 COW tokens In the event of successful completion of the grant vested over six months period **Gnosis Chain Address (to receive the grant)** 0xeF4ca784FD8a5D0EA8d476263fa9000aD64926F6 **Other Information** All server costs and node access will be provided by CoW Protocol. **Terms and Conditions** By submitting this grant application, I acknowledge and agree to be bound by the CoW DAO Participation Agreement and the CoW Grant Terms and Conditions. ---
**Author:** ![middleway.eth](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.cow.fi/middleway.eth/32/12_2.png) [@middleway.eth](https://forum.cow.fi/u/middleway.eth)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 8:05am UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/2 "2025-02-27T08:05:23Z")
I signal my support for this grant and propose myself as the committee steward. I’ve been supporting ZeroMEV for a long while and believe it is an ecosystem public good. It is also concretely valuable for the CoW ecosystem and is being used to evaluate MEV incidents in the context of MEVblocker. I would propose to have the 2500 COW tokens vested over six month so they serve as an extra reward and incentive for continued contribution to the CoW ecosystem. ---
**Author:** ![Chim9](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.cow.fi/chim9/32/417_2.png) [@Chim9](https://forum.cow.fi/u/Chim9)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 10:23am UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/3 "2025-02-27T10:23:46Z")
I support this proposal as ZeroMEV provides clear value as a public good, especially for MEV transparency. The scope, maintenance and budget looks reasonable to me. ---
**Author:** ![anuj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@anuj](https://forum.cow.fi/u/anuj)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2025, 10:45am UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/4 "2025-02-28T10:45:30Z")
The grant details look good, and I support this proposal. CoW Protocol will provide RPC access and the necessary server, allowing the grantee to focus on the ZeroMEV stack. ---
**Author:** ![Chim9](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.cow.fi/chim9/32/417_2.png) [@Chim9](https://forum.cow.fi/u/Chim9)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 12:55pm UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/5 "2025-03-09T12:55:52Z")
For reference, this grant proposal was posted on Snapshot and passed : [https://snapshot.box/#/s:cowgrants.eth/proposal/0xa0c0e55044a664a10bbb60624652dacf4186909013c3e8b82af5813a3a7424cf](https://snapshot.box/#/s:cowgrants.eth/proposal/0xa0c0e55044a664a10bbb60624652dacf4186909013c3e8b82af5813a3a7424cf) ---
**Author:** ![Blackhawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@Blackhawk](https://forum.cow.fi/u/Blackhawk)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 7:50pm UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/6 "2025-03-26T19:50:02Z")
Thank you all. For reference first phase of this project is almost complete. The UI and APIs are live on dummy URLs. Will share the actual URLs once I recieve the domain names for [cow.fi](http://cow.fi) team. The classifier, extractor and mev-inspect py are all up and running and classifiying the data as they should be. At this stage the cluster already has accumulated one week of data in its databases. ---
**Author:** ![Blackhawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@Blackhawk](https://forum.cow.fi/u/Blackhawk)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2025, 7:35pm UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/7 "2025-04-05T19:35:36Z")
Here are the upto date URLs: [https://zeromev.cow.fi/](https://zeromev.cow.fi/) → For Zeromev UI [https://api-zeromev.cow.fi/](https://api-zeromev.cow.fi/) - For external API to get block summaries and details documentation on /docs ---
**Author:** ![mfw78](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.cow.fi/mfw78/32/1598_2.png) [@mfw78](https://forum.cow.fi/u/mfw78)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 7:05am UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/8 "2025-04-06T07:05:43Z")
FYI, when browsing around the Zeromev UI site I regularly get this error: ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/cow/original/2X/5/5e7b5139d1dcb2665d69548d1505bb2482baae89.png) ---
**Author:** ![Blackhawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@Blackhawk](https://forum.cow.fi/u/Blackhawk)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/9 "2025-04-28T19:33:26Z")
Hi, this occurs due to CORS policy issue on the RPC Node. Cow team is fixing it on their end once they whitelist the FQDN properly this will go away. ---
**Author:** ![Blackhawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@Blackhawk](https://forum.cow.fi/u/Blackhawk)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 7:35pm UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/10 "2025-04-28T19:35:40Z")
For 2nd milestone, here are the details: Provided regular maintenance and updates to this setup so that it keeps running. Flashbots mev inspect py Daemon crashes sometimes due to a minor and does not autorestaet it has to be manually restarted form within the k8s cluster container. I have been working on its code to see if I can improve it so that it auto restarts after crash. WIP Also recieved a request from COW team to backfill the data so will work on that too. ---
**Author:** ![mfw78](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.cow.fi/mfw78/32/1598_2.png) [@mfw78](https://forum.cow.fi/u/mfw78)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 11:04am UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/11 "2025-05-05T11:04:50Z")
Hi, Out of curiosity, the request that has come from the COW team, does this materially change this grant at all? mfw78 ---
**Author:** ![Blackhawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@Blackhawk](https://forum.cow.fi/u/Blackhawk)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 6:50am UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/12 "2025-05-27T06:50:57Z")
Updates for this month’s milestone: 1. All the previous zeromev classified data has been backfilled into DBs I just checked as well and things seems to be running fine. For ref see this mev data from a block back in Feb 2023: [zeromev ethereum frontrunning explorer - showing user losses from miner extractable value (MEV)](https://zeromev.cow.fi/block?num=17825883) 2. Provided regular maintenance and updates to this setup so that it keeps running. 3. Some solutions were tested with the flashbots mev inspect daemon, but didn’t work. Will continue to test some other solutions on it in the upcoming month. ---
**Author:** ![Blackhawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@Blackhawk](https://forum.cow.fi/u/Blackhawk)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/13 "2025-06-28T17:51:50Z")
Updates for this month’s milestone: 1. Perform maintainance activities to ensure system uptime. 2. Working on ethplorer APIs so that coin icons get displayed. ---
**Author:** ![middleway.eth](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.cow.fi/middleway.eth/32/12_2.png) [@middleway.eth](https://forum.cow.fi/u/middleway.eth)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 1:58pm UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/14 "2025-07-21T13:58:55Z")
@Blackhawk we’re getting closer to the completion of a 6 months support period, successfully redeploying and maintaining ZeroMEV! One of the important aspects of CoW Grants projects is continuity - meaning the project code should ideally be well documented, redeploying the code should be easy and repeatable, this way a project could be maintained even if one specific contributor might leave or pursue other interesting projects. I think @mfw78 and @anuj could provide feedback on the most important points to cover, improve documentation and infrastructure. I’d appreciate if you can engage in this discussion and use some of the remaining time to improve on those topics. Thanks for the contribution and hard work so far! ---
**Author:** ![mfw78](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.cow.fi/mfw78/32/1598_2.png) [@mfw78](https://forum.cow.fi/u/mfw78)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/15 "2025-07-21T14:12:55Z")
Indeed. @Blackhawk it would be great if all infrastructure for this was comprehensively documented and developed with Infrastructure As Code so that the repository allows for anyone to deploy the the same infrastructure if they so choose, along with documentation on all assumptions. Great examples of methods by which to do this would be something like `terraform`, `ansible` or `pulumi`. ---
**Author:** ![Blackhawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@Blackhawk](https://forum.cow.fi/u/Blackhawk)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 5:05pm UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/16 "2025-08-01T17:05:57Z")
Hi @middleway.eth, Totally agreed. For reference, the application stack is well documented, I have spent alot of time documenting it with the original creator. Anyone can redeploy it by following the readme file in the zeromev-core repo. ---
**Author:** ![Blackhawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@Blackhawk](https://forum.cow.fi/u/Blackhawk)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 5:10pm UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/17 "2025-08-01T17:10:19Z")
@mfw78 to answer your question: For this specific project infrastructure was already provided to me. A VM on aws, I only recieved access to that VM for deployment of the application stack not access to AWS platform. But I m happy to assist and work on the infra as code moduel via terraform if needed. For you second request that all the application stacks be autodeployed via ansible, for that we have couple of options. As of now some services are running via kubernetes. Others are deployed and configured on host. We can standarize all the application in docker images and deploy them via helm charts. Or deploy them as is automatically on a VM via ansible for automation. I m open to both. Let me know if we can connect anytime so that I can document the requirements appropriately for this. ---
**Author:** ![mfw78](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.cow.fi/mfw78/32/1598_2.png) [@mfw78](https://forum.cow.fi/u/mfw78)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 11:14am UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/18 "2025-08-15T11:14:07Z")
Hey, generally in terms of connecting or catching up, I’d prefer for things to be done asynchronously. We can discuss here, or via issues on a GitHub repository, or Discord. In regards to the infra ask, we definitely don’t have to standardise on ansible and could use a multitude of other methods (such as the helm chart you mentioned). Helm charts are quite flexible and give good subsequent integrations into Pulumi and Terraform making the Helm chart relatively useful so this seems quite reasonable! ---
**Author:** ![Chim9](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.cow.fi/chim9/32/417_2.png) [@Chim9](https://forum.cow.fi/u/Chim9)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/19 "2025-11-04T16:40:32Z")
Hi @Blackhawk , Apologies for the delay and thanks for your patience. The grant is now considered completed, and the corresponding COW token vesting has been set up using [LlamaPay](https://llamapay.io/) with your address as recipient. We appreciate your support for maintaining the ZeroMEV infrastructure and contributing to the ecosystem. The Grants Committee ---
**Author:** ![mfw78](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.cow.fi/mfw78/32/1598_2.png) [@mfw78](https://forum.cow.fi/u/mfw78)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2025, 11:36am UTC](https://forum.cow.fi/t/grant-application-zeromev-infrastructure-maintenance-and-support/2859/20 "2025-11-24T11:36:03Z")