In a bid to revolutionize the blockchain landscape, Flare has unveiled a governance proposal that would enable the network to capture maximal extractable value (MEV) at the protocol level, rather than allowing it to accrue to a select group of specialized actors. This move would make Flare one of the pioneering layer-1 blockchains to achieve this feat. MEV refers to the revenue generated by block builders through the strategic reordering, insertion, or censorship of transactions within a block. Currently, this value is largely absorbed by external searchers and builders, who effectively impose a hidden tax on ordinary users through practices like front-running, sandwich attacks, and arbitrage.
Estimates suggest that MEV revenues can reach tens of millions of dollars on networks like Arbitrum, upwards of $500 million on Ethereum, and as high as $1 billion on Solana. Flare's proposal outlines a three-stage process to redirect this revenue into the network's token economics. The first stage involves transferring block building from individual validators to a designated builder, initially operated by the Flare Entity, with a fallback to the current model if the builder becomes unavailable. The second stage transitions block building to Flare Confidential Compute, rendering the process publicly auditable.
The third stage merges the builder and proposer into a single entity, shifting the role of existing validators to a verification capacity. The proposal also introduces FIRE, the Flare Income Reinvestment Entity, which will collect revenue from various protocol sources, including attestation fees, FAsset and Smart Account fees, confidential compute fees, and captured MEV.
FIRE's primary objective is to reduce the supply of FLR tokens through open-market buybacks and burns. Upon approval, several changes would take effect immediately. The annual FLR inflation rate would decrease to 3% from 5%, with the hard cap reduced to 3 billion tokens per year from 5 billion.
A 20-fold increase to the base gas fee, from 60 gwei to 1,200 gwei, would raise the estimated annual FLR burn from approximately 7.5 million to 300 million at current transaction volumes. Notably, even after this increase, a standard Flare transaction would cost only a fraction of a cent. Flare's roots in the XRP ecosystem run deep, having distributed its initial token supply through an airdrop to XRP holders in 2023.
Its FAssets system has produced over 150 million FXRP, aiming to bring smart contract functionality to assets on blockchains like XRPL that do not natively support it. As of late March 2026, the network reports over $160 million in total value locked, with more than 887,000 active addresses.