Ethereum’s blockspace market is designed around competition. Builders compete to assemble the most valuable block. Relays forward those bids. Proposers choose the best offer before the slot expires. On paper, the system should maximize value extraction efficiently. But propagation variance changes the game entirely. The winner is often not the builder with the best block, but the one whose data arrived reliably enough under deadline pressure. That creates hidden inefficiencies across the network. Builders start optimizing for delivery timing instead of block quality. Proposers hedge by closing cutoffs earlier than necessary. Validators cluster geographically closer to relay infrastructure because physical proximity reduces uncertainty. The market slowly shifts away from value optimization and toward survival under unpredictable conditions. This is why Optimum’s research matters. Their analysis showed that simply extending proposer cutoffs by 150ms could have increased captured bid value by an average of 16%, representing hundreds of ETH in missed value over just one week. The issue is not that Ethereum lacks demand. The issue is that uncertainty distorts incentives across the entire supply chain. Reducing variance does more than make the network faster. It allows Ethereum’s market structure to function the way it was originally intended. @get_optimum