Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has introduced a new mechanism, FOCIL, aimed at protecting the blockchain from transaction censorship. This initiative was prompted by concerns regarding censorship risks.
Buterin's Proposal for FOCIL
In a recent post on X, Vitalik Buterin emphasized the importance of Ethereum's 'dumb pipe' property, where all valid transactions are processed without discrimination. He responded to criticism from Ameen Soleimani regarding potential legal risks for U.S. validators, stating that the neutrality of Ethereum is significant enough to warrant multiple lines of defense, including maintaining a strong public mempool, developing distributed block building technology, and adding extra channels for transaction inclusion.
How FOCIL Works
FOCIL changes Ethereum's system from selecting one proposer per slot to selecting 17 proposers. One proposer has the privilege of 'moving last' and determining transaction order, while the other 16 must include their transactions somewhere in the block. The 16 'non-privileged' proposers carry lighter workloads, allowing any attester to serve as an auxiliary proposer. This mechanism addresses the block builder oligopoly problem by preventing transaction censorship.
Ameen Soleimani's Concerns Regarding FOCIL
Ameen Soleimani expressed concerns that FOCIL could expose U.S. validators to legal risks. He argued that forcing validators to include transactions from sanctioned addresses could lead to criminal penalties of up to 20 years for sanctions violations. The current system allows U.S. validators to filter sanctioned transactions while participating; however, during peak censorship times, processing is significantly delayed. Soleimani warned that FOCIL may make it impossible for U.S. validators to participate without violating sanctions law.
This highlights the importance of maintaining the neutrality of the Ethereum blockchain, stressing the need to find a balance between preventing censorship and complying with the law.
