As the blockchain ecosystem matures, decentralization and censorship resistance have once again become core focuses of Ethereum's development. Recently, Ethereum researchers proposed a new mechanism called FOCIL, suggesting its inclusion in the next major protocol upgrade, "Hegota," to enhance the fairness and censorship resistance of transaction inclusion at the protocol level, which has attracted significant attention from the community and developers.
Anti-censorship becomes the main focus of the upgrade, and FOCIL is promoted as the core proposal.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Thomas Thiery (pseudonym soispoke) recently proposed a "Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion List" (FOCIL, EIP-7805) and suggested it as a key feature of the Hegota upgrade. Hegota is the next major protocol upgrade after Glamsterdam and has been included in Ethereum's technology roadmap toward 2026.
FOCIL had previously been discussed for inclusion in the Glamsterdam upgrade, but was delayed due to timelines and technical considerations. Now, the research team believes its importance is increasingly evident, and therefore has reinstated it as a core design element to strengthen Ethereum's censorship resistance.
How does FOCIL work? Starting with the centralization of builders.
FOCIL's core concept is to guarantee at the protocol level that any valid transaction that conforms to Ethereum rules will be included on the chain within a finite time. Unlike the current mechanism where the order of transactions is mainly determined by a single block builder, FOCIL allows multiple validators to jointly force transactions to be included in a block through fork selection rules.
Thiery points out that such a design can effectively reduce the power of centralized intermediaries and prevent specific transactions from being deliberately delayed or filtered due to political, commercial or other factors, thereby enhancing the neutrality and credibility of the overall network.
Responding to the long-term risks of MEV and infrastructure centralization
In recent years, the Ethereum builder market has become increasingly concentrated, primarily due to competition for MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) and vertical integration among builders, relay nodes, and searchers. While large-scale censorship cases are currently few, researchers warn that this structural concentration itself poses a potential risk.
FOCIL proponents argue that censorship resistance should not rely solely on the self-regulation of off-chain markets, but rather on clear and verifiable technical guarantees provided by the protocol itself to ensure that Ethereum maintains its core decentralized value in the long run.
Technological trade-offs and future challenges remain to be resolved.
However, despite its clear concept, FOCIL still involves certain technical trade-offs. The mechanism increases protocol complexity and currently does not support blob transactions or transactions involving private MEVs. Researchers point out that these limitations may need to be addressed gradually through subsequent upgrades.
Thiery emphasized that even though current censorship is still in the minority, Ethereum should still be designed with a forward-looking perspective to proactively prevent potential systemic censorship events in the future, rather than hastily responding after problems arise.
Overall, the FOCIL proposal reflects the Ethereum community's renewed focus on the core value of "censorship resistance." If ultimately incorporated into the Hegota upgrade, FOCIL is expected to enhance the fairness of transaction inclusion without sacrificing validator MEV rewards, providing a higher level of institutional protection for users and decentralized applications.
Whether this proposal will gain widespread consensus remains to be seen and requires further discussion within the developer community, but the direction it reveals clearly points to Ethereum's strong emphasis on long-term resilience and neutrality.
