One month after the merger(s), 51% of Ethereum blocks are OFAC-compliant, according to Blockchain Development Labs data, with MEV-Boost relays taking market share.
On Twitter, users highlighted how the numbers represent a milestone towards censorship, as more blocks come under censorship:
We reached another sad point in censorship: 51%
This means that if censor validators now stop validating uncensored blocks, they will eventually form the 100% canonical censorship chain. pic.twitter.com/JrYUjowLpt– Martin Koeppelmann (@koeppelmann) October 14, 2022
OFAC stands for Office of Foreign Assets Control, the entity responsible for enforcing US economic sanctions, while MEV-Boost relays are centralized entities that act as trusted intermediaries between block producers and block builders. This way, all Ethereum proof-of-stake (PoS) validators can outsource their block production to other builders.
This metric tracks the number of blocks generated by OFAC-compliant MEV-Boost retransmissions since the merger. As Ethereum upgrades to a PoS consensus, MEV-Boost is enabled for a more representative distribution of block bidders, rather than a small pool of miners under proof-of-work (PoW).
Ethereum blocks have moved from 9% OFAC compliant to 51% OFAC compliant in the past month, as increasing mev (block outsourcing) grabs market share. https://t.co/SYiVHPlTf4
– Lynn Alden (@LynAldenContact) October 14, 2022
Speaking to Cointelegraph in September, Lashan Feeney, CEO of Labrys, noted that in the case of strict censorship, this means that “no matter how long you wait, no matter how much you pay, you will never get to a point where penalties are imposed.” Transactions will be included in the blockchain.”
Under a strict censorship scenario, “nodes would be forced by regulation to discard any blocks that have any of these transactions in them.”
He also noted that even with soft oversight, when sanctioned transactions do eventually take place, it can potentially lead to long waiting times and high priority rates, making for a substandard user experience.
According to the Labrys page, there are currently seven major MEV-oost relays, including Flashbots, BloXroute Max Profit, BloXroute Ethical, BloXroute Regulated, BlockNative, Manifold, and Eden. The company said: “Of the top 7 available relays, only 3 are not regulated under OFAC compliance requirements. The OFAC-compliant relays will not include any transactions that interact with a Tornado Cash smart contract or other wallet addresses as designated by OFAC.” foreign assets.