Ethereum censorship debate heats up as censored blocks hit 65%
Gnosis Safe founder Martin Koppelmann discussed the importance of reviewing the state of censorship on the Ethereum blockchain on Twitter. “There is no broad consensus that this should be fixed,” Koppelmann said. However, some responses to Koppelmann’s thesis were debated. comment“The amount of block processing censored by OFAC is misleading.”
The number of blocks that do not contain transactions to Tornado is 1. What bothers me even more is the lack of broad agreement that this should be fixed. pic.twitter.com/BfcqlxNKQ2
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) October 28, 2022
Impact of OFAC Compliance
Former member of the Ethereum Foundation, Hudson Jamesonclaimed that 65% of OFAC-compliant Ethereum blocks are currently “here 0 impact,” but agreed that this should be fixed. Jameson claimed FlashBots and Suave are working on a solution to make his block-censoring MEV boost relays OFAC compliant.
Jameson quoted Network Age Podcast co-host TM Basile Genève, who posted a thread on October 17th. state Ethereum censorship is “95% FUD, 5% todo list”. This thread assumed that the concern that about 65% of Ethereum nodes were OFAC compliant was related to the potential for a 51% attack.
51% less likely to be attacked
51% of attacks against the Ethereum network require malicious actors to “consistently not build on other people’s valid blocks, possibly to censor the contents of those blocks.” Such attacks are unlikely and according to to Geneva. “Nothing like that has happened.”
5; However, in Eth today, **nothing like that is happening**.
Instead, the validator is excluding some transactions when *creating its own block*, but building the previous valid block as normal.
—TM Basile Genève 🌺 🦇🔊~timluc-miptev (@basileSportif) October 17, 2022
However, the 51% attack is not the main cause of many criticisms of the state of the Ethereum network.
Censorship solution in the works
Jameson claims the Ethereum community is working toward solutions by soliciting community input, holding minicons and workshops, and declaring that they are “confused about what else they can do.” Did. While advocating resistance to censorship, Jameson later argued that “choosing the wrong battle and amplifying threats that aren’t up to date is dangerous.”
No one said not to talk about it. I am complaining about any nuisance or misunderstanding on this subject. We should all be paranoid and fight for censorship resistance, but choosing the wrong battle and amplifying threats that aren’t up to date is dangerous.
— Hudson Jameson (@hudsonjameson) October 29, 2022
change in status quo
Koppelman disagrees with Jameson’s opinion that the current situation does no harm, believing that “the sudden and clear decision not to censor is already in the minority”. The existence of is harmful, Koppelmann believes, because “it is fairly foreseeable that the execution of uncensored nodes will be questionable.”
Not so long ago, the risk of running an Ethereum node (validator) was 0 because everyone was doing it. Now, at a rapid pace, the default/standard is becoming the exception. At the current speed of development, it’s perfectly reasonable to expect uncensored node execution to be questionable.
— Martin Köppelmann 🇺🇦 (@koeppelmann) October 29, 2022
Jameson’s counterargument argued that miners had censored some transactions on Ethereum as far back as 2017, but with “far fewer warnings.” Additionally, he pointed to “actual plans and roadmaps to eliminate the problem once and for all.”
2/ Not quite yet in stone. Even if norms were formed (which I disagree with) they would be eliminated anyway because there is an actual plan and roadmap (Suave) to eliminate the problem once and for all.So I ask again, is anyone harmed today or is this fear of normalization on the face
— Hudson Jameson (@hudsonjameson) October 29, 2022
Koppelmann’s argument remains divisive.Is Ethereum censorship an issue now and ‘censor nodes’ becoming the default for validators? Koppelman I think Defaults are important and are changing dramatically now. In contrast, others within the community point to the work being done by Flashbots and members of the Ethereum Foundation who seek community input to find solutions.
Conclusion
It’s hard to argue that there’s a move towards censorship-compliant blocks by looking at the data first hand. I am confident that I will.
The tweet below highlights the increase in OFAC-compliant blocks by leading validators. Lido has grown from just 35% a month ago to 51%. However, some solutions, such as shutting down certain relays, seem to alleviate the problem almost overnight.
Looking at the top entities, we only measure the mev-boost relay block space distribution for Flashbots.@Lido Finance 35% to 51%@Binance 31% to 59%@rocket_pool 46% to 53%@stakefish 72% to 89%@Bitfinex 29% to 59%
Huobi 45% to 58%
Block stake 79% to 93%https://t.co/RR2h9wnZlo
2/ pic.twitter.com/npZKhlPUsE— Spanglish Lenses 🦇🔊 (@CriptoSpanglish) October 27, 2022
Ethereum’s censorship resistance is an important topic for many involved in cryptocurrencies, but it’s also essential to understand that the data on-chain doesn’t tell the whole story. Since Ethereum is open source, work is done on public forums. Anyone interested in the future of blockchain is invited to join the discussion. An easy way is to contribute or comment on the GitHub project. ethereum.
Programmer Phil Daian argued that “Ethereum is uncensored today,” and said, “If you look at who puts their energy into moving the needle, the answer isn’t people screaming on Twitter. ‘ claimed.
Thank you for your rare sanity!
Ethereum is currently uncensored. This is not a problem for users. It’s not an ideal situation. If you ask who puts their energy into moving the needle, the answer isn’t people screaming on Twitter.
—🤖 (@phildaian) October 28, 2022
The direct impact at this time is that fewer than 40% of validators add blocks to blocks, which slows processing of blocks related to OFAC-sanctioned addresses. Minimal impact at this time. However, if “censorship” reaches 100%, you may need a solution to avoid further complications. At that point, OFAC-compliant blocks are not processed. However, given community sentiment, it looks like a fix could come in before this becomes a reality.