According to blockchain development Labrys data, 51% of Ethereum blocks are OFAC compliant one month after the Merge, as MEV-boost relays retake the market.
One month after the Merge, 51% of Ethereum blocks have now met up to OFAC-compliance. Users on Twitter emphasized how the data mark a significant step towards censorship as more blockages are being monitored:
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which enforces US economic sanctions, while mev-boost relays, which are centralized organizations that serve as trustworthy intermediaries between block producers and block builders. All Ethereum proof-of-stake (PoS) validators can contract out their block creation in this fashion.
Since the Merge, the number of blocks created by OFAC-compliant mev-boost relays has been tracked using this statistic. Mev-boost can now be used by a larger variety of block proposers thanks to Ethereum’s switch to a PoS consensus rather than only a small number of miners under proof-of-work (PoW).
The CEO of Labrys, Lachan Feeney, stated in a September interview that in the event of hard censorship, “no matter how long you waited, no matter how much you paid, you would never reach a point where those sanctioned transactions would get included on the blockchain.”
“Nodes would be required by legislation to basically trash any blocks with any of these transactions in them,” according to the hard censorship hypothesis.
The user experience would be subpar even with light censorship because sanctioned transactions would probably have to wait a long time and incur significant priority fees before being validated.
There are presently seven significant mev-boost relays, including Flashbots, BloXroute Max Profit, BloXroute Ethical, BloXroute Regulated, BlockNative, Manifold, and Eden, according to the Labrys website.
“Only 3 of the 7 major relays that are available do not restrict content in accordance with OFAC compliance standards. Transactions involving the Tornado Cash smart contract or other sanctioned wallet addresses as identified by OFAC will not be included in OFAC-compliant relays “the company said.
