Your transactions can be censored by 51% of Ethereum Node Validators

MEV-boost relays that comply with censorship raise concerns for the Ethereum ecosystem
By selecting a transaction block built by someone else, node validators can maximize yields
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of ETH, suggested a builder stop abuse

Concerns about censorship in the cryptocurrency market are being raised by Ethereum Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) boost-relays that comply with the regulations of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

MEV analytics site mevWatch info found that 51% of all Ethereum transaction blocks were OFAC compliant at the time of this writing.

The recent Ethereum Merge’s change in consensus protocol from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake is to blame for the rise in MEV-Boost relays.

In comparison to when the blockchain was a PoW network, this transition resulted in a larger pool of validators. On the new network, the new validators make use of MEV-boost relays to maximize their yields.

ETH Price at the time of writing – $1,282.56

MEV stands for methods that miners use to make the most money possible by rearranging transactions in a new Ethereum block. The so-called proposer/block-builder separation (PBS) is one of the most widely used methods for achieving this.

Flashbots’ MEV-boost software is an implementation of PBS. By selling blockspace to a pool of block builders, a block proposer, also known as an Ethereum validator in a proof-of-stake network, can increase their ETH staking rewards by up to 60%.

Staking at least 32 ETH is required to run an Ethereum validator node. You can also stake smaller amounts in staking pools if you do not have 32 ETH. Rocket Pool and Lido are two examples.

Only three of the top seven Ethereum MEV relays do not censor broadcasted transactions that OFAC prohibits. It’s possible that the remaining four relays won’t always censor transactions in their transaction blocks. However, if OFAC-prohibited transactions are broadcast to the entire blockchain, they will do so.

The Ethereum MEV-boost relays BloxRoute Max Profit, BloxRoute Ethical, and Manifold do not censor transactions. Martin Köppelmann, the founder of Gnosis, says that this is a troubling time in the fight to keep Ethereum censorship-proof.

ALSO READ: DeGods Solana NFT Collection joins Zero Royalty Club

Did Luxor Technologies accurately predict censorship?

A suggestion has been made by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to lessen the likelihood of censorship. Block builders would only be permitted to construct a portion of a transaction block, according to Buterin.

This will still guarantee them access to the majority of MEV rewards without permitting abuse.

Luxor Technologies, a provider of mining pools, issued a warning to the general public before the ETH Merge was completed.

According to the company, Bitcoin’s proof-of-work system was less susceptible to censorship than Ethereum’s new proof-of-stake validation mechanism.

On September 14, 2022, it stopped providing ETH miners with mining rewards because it did not support the Ethereum Merge.

Additionally, the company stated that staking services provided by Lido, Coinbase, and Kraken, centralized exchanges, are subject to government censorship.