Ethereum researchers are proposing that FOCIL be added to the network’s next major protocol upgrade, Hegota, as a direct answer to transaction censorship concerns. The proposal, formally called Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists under EIP-7805, is designed to ensure that any valid transaction following Ethereum’s rules can be included on-chain within a limited time, instead of leaving ordering power largely in the hands of a single block builder.
FOCIL returns as a major upgrade candidate
The proposal was put forward by Ethereum Foundation researcher Thomas Thiery, also known as soispoke. Hegota is described as the major protocol upgrade after Glamsterdam and is already part of Ethereum’s roadmap toward 2026. FOCIL had previously been discussed for Glamsterdam, but it was delayed because of timing and technical considerations. It has now returned to the center of the discussion.
The research case is clear: censorship resistance should not depend only on off-chain market behavior. If block production and transaction construction keep concentrating, the protocol itself may need enforceable rules that protect fair inclusion.
Targeting builder concentration at the protocol level
FOCIL focuses on the growing influence of block builders over transaction ordering. Under the proposed design, multiple validators would be able to use fork-choice rules to force inclusion of certain transactions into blocks. That would reduce the ability of centralized intermediaries to decide which transactions are delayed or excluded.
Thiery argues that this structure could lower the chance that transactions are filtered for political, commercial, or other reasons, while improving Ethereum’s neutrality and credibility. The concern is not limited to whether large-scale censorship is happening today. It is also about what the current market structure could permit later.
MEV competition and vertical integration remain central concerns
According to the source material, Ethereum’s builder market has become more concentrated over recent years, driven by competition around MEV and by vertical integration between builders, relays, and searchers. Researchers note that there have not been many real-world examples of large-scale censorship so far, but they still see the concentration trend itself as a meaningful risk.
Supporters of FOCIL say censorship resistance needs explicit technical guarantees inside the protocol, not just informal restraint from market participants. In their view, that approach is more consistent with Ethereum’s long-standing focus on decentralization.
Open technical trade-offs still need work
The proposal also comes with trade-offs. Researchers say FOCIL would add protocol complexity, and in its current form it does not support blob transactions or transaction types involving private MEV. Those limitations may need to be addressed in later upgrades.
Thiery’s position is that Ethereum should build protections before systemic censorship becomes a live problem. Whether FOCIL secures broad support for inclusion in Hegota is still undecided, but the proposal has already pushed censorship resistance, neutrality, and fair transaction inclusion back to the front of Ethereum’s protocol debate.