Cryptocurrencies are decentralized, and high levels of censorship threaten their nature. Recently, studies were conducted to assess the censorship levels of various crypto, and the levels of Ethereum didn’t seem too good.
The crypto sector should only be liable to desirable levels of censorship and not the protocol levels. The protocol-level censorship threatens the goal of the crypto ecosystem, which strives for openness and accessibility in the system. As per the standards laid by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the U.S. Treasury Department, the community has been keeping track of Ethereum’s growing compliance.
As of November 3, over the last 24 hours, the Ethereum network was suspected of applying OFAC compliance on about 73% of its blocks. The reports from October had suggested the compliance levels to be about 51% signifying the rising censorship concerns.
About 45% of the total blocks are considered to comply with the OFAC standards. The levels of compliance with OFAC give the agency access to implement economic and trade sanctions; previously, Tornado Cash and numerous Ethereum addresses were sanctioned.
The MEV-Boost relays, a trusted mediator between block producers and block builders, enable all Ethereum proof-of-stake validators to offer their blockspace to not just Flashbots but other builders who are also under OFAC regulation. The MEV-Boost relays under the OFAC will censor certain transactions, and to ensure the neutrality of Ethereum, the non-censoring MEV-boost relays need to be adopted.
Ethereum validators can reduce OFAC compliance by disregarding relays in the configuration of their MEV-Boost that censors the transactions like BloXroute, Max Profit, BloXRoute Ethical, Manifold, and Relayooor.
The adoption rate of the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, i.e., Bitcoin and Ethereum, has experienced a significant surge following the announcement from the Union Bank, which revealed its debut in the sector.
At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading at the price of $1,643.37, which is a 0.09% drop from the previous day, whereas Bitcoin is trading at the price of $21,296.00, which is a 0.72% surge from the previous day.