Nearly two weeks after the Ethereum merge took place, about 25% of all blocks added to the network were built by compliant mev-boost relays. OFAC According to an analysis by Labris, an Australian onshore blockchain development agency.this means censorship tornado cache Do not allow transactions from authorized addresses designated by OFAC.
Labrys has tracked protocol-level censorship internally since Merge and is concerned about its findings. The company releases his MEV Watch, a dashboard tool, to raise awareness of an issue no one seems to be talking about.
Mev-boost is a new addition to the Ethereum ecosystem, released around the time of the Merge, allowing Proof-of-Stake Validators to outsource block production to the highest bidders, allowing Ethereum stakers to holistically Allows for an additional ~1.5 percent increase in APR (current).
Ethereum Validators can choose to accept blocks from specific mev-boost relays. Currently, there are only seven relay networks in existence, and only three are uncensored. So far, 82.5% of all blocks built by mev-boost relays have been built by OFAC-compliant Flashbots relays, raising centralization concerns as well as censorship.
“It’s a concern to see how quickly censorship potential has gone unchecked since the merge, and unless awareness is raised, as more validators enable mev-boost , is projected to get even worse.It is critical to the long-term success of not only Ethereum, but the blockchain industry as a whole, that layer 1 blockchains are credibly neutral, and this is why MEV is needed to correct course. That’s why we’re releasing the Watch,” said the Labrys CEO. Lachlan feeney.
All of this happens less than a month after the Ethereum industry threatened. a slash validator like coin base If validator-built blocks need to comply directly with OFAC requirements. These threats were directed at Coinbase due to its large stake in the network and the potential to censor 12.5% of PoS blocks, but thanks to mev-boost over 25% of blocks are already OFAC compliant. I’m here.
Potential censorship isn’t the only problem raised by the introduction of mev-boost. Earlier this week, we witnessed an individual using mev-boost to buy an entire block for himself, preventing all other transactions from being included in that block, with a gas fee of just 0.0002 ETH.
The user included a hidden message in the block that said, “Hi friend, it’s me, MevRefund!” This block is mine. all mine. No other transactions are permitted. Get your own block! This particular attempt is likely just a joke to see what’s possible, but how easy it is under mev-boost to “stop the chain” by buying block space New concerns arise about whether