The percentage of Ethereum blocks compliant with orders set by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has now fallen to 47%, the lowest level since October 11.
The latest milestone in decensorship comes nearly three months after the percentage of OFAC-compliant blocks peaked at 79% on November 21st.
OFAC compliant blocks exclude transactions involving parties authorized by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury.
The reduction in the number of compatible blocks can be seen as a victory for those who oppose censorship in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Blockchain consultancy Labrys, the creator of MEV Watch, said in a statement that its downfall may be due to more validators opting to use MEV boost relays, which do not censor transactions as required by OFAC.
“In particular, the BloXroute Max Profit Relay, Ultrasound Money Relay, and Agnostic Boost Relay reflected much of the change in market share.”
MEV-boost relays act as trusted intermediaries between block producers and block builders, allowing Ethereum validators to outsource block production to other block builders.
Lachlan Feeney, CEO of Labrys, said in a Feb. 14 statement that he is pleased with how the Ethereum community has responded to the censorship issue since it first surfaced after the merger.
He noted that the recent reduction in censorship-compliant blocks was particularly notable as it was achieved without a user-activated soft fork (UASF). He noted that “many members” of the Ethereum community called for a soft fork before the merger to fight censorship.
“I am incredibly proud of the Ethereum community for the progress we have made on this issue,” Feeney said, adding:
“When we released the MevWatch tool, which drew attention to a vulnerability in Ethereum, the community didn’t put their heads in the sand, but instead rose to the occasion and made significant progress in solving the problem.”
However, “there is still a lot of work to be done,” Feeney stressed.
Ethereum at the Center of Centralization Debate as SEC Files Claims
OFAC primarily sanctioned Ether (ETH) and USD Coin (USDC) wallet addresses that transact using the Ethereum Tornado Cash-based privacy blending tool on August 8.
After the first 24 hours of Ethereum under its new Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism on September 16, only 9% of blocks were censored by OFAC.
However, this figure increased dramatically over the next two months, peaking at 79% on November 21st.
The percentage of OFAC-compliant blocks then hovered in the 68-75% range until Jan 29, when it was 66%. Since then, it has steadily declined, despite a few minor spikes.
Credit : cointelegraph.com
