Block censorship by Ethereum solo validators should be “tolerated.” — Buterin
To prevent the Ethereum community from turning into the “morality police,” Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, thinks that lone validators should “be allowed” if they choose not to include specific transactions.
In response to a latetot.eth Twitter poll, Vitalik Buterin spoke on the possibility of a validator censoring a transaction if it doesn’t conform to their views.
The question in the discussion, which was posted on October 17, was what should happen if a single validator in a war-torn nation chooses not to process a block because it contains contributions to the enemy military force.
“I work alone as a home verifier in Country A. When it’s my turn to build a block, I opt not to include contributions to Country B’s military because we are at war with them. This verifier ought to:”
– latetot (@latetot)
The co-founder of Ethereum believes that the response to a censorship case should be in line with the severity of the offense. The thread’s Vitalik’s explanation that providing any other response might result in turning the Ethereum community into morality police drew much attention to the post.
“I’d use the word “be tolerated.” Making poor decisions regarding what to put in your own block should not be considered while slashing, leaking, or socially coordinated anything is being considered. Any alternative response runs the risk of making the ETH community the morality police.”
– Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin)
In Ethereum proof-of-stake (PoS), validators choose whether or not to include any transactions in their blocks. PoS is a cutting-edge consensus technique that drives cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.
“What payments to include in a block is a decision that validators are free to make. What we shouldn’t do is support staking services like Exchanges or Lido, which are so big and centralized that governments or other outside agents may simply force them into censoring.”
– (@5t4rman) Mao
Martin Köppelmann, co-founder of Gnosis and a longtime developer of Ethereum decentralized applications, responded to the thread as well and stated that he concurred with tolerating the validator in that circumstance while issuing a warning about the rise of MEV-boost censorship in Ethereum after the Merge.
“For the record, I would also choose “tolerate” in this particular poll. In retrospect, I believe that the hasty implementation of MEV-boost was a mistake and that it should have been handled with greater care to avoid the situation in which the content curation of a single entity today influences 52% of all blocks.”
– (@koeppelmann) Martin Köppelmann
Despite the fact that the thread only considers a hypothetical situation, fears about censorship in the Ethereum network increased last week. As of October 14, 51% of Ethereum blocks met OFAC requirements, and one month after the Merge, MEV-Boost relays have taken over the majority of the market.