Ethereum Researcher Proposes Including FOCIL Anti-Censorship Feature in the Hegota Upgrade

BlockBeats News, January 28th - Ethereum researcher Thomas Thiery (aka soispoke) proposed to include FOCIL as a core anti-censorship feature in the Hegota upgrade. Hegota is Ethereum's second major upgrade in 2026, targeted to go live in the second half of 2026. FOCIL is a protocol-layer mechanism that, by modifying Ethereum's fork-choice rule, mandates the inclusion of any valid transaction in an on-chain block within a limited time. This allows multiple validators to collectively enforce transaction inclusion instead of relying on a single block builder.

The primary aim of the proposal is to reduce Ethereum's reliance on centralized validators to mitigate future potential risks of large-scale transaction censorship, thus enhancing Ethereum's core value as a neutral, censorship-resistant blockchain. The Ethereum researcher stated, "Without FOCIL, the protocol becomes vulnerable to large-scale censorship events. Ethereum should proactively design for long-term resilience rather than react passively to sudden censorship."