Ethereum researchers propose to include FOCIL anti-censorship features in the Hegota upgrade

Ethereum researcher Thomas Thiery (also known as soispoke) proposed FOCIL as a core anti-censorship feature in the Hegota upgrade. Hegota is Ethereum's second major upgrade scheduled for the second half of 2026. FOCIL is a protocol layer mechanism that modifies Ethereum's fork choice rules to enforce the inclusion of any valid transaction in on-chain blocks within a limited time.

The main goal of this proposal is to reduce Ethereum's reliance on centralized validators to mitigate the potential risk of large-scale transaction censorship in the future, thereby enhancing Ethereum's core value as a neutral, censorship-resistant blockchain. An Ethereum researcher stated, "Without FOCIL, the protocol would be vulnerable to large-scale censorship events. Ethereum should proactively design for long-term resilience rather than reactively respond to sudden censorship."