Vitalik Buterin Makes New Proposal to Enhance Ethereum’s Neutrality

Beincrypto

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is urging the network’s community to tighten safeguards around its neutrality. He warns that relying too heavily on a few block builders could leave the blockchain exposed to censorship risks.

In an August 22 post on X, Buterin outlined three steps to limit centralization pressure. He proposed enhancing the public mempool to prevent transaction bottlenecks, developing distributed block-construction systems, and creating fallback channels for transaction inclusion.

Vitalik Buterin Makes Case for FOCIL

He argued that these would ensure that no small group of validators could exert veto power over which transactions make it on-chain.

A central part of the Ethereum co-founder’s vision is a proposal called Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL).

“The easiest way to understand FOCIL is: instead of choosing one proposer per slot, we choose 17 proposers per slot, where one of those 17 has the special privilege of ‘moving last’ and choosing transaction order,” Buterin said.

According to Buterin, the main proposer still determines the transaction ordering, but the other 16 serve as auxiliary proposers whose selected transactions must appear in the block.

Unlike the lead proposer, these auxiliary participants would not carry the heavy computational workload of full block production. This lighter responsibility makes their role easier to adopt across a wider validator base.

The Ethereum co-founder suggested this design could extend to smart contract wallets and privacy protocols, helping reduce dependence on centralized intermediaries.

“The goal is to prevent a block builder oligopoly from having a veto over transaction inclusion,” he concluded

Legal Arguments Against FOCIL

Buterin’s suggestions were in response to prominent Ethereum developer Ameen Soleimani, who argued that FOCIL could have unintended consequences for validators subject to US regulation.

Soleimani highlighted the example of Tornado Cash, where nearly 90% of validators once avoided processing related transactions. This exclusion slowed settlement from about 15 seconds to over two minutes, but still allowed the transactions to clear eventually.

He argued that this compromise allowed US operators to avoid potential legal liability while ensuring eventual inclusion by others.

According to Soleimani, FOCIL would change that dynamic by forcing validators to include flagged transactions.

He argued that this could expose participants to prosecution. US regulators, he warned, might target validators, attesters, or even developers who design a system that forces such inclusion.

“If I was the US gov, I would actually be 100% in favor of FOCIL. You mean to tell me the ETH validators are all going to be forced to incriminate themselves by validating blocks with sanctioned address txns? Well great, that means I can go after any ETH validator on US soil whenever I want, seize all their ETH, and prosecute them for a sanctions violation,” he argued.

The Ethereum developer also warned that courts are unlikely to recognize distinctions between proposers and auxiliary attesters, leaving all parties vulnerable to enforcement.

Beyond legal liability, Soleimani also questioned the long-term sustainability of FOCIL.

He said the design currently depends on validators acting out of “altruism” to process controversial transactions. However, it offers no clear incentives or safeguards to balance the risks. Without those mechanisms, Soleimani argued, the proposal may prove unrealistic in practice.

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October 2025 Could Make or Break XRP as SEC Delays ETF Decisions for Five Spot Applications

ZyCrypto

The U.S. SEC has extended the decision-making deadline for a handful of notable ETFs, including the highly anticipated XRP ETFs.

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Newcomer launchpad Heaven nears $350 million in volume as team pledges one-year token lockup

The Block

The team behind Solana-based launchpad and AMM Heaven will re-vest their tokens to adhere to a one-year cliff, the team announced Saturday, as the platform gains momentum among traders.

Heaven has processed nearly $350 million in lifetime volume since its launch on Aug. 15, according to a Dune dashboard from onchain analyst @adam_tehc, with $3.8 million in lifetime revenue. 100% of Heaven's protocol revenues are used for programmatic buybacks of its native token, ticker LIGHT, in what the protocol calls the "god flywheel."

Heaven's revenue so far has established the newcomer platform as Pump.fun's current biggest rival in terms of daily revenue generated. Tokens launched on Heaven, which do not migrate to another AMM, make up three of the five most valuable tokens launched in the past week, according to Dune data.

On Saturday, Heaven announced that instead of its current linear unlock schedule for team token allocations, the team will re-vest their tokens on the first of every month to adhere to a one-year unlock cliff.

"We made this change to reflect the team's long term alignment to $LIGHT," Heaven wrote in its announcement. "Heaven is the first amongst a suite of products within the $LIGHT ecosystem ... the team's lockup should be more structurally aligned to that vision."

Pump.fun, the longtime launchpad leader, recently surpassed $800 million in lifetime revenue, after its token launch boosted the platform ahead of rival LetsBonk, which supports the Solana memecoin BONK's ecosystem.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

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$1 DOGE Still in View for Dogecoin, but Resistance Remains a Key Barrier

ZyCrypto

Dogecoin is poised to witness a long-term rally that is especially notable because it could send the asset to never-before-seen levels.

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“The Actual BTC Top will be Higher Than $125k-$130k” Analyst Declares, as New Bullish Signal Emerges

ZyCrypto

With predictions flying incessantly this week. One analyst, in a bid to bring clarity to the conversation, has laid out the possibilities for the big bull.

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SEC’s Long-Running Lawsuit Against Ripple Officially Over As Court Grants Joint Motion To Dismiss Appeals

ZyCrypto

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's 2020 lawsuit against Ripple Labs has entered its final stage.

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Japan eyes 20% flat tax for crypto trades, path to ETF offering with tax code revision: report

The Block

Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) plans to request a review of the tax code's treatment of cryptocurrencies for the 2026 fiscal year, aiming to treat crypto more similarly to listed stocks, according to a report from local news outlet Nikkei.

The request, slated for the end of August according to the report, will include moving crypto gains to a separate tax bucket, subject to a flat 20% tax rate. Industry firms have also asked for a three-year loss carry-forward as part of the taxation change. Currently, crypto income is treated as "miscellaneous income," with a progressive tax rate of up to 55%, not including local taxes.

The FSA's proposal will also make it easier for Japanese firms to launch domestic crypto ETFs, as the country aims to boost the competitiveness of its crypto industry. Separately from the tax change, the FSA is planning a 2026 legislative bill to bring crypto under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act as a "financial product" rather than a "means of payment" regulated under the Payment Services Act.

The shift comes as the FSA also plans to approve the country's first domestically regulated yen-denominated stablecoin, JPYC, The Block recently reported. JPYC, issued by the Tokyo-based fintech company of the same name, aims to issue 1 trillion yen ($6.78 billion) worth of its stablecoin across three years.

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