February 23, 2026 — Ethereum is evaluating Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL) as part of its roadmap to strengthen transaction inclusion and reduce censorship risk at the consensus layer. The proposal is under active discussion among core developers and researchers.
Ethereum is reviewing FOCIL as part of broader efforts to preserve credible neutrality after proposer-builder separation. Recent discussions on the Ethereum Research forum and in public core developer calls have examined how inclusion guarantees could be enforced directly through fork-choice rules.
Inclusion Lists and Ethereum Governance
FOCIL would allow validators to publish inclusion lists specifying transactions that must appear in upcoming blocks.
If a proposer excludes listed transactions without justification, fork-choice logic could reduce the likelihood of that block becoming canonical.
Under proposer-builder separation, block builders construct blocks while proposers select them.
While the system improves efficiency and competition, developers acknowledge it may increase the theoretical risk of transaction filtering by specialized builders.
Embedding inclusion enforcement at the consensus layer is viewed by core contributors as a way to reinforce Ethereum’s neutrality principles, outlined in its roadmap documentation on ethereum.org.
Consensus-Layer Enforcement Under FOCIL
FOCIL operates at the consensus layer rather than the execution layer. Validators would broadcast required transactions ahead of block proposals. Blocks failing to respect inclusion lists could face fork-choice penalties.
The proposal does not eliminate maximal extractable value. Instead, it seeks to limit exclusionary behavior while preserving competitive block construction.
More than twenty-eight million ETH is currently staked across Ethereum validators, according to public staking data.
Given the network’s scale, developers are assessing whether additional protocol-level safeguards are warranted even if censorship risk remains limited in practice.
Client teams are reviewing bandwidth requirements, validator coordination overhead, and safeguards against potential abuse of inclusion lists.
Technical and Security Trade-Offs
FOCIL would introduce additional logic into fork-choice rules. Core developers have raised concerns about potential attack vectors, including spam inclusion entries and validator griefing strategies.
Key considerations include:
* Limiting inclusion list size
* Preventing malicious transaction stuffing
* Preserving network latency and performance targets
Any formal proposal would proceed through the Ethereum Improvement Proposal process, including cross-client testing and public review. No implementation timeline has been confirmed.
Conclusion
Ethereum is evaluating FOCIL as part of ongoing governance discussions aimed at reinforcing censorship resistance. While still under review, the proposal reflects continued focus on neutrality and protocol-level safeguards as the network evolves.
