EIP 7805: The Fork-choice Enforced Inclusion Lists

I’ve been diving deep into Ethereum governance lately, and I came across something interesting. Centralization in block production is a huge problem for Ethereum, and it’s getting worse. A couple of entities are producing almost all the blocks, and that’s a vulnerability. But there’s a proposal out there—EIP 7805—that aims to change all that by redistributing power back to validators. Let’s break down what this means.

What is EIP 7805?

EIP 7805 introduces something called Fork-choice Enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL). The idea is pretty straightforward: it creates a system where block builders can’t prioritize or exclude certain transactions based on their potential profit from Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) strategies.

You see, right now, block production is so centralized that two entities control over 95% of the blocks. That’s not just bad for decentralization; it opens up avenues for censorship and manipulation. EIP 7805 aims to fix that by changing who has the power to decide what gets included in blocks.

How Does It Work?

Here’s where it gets a bit technical but bear with me. FOCIL works by having a committee of 16 validators create lists of transactions from the mempool that must be included in the next block. These lists are enforced in such a way that builders who don’t adhere to them won’t get attested by the validators.

This mechanism isn’t like anything we’ve seen before in Ethereum upgrades. Previous proposals, like EIP-3675 (The Merge), transitioned the network to proof-of-stake but didn’t address block production centralization directly.

Implications for Emerging Crypto Projects

Now, you might be wondering how this affects new crypto projects popping up all over the place. Well, if EIP 7805 succeeds, it could create an environment where emerging projects aren’t unfairly censored or excluded simply because they’re new and don’t have established networks yet.

A more decentralized Ethereum could actually attract more developers and projects, further solidifying its status as the go-to platform for decentralized finance (DeFi) and other blockchain applications.

Risks Involved

But hold your horses! It’s not all sunshine and rainbows with FOCIL. There are some risks we need to consider:

First off, there's validator centralization itself. If the selection process for committee members isn't decentralized enough, we could end up replacing one form of centralization with another.

Then there's coordination challenges among committee members which could be exploited by malicious actors trying to game the system.

Lastly, let’s not forget about scalability issues. Adding new mechanisms always comes with overhead; we need to ensure that we're not sacrificing too much efficiency in the process.

Summary: Is EIP 7805 The Answer?

So here we are at a crossroads: EIP 7805 represents an ambitious attempt to tackle some very specific problems facing Ethereum today—namely its increasing centrality in block production—but it also introduces new complexities into an already intricate ecosystem.

As someone who's been around these parts for a while now I can't help but feel cautious optimism about this proposal's potential impact on our beloved network's future stability & resilience

Is anyone else feeling torn between excitement & apprehension?