Vitalik Buterin eyes ‘big FOCIL’ and encrypted mempools to prevent centralization in ‘block building pipeline’

Vitalik Buterin is focusing on mitigating centralization risks within Ethereum's upcoming 'block building pipeline,' particularly concerning the 'enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation' (ePBS) upgrade planned for Glamsterdam in 2026. While ePBS separates block proposers from builders, it risks centralizing block building among sophisticated actors. To counter this, Buterin suggested expanding FOCIL (Forward Obligatory Commitment to Inclusion Lists) into a "Big FOCIL" capable of including all transactions, thereby commoditizing block building to only MEV-relevant transactions. Additionally, he proposed encrypting the mempool to prevent 'toxic MEV' attacks like frontrunning and advocated for anonymization in the Transaction Ingress Layer, potentially integrating tools like Tor or mixnets via initiatives like Kohaku.

(Source：The Block)