I have recently noticed an increasing discussion about how to improve transaction speeds on Ethereum while maintaining resistance to censorship. The core idea is simple but powerful: what if we could guarantee that any transaction enters the block quickly, even if someone tries to block it?

Vitalik Buterin recently wrote about an exciting synergy between two mechanisms: FOCIL and EIP-8141. The idea is that EIP-8141 elevates smart wallets and contracts ( including multi-signature signatures, quantum computing protections, and key switching ) to a first-class citizen level. This means their operations enter the block directly, without additional wrapping.

At the same time, FOCIL provides a fast censorship-resistant transaction inclusion mechanism. When the two mechanisms work together, any transaction — whether from a smart wallet or a privacy protocol — can enter the block through one of 17 random slots in each time window. The result? An approximate guarantee of transaction inclusion within 1-2 time windows, even in an adversarial environment.

Currently, each FOCIL size is about 8 kilobytes, which is relatively small, but there is a future expansion path that can accommodate most transactions via the FOCIL channel. The important thing is that this design does not control MEV or the last look rights, which remain distributed via the ePBS mechanism.

What’s impressive is that even if an adversary monopolizes 100% of block slots and tries to block transactions from the public mempool or discriminate against certain applications, FOCIL ensures all transactions are quickly included. This significantly weakens the proposer’s authority, although it does not completely eliminate the associated risks.

Practically speaking, transactions from smart wallets or privacy protocols will be accepted directly from FOCIL proposers via the mempool, without intermediaries or additional wrapping. Ethereum is seriously moving toward real infrastructure upgrades.