I recently noticed that Vitalik Buterin proposed an interesting vision for improving transaction speed and censorship resistance on Ethereum. The core idea revolves around the synergy between two mechanisms: FOCIL and EIP-8141, which is a development worth paying attention to if you're following technical advancements in the network.

In fact, what Vitalik is saying here is that EIP-8141 elevates smart wallets and advanced operations ( such as multi-signature wallets and quantum-resistant operations ) to a primary level of importance in the network. This means that these transactions can be directly included in blocks without the need for additional intermediary layers. Conversely, FOCIL provides a fast mechanism for including transactions in a censorship-resistant way, and when combining both mechanisms, you get a very robust system.

The point I want to emphasize here: when these two mechanisms come together, what kind of transactions — whether from smart wallets or privacy protocols — can be included in the block through one of 17 random roles in each time period. This practically means that transactions will be embedded within 1-2 time periods even in adversarial environments. Even if someone tries to control the process, FOCIL ensures transactions are included quickly.

Currently, the size of FOCIL is about 8 kilobytes, which is relatively small, but there are expansion plans to support the inclusion of most transactions through the FOCIL channel. What sets this design apart from others is that it does not control the final right related to MEV, which remains distributed via auction mechanisms.

The important thing Vitalik emphasizes: even if certain actors monopolize 100% of the block periods and attempt to discriminate against certain applications or refuse connection to the public mempool, FOCIL guarantees the inclusion of all transactions quickly. This significantly weakens the authority of the proposer role, although it does not completely eliminate the risks associated with centralization.

Within the framework of EIP-8141, transactions from smart wallets or privacy protocols can be accepted directly by FOCIL proposers without intermediaries. This is a real development toward making Ethereum faster and more censorship-resistant. It seems that Ethereum is truly accelerating in pushing core upgrades forward.