- The number of such validators decreased from 80% to 27%
- This means transactions without censorship and sanctions
The number of Ethereum validators that subject transactions to OFAC censorship has dropped to 27%. This is evidenced by the data of the analytical site mevwatch.info.
Recall that this figure grew to the maximum in November last year and amounted to 80%. This comes after major MEV operator Flashbots began filtering certain transactions on the network.
As a result, some experts feared that Ethereum would soon become completely controlled by OFAC. And that means dependence on censorship and total control.
What is OFAC
OFAC is the US Office of Foreign Assets Control. Some validators comply with the requirements of this organization. They are forced to install add-ons that automatically verify user transactions. If there are wallets from the “black list” or prohibited cryptomixers among the sender’s or recipient’s addresses, then such transactions are automatically rejected. This in fact means “payment censorship” and contradicts the principle of freedom of cryptocurrencies.
But there are also positive aspects. OFAC compliance allows countries to impose sanctions on crypto payments. For example, sanctions against Russian users.
The most famous MEV operators that operate uncensored by OFAC are Ultra Sound Money and Agnostic. They now account for over 60% of the acceptance rate among validators.