Ethereum developers have officially designated the Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL) proposal as the headline consensus-layer change for the upcoming Hegota network upgrade, scheduled for the second half of 2026. The decision was confirmed during the most recent All Core Devs meeting by Ethereum Foundation researcher Alex Stokes.
The FOCIL mechanism, also known as EIP-7805, is designed to guarantee transaction inclusion within one to two slots, even under adversarial conditions. It works by allowing multiple randomly selected actors per slot to enforce that validators include every transaction submitted to the network. This includes transactions from addresses sanctioned by bodies like the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a point that has sparked significant controversy.
Proponents argue FOCIL is essential for maintaining Ethereum's foundational principle of censorship resistance at the protocol level. "As we keep scaling, the centralisation force towards sophisticated actors is increasing, and FOCIL prevents these actors from censoring transactions," said Ethereum Foundation researcher Jihoon Song on a recent podcast.
The upgrade follows the planned Glamsterdam fork and is named by blending "Bogotá" (a Devcon venue) and "Heze" (a star). While FOCIL was pushed back from inclusion in Glamsterdam, it has now achieved "Specification Freeze Included" status for Hegota.
The proposal is not without its detractors. Privacy Pools founder Ameen Soleimani has warned that forcing U.S.-based validators to include OFAC-sanctioned transactions could create legal risks for them, referencing the period after Tornado Cash sanctions when about 90% of validators avoided such transactions.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has endorsed the move, stating FOCIL will help boost privacy protocols when combined with another proposal called Frame Transactions. Layer 2 developer Tim Clancy has previously called FOCIL the "single most important [proposal] for Ethereum," crucial for delivering on its mission of providing neutral blockspace.
Technically, FOCIL is complemented by EIP-8141, which enables smart accounts and privacy protocols to send native, wrapper-free transactions. The combined design aims to preserve MEV auction mechanisms while reducing individual proposer control over transaction inclusion.
