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The developers of Efirium have put forward the Forced Opt-in for Fork (FOCIL) mechanism, formally documented as EIP-7805, as a key anti-censorship tool for an upcoming network upgrade called Hegotá.

The initiative is currently being positioned as a key feature for Hegotá, which is expected to be released in the second half of 2026, following the upcoming Glamsterdam hardfork scheduled for the middle of that year.

FOCIL, if approved, will be a significant change in how Etherium enables transactions, directly addressing concerns about blockchain-level censorship in the post-MEV era.

FOCIL introduces a committee of 16 randomly selected validators in each slot; each is responsible for proposing a list of transactions to be included in the next block. These lists become binding unless the entire block is filled, preventing block creators from arbitrarily excluding valid transactions.

Crucially, enforcement does not depend on social consensus or out-of-network agreements. Instead, FOCIL is built directly into the Efirium fork selection rule. Validators acting as attestors will only approve blocks that match the inclusion lists proposed by the committee. Any block that ignores the mandatory transactions risks becoming an orphan, making censorship uneconomical.

This architecture redistributes power away from centralized collectors and relayers, reinforcing Ether’s guarantees of neutrality without reverting to less efficient blockchain models.

FOCIL was originally considered as a candidate for updating Glamsterdam, but was eventually shelved due to its complexity and deep integration with consensus rules. The researchers decided to leave Glamsterdam for more incremental modifications, moving FOCIL to Hegotá, where it could be considered a headliner-level feature.

the official period for submitting proposals for Hegotá’s headliner functions is open until February 4, 2026, with a final decision on the selection of the function expected at the end of February. At the moment, FOCIL is considered one of the strongest contenders, especially with the growing concern over the censorship risks associated with the concentration of gatherers.

FOCIL is not the only significant offer being considered for Hegota. Other potential candidates include:

Werkle Trees, which would significantly reduce node storage requirements and enable stateless clients, thus lowering the threshold of entry for running Efirium infrastructure.

Expiration of state and history, which aims to trim obsolete blockchain data to address long-term state bloat.

Possible Etherium Interconnect Layer (EIL), aimed at improving coordination and communication between layer 2 networks.

Collectively, these proposals reflect a broader trend toward increased scalability, resilience and protocol neutrality.

FOCIL, if implemented, would be Etherium’s most direct protocol-level response to censorship concerns since the advent of MEV-centric blockchains. Rather than relying solely on market incentives, it will lock in guarantees of inclusion into the consensus itself.