Researchers Uncover a Game-Changing Ethereum Loophole
Researchers discover way to push Ethereum block containing only their transaction, sparking debate.
The Special Mechanisms Group (SMG), a team of researchers, has discovered a way to push an Ethereum block with only their transaction. They used a feature called proposer-builder separation (PBS) which is usually used to increase security against censorship in the Ethereum blockchain.
SMG used this single transaction block to share a link to their research paper on their website. The paper discussed the issue and suggested possible solutions.
Responses to this event have been mixed. Ryan Berckmans, a former software engineer at Augur, highlighted that Ethereum's gas fee system would make it hard to delay transactions this way for long. But, he also pointed out some issues in how Ethereum applications calculate fees to get transactions included in a block.
Ethereum is designed to be neutral and secure, so any method of preventing transactions from being included in a block is concerning. Some people view "censorship" as completely blocking a transaction, not just causing a short delay. But, the SMG group sees it differently.
The group believes that when participants in an auction or financial system can block their competition, the efficiency of these systems is compromised. SMG stresses the importance of quick transaction processing, not just eventual processing.
Max Resnick, SMG’s head of research, said that even a short delay could cause problems. Some applications that can't handle delays might move to different systems, but not all. The main concern is that this issue could affect auctions, fraud proofs, and oracle updates.
SMG suggests that if Ethereum could become more resistant to censorship, users would have a better experience. However, it remains a challenge to implement proposer-builder separation at the protocol level, which would offer a more secure system.
