Following the completion of the integration update, Ethereum (ETH) moved to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, helping the blockchain become more energy-efficient and secure. However, the mining data shows Ethereum’s heavy reliance on Flashbots – a single server – for building blocks.
Flashbots is a centralized entity for generating transparent and efficient Maximum Expenditure Value (MEV) that acts as a conduit to deliver Ethereum blocks. According to data from mevboost.org, there are currently six active relays offering at least one block in Ethereum, namely Flashbots, BloXroute Max Profit, BloXroute Ethical, BloXroute Regulated, Blocknative and Eden.
As shown above, out of the lot, 82.77% of all transfer blocks were found to be built exclusively by Flashbots – contributing significantly to Ethereum’s centralization.
A related blog from BitMEX highlighted the need for a full overhaul of Flashbots or a similar system to deal with unforeseen issues in the post-merger period. But proponents of Flashbots argue that the system is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and will eventually become decentralized itself.
Related: Ethereum integration: The community responds with memories, GIFs and tributes
Completing the data related to the dominance of Flashbots, analysis from Santiment They pointed out 46.15% of Ethereum PoS nodes are controlled by only two addresses.
Like us #Ethereum Post-merger inflation dashboard, 46.15% of #Evidence Nodes to store data, process transactions and add new ones #blockchain Blocks can be specified with only two addresses. The overwhelming dominance of these addresses is worth noting. pic.twitter.com/KQdFNgGloD
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) September 15, 2022
“After the successful completion of the merger, the majority of blocks – around 40% or more – were created by two addresses owned by Lido and Coinbase. It’s not good to see more than 40% of blocks fixed. Two providers, especially one centralized provider (Coinbase) ” explained Ryan Rasmussen, crypto research analyst at Bitwise.