Strait of Hormuz: Witnessing the Golden Age of Censorship-Resistant Assets

Yesterday, I saw a piece of news on Sina (the gist is):

Iran requires tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz to pay tolls in cryptocurrency.

Upon seeing this news, my first reaction was that the cryptocurrency in question is unlikely to be stablecoins like USDC or USDT. Next, I was curious: why didn't the news specify which cryptocurrency?

Then I looked at the details of the news, which stated that it did not specify which cryptocurrency would be used for payment.

However, I checked foreign news, which indicated that Iran is requesting payment in Bitcoin.

Why did I initially feel that it was unlikely to be these stablecoins?

The reason is simple:

Because they are essentially centralized assets, and are tightly controlled by the U.S. government. For a hostile party caught in intense political disputes, using such assets means that if these stablecoin issuers block their accounts, Iran would be left helpless.

The value of freedom and anti-censorship is incredibly important and precious at this moment, in this significant historical conflict. It represents a supreme and intangible value not only for Iran but for all groups and individuals.

Assets like Bitcoin that are resistant to censorship need to build and demonstrate such value and make the world recognize it through repeated significant historical events and intense conflicts that change the course of history.

The historical weight of gold has accumulated over time in this way; clearly, crypto assets are also playing out such history.

I have always held the view:

The most valuable things must be usable and trusted by both angels and demons.

It's like the air we rely on at all times— the Creator provides us with this substance without distinguishing who is qualified to breathe it, and does not strip away the right to breathe air from someone just because they are a demon or have committed heinous acts.

As for whether there are other ways to prevent demons and those who have committed great evils from breathing air, that is a matter for humanity to handle, and the Creator should strive to remain neutral.

Only by transcending such disputes can the things created by the Creator be recognized by all humanity.

The top-tier crypto assets should stand in the Creator's perspective and should not preset human values and orientations.

I recall reading about Ethereum's FOCIL mechanism recently.

In real-world scenarios, we inevitably encounter situations like this:

Some nodes, for whatever reason, may block certain accounts or transactions to appease regulators based on their demands.

This is what we often hear referred to as the "blacklist" mechanism.

To eliminate such situations, Ethereum's FOCIL mechanism established a "jury" of 17 nodes. These 17 nodes are randomly selected from the entire network. Each node includes a list of transactions that must be included in a block. If the block packager fails to include any transaction from the list provided by these 17 nodes, the block it produces will be deemed illegal and discarded by the entire network.

With the FOCIL mechanism in place, unless regulatory agencies can enforce regulation across all nodes in the network, it will be difficult for them to interfere with Ethereum's neutrality through transaction blocking.

Regarding the FOCIL mechanism, Vitalik also mentioned that in the future, this mechanism will be further strengthened to solidify Ethereum's anti-censorship characteristics and to achieve maximum neutrality.