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Court overturns Tornado Cash sanctions.
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Flashbots launches BuilderNet.
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EigenLayer introduces EigenGov.
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WalletConnect launches its WCT token.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of Tornado Cash, concluding that OFAC exceeded its authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) when it sanctioned Tornado Cash smart contracts. The court determined that Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts do not qualify as “property” under IEEPA because they cannot be owned, controlled, or altered by any party, including their creators. The decision overturns a prior ruling from August 2023, when a U.S. district court judge sided with OFAC in a Coinbase-backed lawsuit challenging the sanctions. The lawsuit was initially filed in September 2022 by six individuals affected by the sanctions. Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase, says that the sanctioned smart contracts should now be removed from the sanctions list, allowing U.S. persons to resume using the privacy protocol.
Flashbots launched BuilderNet, a new decentralized block-building network for Ethereum aimed at addressing centralization, improving censorship resistance, and distributing power more equitably within the ecosystem. Initially operated by Flashbots, Beaverbuild, and Nethermind, BuilderNet uses Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) to process encrypted order flows securely and distribute MEV rewards among participants. Block builders, the entities responsible for assembling transaction bundles into blocks and submitting them to validators, currently face centralization challenges. Flashbots reports that over 90% of Ethereum blocks are built by just two parties: Beaverbuild and rsync. BuilderNet enables multiple operators to collaborate on block building, ensuring secure sharing and processing of orderflow. Contributors are then compensated with refunds based on the value they add to the blocks.
EigenLayer introduced EigenGov, a governance framework designed to facilitate decision-making among EIGEN holders, developers, operators, and stakers. EigenGov derives legitimacy from EIGEN holders while delegating decision-making authority to councils. EIGEN holders retain the power to veto council decisions. Instead of traditional delegation systems, tokenholders endorse council candidates based on expertise. EigenGov also employs a dual-track model: a Core Track for stable, production-ready governance focused on security and robustness, and a Vision Track for experimenting with governance solutions in a controlled environment.
WalletConnect launched its WCT governance token. Over 160,000 wallets are eligible to claim a share of 50 million WCT tokens, split between 30 million for users and 20 million for contributors. The allocations were based on network usage, onchain activity, and past airdrop behavior. While tokens are initially non-transferable, users can decide to stake them for 1 week to 2 years with staking rewards beginning December 19th.
