Who controls it
Control assessmentApproved
Stagen/a
Reviewed2026-07-31
- Transaction ordering
- None: permissionless proposer set
- Escape hatch
- None needed: Ethereum is the settlement layer.
- Upgrade authority
- Social consensus and a hard fork. No key can change state or seize funds.
- Halts and outages
- Ethereum has not halted since the Merge, and finality takes about 13 minutes. The standing concern is client concentration: Geth held about 50.1% of execution-layer share in Q4 2025. A bug in a supermajority client is the one scenario that could finalise a wrong chain. Institutional operators moved toward multi-client stacks through 2026 in response.
Ketju assessment
Ketju approves Ethereum: no sequencer, upgrade key or operator can be compelled to block or seize a client’s funds. Ketju measures every other chain against it. The cost is gas, because a client with a small position pays more here than on an L2. An advisor should state that trade-off to the client and should not route the client to Base to avoid it.
Review triggers
- Any single execution client exceeding 66% share
- Any single consensus client exceeding 66% share
- Finality failure lasting more than 1 hour
Each trigger names a fact anyone can observe. If one occurs, Ketju will review the assessment again. None is a forecast.
Questions before use
- Does the client’s thesis require censorship resistance, or primarily low-cost settlement?
- Can the client withdraw without help from the party that normally orders transactions?
- Who can upgrade bridges or contracts, and what delay applies?
- Does the asset introduce an issuer weaker than the chain grade?
- What evidence will show a halt, censorship event, or governance change?