Flowra brings sanctions screening to Solana block builders through Honeypot partnership

Solana-focused blockchain infrastructure company Flowra has partnered with compliance intelligence provider Honeypot to bring sanctions screening into the network’s block-building process.

The collaboration integrates Honeypot’s compliance tools into Flowra’s Programmable Block Policy (PBP). The aim is to give institutional validators more control over which transactions they process. The validators get to create their own compliance rules before transactions and bundles are added to blocks. 

According to the companies, the system is intended to help regulated operators meet sanctions and risk management requirements. They say they do this while preserving the decentralized nature of the network by letting each validator decide which policies to enforce.

What does the Flowra-Honeypot partnership add to Solana validators?

The integration enables validators using Flowra’s infrastructure to screen wallet addresses associated with sanctioned entities and identify network traffic originating from VPNs, proxy services and Tor exit nodes before transactions are included in blocks.

The companies say that the framework is designed to support sanctions-related screening alongside network-level risk indicators. Flowra said the architecture will also support additional enterprise compliance providers as development continues, giving institutional operators access to more compliance options over time.

Each validator will retain the ability to define its own policies instead of following a single network-wide standard, giving operators flexibility based on their legal and regulatory obligations.

“Public blockchains have become increasingly attractive to institutional participants, but the infrastructure hasn’t evolved to give validators the compliance controls many regulated operators expect,” Harry Hwang, Flowra’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Hwang added that their collaboration with Honeypot is to bring compliance into the block-building process itself. He stated, “The goal isn’t to make the network less open, it’s to give individual validators the flexibility to operate in a way that reflects their own requirements.”

Why are compliance tools becoming more important for blockchain infrastructure?

Compliance has been one of the biggest issues regulators have had with decentralization and generally the digital assets industry. Over the years, they have worked to provide clarity and put in place rules to guide such operations. One of the areas they expect crypto businesses to stay compliant is in sanctions screening and anti-money laundering controls. 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has repeatedly reminded virtual asset service providers that sanctions obligations apply to digital assets in the same way they do to traditional financial transactions. The agency has also taken enforcement actions against crypto firms that have come short of its rules.

Flowra and Honeypot say their product may be the solution that makes that process easier for protocols.

Honeypot’s technology already helps platforms operating under sanctions and geo-restriction requirements by providing VPN-detecting and proxy services, among others. It supports compliance and audit requirements for regulated businesses.

At the beginning, the partnership will only focus on sanctions screening, wallet screening and auditability, which are areas that many institutional firms consider before participating in blockchain infrastructure.

Flowra stated that they will be releasing more technical details as implementation progresses.