The Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol cluster has published its inaugural unified tier list for Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) slated for the Hegotä upgrade, offering a transparent and consolidated view of the community’s development priorities. This landmark document, which evaluates 62 EIPs, represents a significant shift from previous per-team assessments, providing a holistic perspective on the proposed enhancements to the Ethereum network. The initiative aims to streamline development efforts and clearly communicate the rationale behind inclusion or exclusion of specific EIPs in future network upgrades.
The comprehensive list, detailed on the Forkcast platform, categorizes EIPs into distinct tiers, ranging from ‘S’ (must-ship) to ‘DFI’ (declined, further investigation needed). This tiered system signifies varying levels of commitment and expectation from the Protocol cluster. ‘S’ tier EIPs are considered essential for the Hegotä upgrade, while ‘A’ tier proposals are strongly recommended and expected to ship. ‘B’ tier EIPs are marked for potential inclusion, contingent on meeting specific requirements, and ‘C’ tier proposals are on the bubble, requiring further refinement or discussion. ‘DFI’ tier EIPs have been declined for the current upgrade cycle, with clear explanations provided for each decision.
This marks the first instance of the Protocol cluster presenting a single, unified assessment, rather than relying on individual team opinions. While Geth, a prominent Execution Layer (EL) client, will continue to publish its own standalone tier list, the broader Protocol cluster, comprising approximately 60 researchers and engineers, collaborated extensively to integrate their collective feedback into this overarching document. This collaborative approach ensures that the published tier list reflects a broad consensus and diverse expertise within the Ethereum development ecosystem.
The foundational principles and priorities guiding these assessments are further elaborated in a companion post, "EF Protocol: Current and Emerging Priorities," which provides essential context for understanding the strategic direction of the Protocol cluster. This dual publication strategy underscores a commitment to transparency and informed decision-making.
The Rigorous Tiering Process
The methodology behind the Hegotä EIP tier list was designed for thoroughness and inclusivity. Over a dozen teams and numerous individual domain experts within the Protocol cluster contributed to the evaluation process by completing contribution templates. A total of 397 tier grades were cast across the 62 EIPs under consideration, averaging approximately 6.4 grades per EIP. Some of the more contentious or complex proposals garnered up to nine individual assessments, highlighting the depth of scrutiny applied.
Lessons learned from prior development cycles, including retrospectives from the "Glamsterdam" event, informed the evaluation criteria. Key considerations included the integration depth of an EIP, the compounding complexity of its implementation, the scarcity of testing resources, and the tendency for champions to underestimate development challenges. Several group calls and a dedicated 90-minute working session were instrumental in resolving disagreements and refining the tiered classifications for contested proposals. A detailed account of the process was previously shared in an August 28th post, outlining the procedural steps taken.
Scoring Methodology and Delivery Expectations
Each contributor independently assessed each EIP, assigning scores: S = 4, A = 3, B = 2, C = 1, and D/DFI = 0. The final average score for each EIP was calculated based on the grades cast, with abstentions not impacting the overall average. The published tier for each EIP represents a "steelman" argument – the strongest possible version of the case for that proposal, developed through iterative discussion and debate during working sessions, allowing for adjustments in both directions. Per-team grades, however, remain private to maintain the focus on the collective consensus.
Crucially, each tier level establishes clear delivery expectations for the Protocol cluster:
- S Tier: These EIPs are considered essential and have a definitive commitment to delivery.
- A Tier: These proposals are strongly expected to be included in the Hegotä upgrade, signifying high priority and confidence in their implementation.
- B Tier: These EIPs are on the cusp of inclusion. They will be prioritized if specific requirements are met, indicating a path forward for their development.
- C Tier: These proposals are considered less critical or require further refinement. They are on the bubble and may be revisited in future development cycles.
- DFI Tier: These EIPs have been declined for the Hegotä upgrade, with detailed concerns outlined to explain the decision.
The accompanying notes for each EIP in the tier list are structured to provide actionable insights. For EIPs slated for inclusion, the notes highlight their merits. For those on the bubble, they specify the exact requirements needed to elevate their tier. For declined EIPs, the notes focus solely on the concerns that led to their exclusion.
The Consensus Layer: Pillars of Network Stability
The Consensus Layer (CL) EIPs form the bedrock of Ethereum’s network stability and operational efficiency. Among these, EIP-7805 (FOCIL) has been designated an ‘S’ tier headliner, marking it as a non-negotiable inclusion for Hegotä. FOCIL aims to empower users by providing a direct pathway to include eligible transactions without relying on centralized builders, a critical step towards enhancing decentralization and censorship resistance. Its unanimous ‘S’ rating underscores its fundamental importance, with plans for it to be shipped alongside EIP-8369.
EIP-8369 (VOPS Profiles for FOCIL Eligibility), an ‘A’ tier proposal, directly supports FOCIL by defining transaction eligibility and validator verification requirements, thereby extending inclusion guarantees to Frame-based transactions. This synergy between EIPs highlights a cohesive development strategy.
Several ‘A’ tier proposals address crucial cleanup and staking functionalities. EIP-8015 (Remove Deposit and eth1data Fields) is a straightforward cleanup effort, removing obsolete fields with no downstream dependencies, receiving near-unanimous approval. EIP-8365 (BLS Withdrawal Credential Retirement) is recognized as a critical "Post-Quantum" (PQ) cryptography-related item, addressing vulnerabilities in current cryptographic schemes by initiating the retirement of associated withdrawal credentials. Its inclusion in Hegotä is deemed necessary as no downstream dependencies rely on delaying this crucial security enhancement.
EIP-8383 (Reduce CL Block Retention Window), another ‘A’ tier proposal, addresses a constant in the protocol and corrects a previous suboptimal choice for the safety decay constant. The fact that it garnered two ‘A’ grades from its limited submissions emphasizes its importance, even as it was evaluated alongside proposals outside the main Forkcast list.
EIP-8334 (Bundled Attestation Propagation), an ‘A’ tier EIP, promises to significantly reduce gossip load by bundling attestation propagation, with minimal impact on the overall system. The consensus among reviewers was that no grade fell below ‘B’, indicating a strong agreement on the efficacy of its bundling mechanics.
EIP-8025 (Optional Execution Proofs), also in the ‘A’ tier, aims to upstream stateless execution changes into canonical execution specifications. This move is crucial for preventing work on zkVMs from diverging and ensures a more unified development path.
Moving into the ‘B’ tier, several EIPs are marked for potential inclusion, subject to specific conditions. EIP-8146 (Block Access List Sidecars) has garnered significant support, with its remaining components, such as settling the observation deadline in specification, being key to its potential upgrade to ‘A’ tier.
EIP-8237 (Independent CL/EL Sync) offers substantial bandwidth savings by allowing execution payloads to be downloaded independently on both layers, potentially halving sync bandwidth. The decision on its inclusion hinges on a comparison with simpler, non-EIP alternatives that might achieve similar gains.
EIP-8198 (Quick Slots) presents a more complex case. While Research & Development teams favored it, Engineering teams expressed concerns about the cascading retuning required for any slot-time alteration. To achieve ‘A’ tier status, significant further work is mandated, including comprehensive specifications, a full prototype implementation, an in-depth analysis of ecosystem-wide downstream effects, and explicit confirmation that it does not complicate decoupled consensus.
EIP-8321 (Hash-Chain RANDAO) is deemed a sound concept but is currently sequenced incorrectly. Hardening one consensus component before the complete PQ consensus design is finalized risks rework. It will be considered once the complete design is established and either adopts or extends this approach.
In the ‘C’ tier, EIP-8371 (RowDAS: Distributed Blob Reconstruction) is classified as a matter of priority rather than principle, focusing on whether operators experience reconstruction pain today versus investing in future headroom.
A substantial number of EIPs fall into the ‘DFI’ (Declined, Further Investigation) category, indicating they are not slated for the Hegotä upgrade but may be revisited in the future. These include EIP-8379 (Top-up Sync) and EIP-7716 (Anti-Correlation Attestation Penalties), the latter requiring more extensive research into its impact on staker dynamics and centralization. EIP-8367 (Balance Sunset for Retired BLS Validators) and EIP-8243 (Batching Attestations at Source) are also in this tier, with the former waiting for the complete PQ consensus design and the latter being better suited for the decoupled consensus redesign. Several other EIPs, such as EIP-8333 (Align Checkpoint with Epoch Boundary Block), EIP-8142 (Block-in-Blobs), EIP-8148 (Custom Sweep Threshold for Validators), and EIP-8205 (Withdrawal Credentials Preregistration), have been declined due to dependencies on future designs, operational convenience, or a lack of immediate necessity. EIP-8375 (ePBS Mandatory Burn of Execution Rewards) and EIP-8363 (Tapered Issuance Burn) are considered policy decisions that belong to broader ecosystem discussions rather than a fork-specific scope. EIP-8341 (Partial Execution Payload Commitments) was declined due to an unclear ownership and interaction with the consensus redesign.
The Execution Layer: Enhancing Transaction Capabilities and Efficiency
The Execution Layer (EL) EIPs focus on improving transaction capabilities, EVM functionality, and overall network efficiency. Leading the charge is EIP-8141 (Frame Transactions), an ‘S’ tier headliner for the EL. Frame Transactions represent a significant advancement in native account abstraction, promising enhanced security through a pathway to Post-Quantum (PQ) signature schemes without requiring a new fork for each scheme. Furthermore, it introduces aggregation for PQ verification, enabling cost-effective verification, and provides a mechanism for retiring older ‘k1’ keys. This EIP is slated to ship alongside EIP-8250 and EIP-8272.
EIP-3298 (Removal of Refunds), an ‘A’ tier proposal, addresses a critical issue that arose from the previous fork, eliminating an entire class of metering edge cases that led to significant complexities.
The Frame Transactions ecosystem is further bolstered by two ‘A’ tier EIPs: EIP-8250 (Keyed Nonces for Frame Transactions) and EIP-8272 (Recent Roots for Frame Transactions). EIP-8250 enhances anonymity by allowing multiple users to share a single sender while employing distinct nonces, preventing transaction blockage. EIP-8272 enables private transactions to leverage recent on-chain state in a verifiable manner, thereby benefiting from FOCIL’s inclusion guarantees.
EIP-5920 (PAY Opcode), also an ‘A’ tier EIP, introduces a small but impactful opcode that facilitates value transfer without invoking recipient code, addressing a long-standing limitation with high leverage and low surface area.
Security and network stability are addressed by several ‘A’ tier EIPs. EIP-8279 (Block Access List Byte Floor) and EIP-8131 (Unified Transaction Content Floor) form a crucial pair aimed at bounding worst-case block construction. EIP-8279 floors adversarial pricing of the Block Access List (BAL), while EIP-8131 applies similar controls to transaction calldata content. Both are graded as security work, with their classification as bounding or repricing remaining an open question, but their grade is independent of this definition.
EIP-7906 (Transaction Assertions via State Diff Opcode), an ‘A’ tier EIP, empowers transactions to verify state changes before committing, thereby preventing wallet drains and certain types of Miner Extractable Value (MEV) extraction. Currently in testing on a public devnet, proposed refinements suggest narrowing its scope to arbitrary storage reads, focusing instead on assertions over emitted events and BAL-touched slots.
The retirement of legacy cryptography is facilitated by EIP-8298 (SETCODEFROM Code Reuse Instruction) and EIP-8151 (Account Code Restricted ecRecover), both ‘A’ tier. These EIPs work in tandem: EIP-8298 allows delegated accounts to become true smart contract accounts and drop ‘k1’ keys, while EIP-8151 restricts ‘ecRecover’-based authentication once real code is present, effectively retiring ‘k1’ keys.
EIP-4758 (Deactivate SELFDESTRUCT), an ‘A’ tier EIP, removes the final path for the ‘SELFDESTRUCT’ opcode, a known testing hazard. Its inclusion simplifies future EIP development and testing, though its average score of 1.5 reflects the ongoing maintenance burden carried by EVM engineers.
In the ‘B’ tier, EIP-8253 (Bump Nonce of Zero-Nonce Storage Accounts) significantly simplifies the trie migration process. Its progression to ‘A’ tier hinges on whether this simplification warrants immediate inclusion or can wait until devnet sequencing confirms sufficient development room.
EIP-8077 (eth/XX: Announce Transactions with Nonce) addresses the need for richer transaction announcements in the Frame-era mempool. Its inclusion in Hegotä depends on the finalization of its wire format specification.
EIP-8374 (Persist Warm Access Sets Across Reverts) and EIP-8358 (Net Gas Metering for Account Changes) are coupled repricing EIPs that are currently considered together. EIP-7709 (Read BLOCKHASH from Storage and Update Cost) offers value for history expiry but shows a wide spread in grades. It could move to ‘A’ tier if devnet sequencing proceeds smoothly.
The ‘C’ tier includes EIPs such as EIP-7668 (Remove Bloom Filters), a receipt and filter format change better sequenced with broader history and logs work. EIP-8200 (EVMification) and EIP-7666 (EVM-ify the Identity Precompile) are related proposals concerning the EVMification of precompiles, with EIP-8200 requiring rigorous auditing of replacement bytecodes. EIP-8355 (ML-DSA Verification Precompiles) is considered premature standardization of a specific PQ verification scheme.
A notable segment of EL EIPs falls into the ‘DFI’ tier. These include EIP-8163 (Reserve EXTENSION (0xae) Opcode), as there is no committed consumer for the reserved opcode in this fork. EIP-7979 (Call and Return Opcodes for the EVM) and EIP-7923 (Linear, Page-Based Memory Costing) are among several repricing EIPs deferred due to ongoing metering churn concerns. EIP-7851 (Code-Controlled EOA Delegation) and EIP-7819 (SETDELEGATE Instruction) are alternative account abstraction mechanics that lose out to the Frame approach on innovation tests. Several EIPs related to block and state data, such as EIP-8304 (Trustless Log and Transaction Index) and EIP-8115 (Batch Priority Fees at End of Block), are deferred to align with history and logs work or trie migration designs. EIP-8094 (eth/vhash: Blob-Aware Mempool) faces unclear interactions with blob-scaling paths. EIP-2488 (Deprecate the CALLCODE Opcode) is a deprecation with no immediate urgency and potential for app-layer breakage. EIP-7807 (SSZ Execution Blocks) is a formatting migration with a wide blast radius and no Hegotä dependency. EIP-182 (Private ETH and ERC-20 Transfers) is declined as the Frame-based approach offers a similar goal with less protocol surface. EIP-7645 (Alias ORIGIN to SENDER) is unanimously declined for breaking deployed contracts without security gains.
Two EIPs, EIP-8368 (CPSB Recalibration for New Gas Limit) and EIP-8372 (Normalized State Gas Limit), are marked as ‘TBD’, awaiting post-Glamsterdam mainnet data to inform decisions on recalibration and normalization.
Broader Impact and Future Outlook
The publication of the Hegotä EIP tier list represents a significant step towards a more structured and transparent development process for Ethereum. By providing clear criteria, justifications, and delivery expectations, the Protocol cluster aims to align the community’s efforts and accelerate the delivery of impactful upgrades. The collaborative approach, involving a wide range of stakeholders, ensures that the tier list reflects a robust consensus.
The inclusion of ‘S’ and ‘A’ tier proposals like FOCIL and Frame Transactions signals a commitment to core functionalities that enhance decentralization, security, and user experience. The detailed explanations for declined EIPs provide valuable feedback to proposers and the broader community, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
The accompanying "EF Protocol: Current and Emerging Priorities" document serves as a crucial companion piece, offering a strategic roadmap for the Protocol cluster. This holistic approach to communication empowers developers, researchers, and users to understand the direction and rationale behind Ethereum’s evolution.
The Ethereum Foundation has also proactively engaged with the community by scheduling a Reddit AMA on r/ethereum for September 16th at 2 PM UTC. This platform will provide an opportunity for direct interaction with the Protocol cluster, allowing for questions and challenges to the published tier list, particularly from champions of non-A-tier and declined EIPs. This commitment to open dialogue underscores the Foundation’s dedication to collaborative development and community input.
The Hegotä upgrade, guided by this comprehensive tier list, promises to bring substantial enhancements to the Ethereum network, building upon the foundational work of previous upgrades like Shanghai/Capella and the ongoing learnings from Cancun/Deneb. The emphasis on security, efficiency, and user empowerment through features like Frame Transactions and FOCIL demonstrates a clear trajectory towards a more robust and accessible Ethereum ecosystem. The success of this process will be measured not only by the EIPs that are shipped but also by the clarity and justification provided for those that are not, fostering a more informed and engaged community.
