In May, the Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol cluster welcomed a trio of new cluster coordinators, signaling a period of renewed focus and strategic planning. Following months of internal alignment and ecosystem-wide consultation, the cluster has now articulated its core priorities, long-term commitments through 2029, and the specific requirements for upcoming hard forks, beginning with the Hegotá upgrade. This comprehensive roadmap addresses the looming threat of quantum computing and lays the groundwork for a more robust, private, and efficient Ethereum network.
The Protocol cluster’s overarching objective is to render Ethereum’s Layer 1 (L1) quantum-resistant across its execution, consensus, and data layers by December 2029. This ambitious timeline aligns with similar cryptographic migration targets set by major technology players such as Google, Cloudflare, and Microsoft. While the exact timing of "Q-day" – the theoretical point at which quantum computers could break current cryptographic standards – remains uncertain, the Ethereum Protocol cluster has adopted a proactive stance, setting an aggressive self-imposed deadline. This decision reflects a commitment to foresight and strategic security, aiming to ensure Ethereum’s longevity for centuries to come. The cluster has committed to this deadline until at least January 2027, when external expert assessments will inform any potential adjustments.
The path to this quantum-resistant future is structured through a series of planned hard forks, with the Hegotá upgrade serving as the immediate critical step. The development process for Hegotá has involved extensive scoping, including the proposal of 62 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), multiple retrospectives on the previous Glamsterdam upgrade, the development of 16 contribution templates, and numerous cluster-wide working sessions. This rigorous process has engaged approximately 60 researchers and engineers in defining a shared set of priorities that will guide the network’s evolution.
The cluster’s strategic plan outlines two distinct cadences to achieve its 2029 goal. The initial, more aggressive cadence, based on the July Strawmap, envisioned full post-quantum readiness at L, five hard forks after Glamsterdam. Achieving this would necessitate an average of 7.2 months per fork, a schedule that offers little room for unforeseen delays. Recognizing the need for a more flexible approach, an August 19 update to the Strawmap introduced a minimum viable post-quantum (MV-PQ) milestone at J. This contingency plan includes key components like a post-quantum public-key registry at I, and the consensus layer heartbeat, leanDA sampling on the data layer, and leanSPHINCS transactions on the execution layer at J. This adjusted timeline allows for a more manageable 12-month cadence from Glamsterdam, ensuring the MV-PQ milestone can be met by December 2029.
MV-PQ is designed as a safeguard, enabling Ethereum to continue operating through a potential Q-day with reduced, but still functional, guarantees. The precise implications of this reduction in guarantees are still being defined by researchers. However, the ultimate target remains full quantum resistance across all layers by the end of the decade. The remaining work includes the development of post-quantum attestations, crucial for full economic finality within the consensus layer.
The cluster also acknowledges the potential for flexibility in the fork order after J, with a proposal to swap K and L*. This reordering would advance lean consensus by one fork and mandatory execution proofs back by a fork. The decision will hinge on research maturity and a clearer understanding of client team capacity.
Crucially, meeting the demanding cadence required for these milestones will necessitate unprecedented collaboration across the entire Ethereum ecosystem. The overlapping nature of future forks means that Hegotá, I, and J will likely be developed concurrently, with research for J through L producing testable components. Linear sequencing of these upgrades is insufficient; success will depend on enhanced internal communication within the Protocol cluster, as well as robust engagement with client teams, grant recipients, academic institutions, and the broader community. This will accelerate the pipeline from research to mainnet deployment. The effort will require a significant influx of cryptographers, client developers, researchers, security reviewers, and testing resources, extending well beyond the Ethereum Foundation.
The Protocol cluster’s work is organized around five multi-fork research arcs, each addressing a critical aspect of Ethereum’s future development:
Fast Finality
This arc aims to drastically reduce Ethereum’s time to finality from minutes to mere seconds. The current design direction involves decoupling finality from block production and rebuilding the consensus layer around an "available chain" and a "finality gadget." Specifications and prototypes are actively being developed, with the goal of integrating decoupled consensus as a headline feature in the I* fork.
Post-Quantum
As detailed in "The Plan," this arc is dedicated to achieving the December 2029 quantum-resistant deadline. It spans all three core layers of Ethereum: consensus, data, and execution. Cryptographic agility is paramount for the execution layer, where native account abstraction will allow for seamless swapping of signature schemes without requiring hard forks for each new cryptographic standard. The Frames protocol is central to this effort, providing the necessary foundation for native account abstraction. In contrast, the consensus layer, which cannot rely on cryptographic agility due to its inherent structure, will undergo a more robust and battle-tested hardening process before deployment. Consensus components will await the complete post-quantum design, rather than being deployed piecemeal.
Privacy
The privacy arc is focused on establishing privacy as a fundamental protocol guarantee, enabling users to transact, hold balances, and interact with decentralized applications without revealing their financial history or relying on third-party trust. The initial phase, targeted for the Hegotá upgrade, aims to deliver native, trustless, and censorship-resistant private transactions on Ethereum L1. Subsequent efforts will concentrate on scaling post-quantum privacy solutions and implementing encrypted mempools to conceal transaction details until they are included in a block.
State
This arc addresses the critical challenge of managing state growth and ensuring accessible state retrieval. Its work encompasses the migration to a new trie structure, the implementation of sustainable state growth mechanisms, and the decentralization of access to both current and historical state data. Significant design and migration efforts are anticipated to commence with the I* fork and continue beyond.
zkEVM
The zkEVM arc is progressing towards making execution proofs a mandatory requirement for validators, moving beyond their current optional status. This shift means validators will eventually verify succinct proofs rather than re-executing every block. Under the current Strawmap ordering, mandatory proofs are slated for K. A potential reordering is under consideration, which would advance post-quantum attestations from L to K and move mandatory proofs from K to L*. Regardless of the final ordering, the development of an L1 zkEVM will significantly advance formal verification tooling, workflows, and verified cryptographic components, benefiting other research arcs, particularly the post-quantum initiative.
IV. How Priorities Are Set and Implemented
The Protocol cluster’s guiding imperative, first articulated in a July update, remains: "Concentrate Protocol on what only Protocol can do and will do, and complete the Strawmap items that allow Ethereum to uphold the Mandate." The successful completion of the Glamsterdam upgrade and the establishment of the December 2029 post-quantum commitment have shifted this focus, elevating post-quantum work from a long-term research concern to an immediate fork delivery priority. This re-prioritization is reflected in a revised ladder, which places formal verification as a cross-cutting tooling across all remaining research arcs.
The priority ladder as of Q2 2026 has been updated as follows:
- P0: Keep mainnet safe (unchanged).
- P1: Ship critical components of Hegotá, I, and J to establish the path to MV-PQ.
- P2: Allocate research and engineering capacity for K and L, with a focus on accelerating remaining post-quantum initiatives.
- P3: Maintain research capabilities for the four remaining multi-year arcs (fast finality, privacy, state, and zkEVM), with formal verification serving as a unifying tooling.
The maturity pipeline dictates how work earns inclusion into the upgrade process: Research -> EIP -> Prototype -> Devnet -> Pre-Fork Infrastructure (PFI) -> Core Fork Infrastructure (CFI) -> Stable Fork Infrastructure (SFI) -> Mainnet. Each stage is designed to progressively add evidence, reduce uncertainty, and establish clear ownership before the next commitment is made. Devnets, for example, can serve as feedback loops to send work back to the research phase. PFI, CFI, and SFI represent increasing confidence levels among core developers but do not replace the need for concrete implementation evidence. A significant portion of Protocol’s unique mandate involves guiding ideas through this entire pipeline.
V. The Hegotá Fork: The Initial Test
The current focus of the Protocol cluster is on the Hegotá hard fork. A companion post, "EF Protocol: The Hegotá EIP Opinion Post and Tier List," provides detailed evaluations of every EIP proposed for this upgrade. This section outlines the priorities, commitments, and scope boundaries that informed these evaluations.
Hegotá is not the definitive post-quantum fork; rather, it is the critical upgrade that determines whether subsequent post-quantum forks can proceed on schedule. The primary headliners for Hegotá, currently SFI’d, are EIP-7805 Fork-choice enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL) for the consensus layer and EIP-8141 Frame Transaction for the execution layer. The safe, simultaneous deployment of these two components, along with thorough testing of their interaction, constitutes the core engineering lift for this fork.
There is a notably limited appetite for additional scope on the consensus layer beyond FOCIL. Any further consensus-layer additions will only be considered if they directly contribute to post-quantum readiness. This cautious approach is driven by the fact that each consensus-layer item draws from the same pool of researchers and client developers essential for specifying and prototyping decoupled consensus, and for preparing the I and J forks upon completion of their Hegotá implementations.
Preserving CROPS as a Whole
The Ethereum Foundation’s Mandate defines Protocol’s responsibilities through CROPS: Censorship Resistance (CR), Open Source and Free (as in freedom) (O), Privacy (P), and Security (S). These principles form a unified set of protocol guarantees. Open-source development and open participation are fundamental to every fork. Hegotá specifically addresses commitments across Censorship Resistance, Privacy, and Security.
Censorship Resistance (CR)
FOCIL aims to enhance Ethereum’s transaction inclusion guarantees by empowering multiple validators to impose constraints on block builders. This is achieved by defining sets of transactions that must be included within a block for it to be considered valid by attesters. EIP-8369, "VOPS Profiles for FOCIL Eligibility," specifies which transactions are eligible and what validators must verify, ensuring FOCIL’s guarantees can extend to future transaction types. Together, FOCIL and its related EIPs represent Hegotá’s direct commitment to resisting censorship and capture.
Privacy (P)
Ethereum currently lacks certain fundamental protocol support essential for privacy applications. EIP-8250, "Keyed Nonces," allows multiple users to share the same sender address for enhanced anonymity while maintaining distinct nonces for their transactions, preventing them from blocking each other. EIP-8272, "Recent Roots," enables private transactions to leverage recent on-chain state in a form verifiable by FOCIL, thus benefiting from its inclusion guarantees. These two EIPs, when shipped with Frames, aim to remove significant barriers to trustless, censorship-resistant private activity on L1.
Security (S)
The Frames transaction model introduces protocol-level programmability for transaction validation, execution, and gas payment. It provides a native pathway for accounts to move away from vulnerable secp256k1 keys, supports signature aggregation, and allows for the introduction of new signature schemes without the need for a hard fork per scheme. Furthermore, it maintains permissionless account validation and fee payment. Keyed nonces and recent roots complement the Frames core, essential for Hegotá.
EIP-8365, "BLS Withdrawal Credential Retirement," initiates the process of retiring withdrawal credentials still tied to vulnerable cryptography. This work can commence immediately, without awaiting the finalization of the full post-quantum consensus design.
The Frames-extension package directly enhances account security. EIP-7906, "Transaction Assertions via State Diff Opcode," permits transactions to verify specified effects before commitment, protecting against attacks such as drainers. EIP-8298, "SETCODEFROM Code Reuse Instruction," allows delegated accounts to evolve into full smart-contract accounts. EIP-8151, "Account Code Restricted ecRecover," blocks legacy key authentication once an account has actual code. The latter two EIPs establish the account-centric path for retiring secp256k1 as a master key.
For worst-case block construction, EIP-8279, "Block Access List Byte Floor," and EIP-8131, "Unified Transaction Content Floor," impose a predictable gas floor on adversarial block content. Any subsequent utilization of the resulting headroom will be addressed in separate scope decisions.
The successful and safe delivery of FOCIL and Frames, along with comprehensive testing of their interplay, forms the central engineering commitment for Hegotá. Any proposed additions must demonstrably justify their necessity and compete with the established testing surface.
VI. What to Expect
The companion post, "EF Protocol: The Hegotá EIP Opinion Post and Tier List," details the Protocol cluster’s assessment of every EIP for Hegotá, providing explanations for each grade. This post is highly recommended for readers seeking a deeper understanding of the upgrade’s technical specifics.
To further engage with the community, the Ethereum Foundation Protocol cluster will host a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) on r/ethereum on September 16th at 2:00 PM UTC. This session will provide an opportunity to discuss the newly outlined priorities, the Hegotá tier list, and other pertinent topics. Questions can be submitted in advance via a dedicated form, with sharper, more focused questions expected to foster a more productive discussion.
