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In May, the Ethereum Protocol cluster welcomed a new trio of cluster coordinators, signaling a period of strategic recalibration and forward planning. Following months of internal alignment and ecosystem-wide consultations, the cluster has now articulated its core priorities, long-term commitments through 2029, and the specific requirements for upcoming protocol upgrades. This comprehensive strategy aims to secure Ethereum’s future against emerging cryptographic threats, particularly the advent of quantum computing.

The Protocol cluster’s overarching objective is to achieve quantum-resistance across all three fundamental layers of the Ethereum network – execution, consensus, and data – by December 2029. This ambitious deadline aligns with similar migration targets set by major technology corporations, including Google, Cloudflare, and Microsoft, underscoring a broader industry recognition of the impending need for quantum-safe cryptography. While the precise timing of "Q-day," the theoretical moment when quantum computers could break current encryption standards, remains uncertain, the Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol cluster has adopted a deliberately aggressive planning assumption, projecting Q-day as early as 2030. This proactive stance is deemed essential for strategic responsibility and to signal Ethereum’s commitment to long-term viability. The self-imposed deadline will be reassessed in January 2027, with input from external quantum computing experts.

This strategic pivot comes as Ethereum approaches the mainnet launch of the "Glamsterdam" upgrade. The Protocol cluster is now deeply engaged in the "Hegotä" scoping season, a rigorous process involving the proposal of 62 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), extensive retrospectives on past upgrades, the refinement of contribution templates, and numerous cluster-wide working sessions. This collaborative effort has mobilized approximately 60 researchers and engineers to define a shared set of priorities that will guide the network’s development trajectory. These priorities are focused through a critical path, beginning with the scope of the Hegotä upgrade.

A companion piece, "EF Protocol: The Hegotä EIP Opinion Post and Tier List," provides a detailed evaluation of each proposed EIP for the Hegotä upgrade, offering a granular view of the cluster’s assessment criteria and recommendations.

I. The North Star: Securing Ethereum for the Quantum Era

The establishment of a December 2029 target for full post-quantum readiness is a direct response to the existential threat posed by quantum computing. Leading technology firms have already begun outlining their migration roadmaps, with Google, Cloudflare, and Microsoft all indicating similar timelines for transitioning to quantum-resistant cryptography. The Ethereum Protocol cluster’s decision to align with these projections reflects a consensus that proactive preparation is not merely prudent but strategically imperative.

The cluster emphasizes that "shipping post-quantum readiness early is the secure thing to do. It is the strategically responsible thing to do. It is the clearest signal we can send that Ethereum intends to exist 50, 100, and 1,000 years from now." This commitment acknowledges the inherent uncertainty surrounding the precise timing of quantum breakthroughs, opting for a fixed, self-imposed deadline rather than waiting for definitive proof of an imminent threat. This approach, while aggressive, is designed to instill a sense of urgency and ensure that the necessary cryptographic transitions are completed well in advance of any potential disruption. The cluster views this as a deliberate, albeit significant, strategic bet on future technological capabilities.

II. The Plan: A Phased Approach to Quantum-Resistant Ethereum

Achieving the ambitious 2029 goal necessitates a meticulously planned sequence of protocol upgrades, referred to as "forks." Client teams are projected to begin implementing Hegotä in late Q4 2026. The "July Strawmap," a proposed roadmap for future upgrades, outlines full post-quantum readiness as a milestone designated "L," occurring five hardforks after Glamsterdam. This schedule, which requires shipping Glamsterdam in December 2026 and L in December 2029, implies an average cadence of 7.2 months per fork. This pace is considered aggressive, leaving minimal room for unforeseen delays.

Recognizing the potential for timeline pressures, an update to the Strawmap on August 19 introduced a "minimum viable post-quantum" (MV-PQ) milestone at "J." This milestone includes a post-quantum public-key registry (I), a post-quantum heartbeat on the consensus layer, leanDA sampling on the data layer, and leanSPHINCS transactions on the execution layer (J*). A more conservative 12-month cadence from Glamsterdam would allow the network to reach this MV-PQ contingency by December 2029.

MV-PQ is conceptualized as a temporary safeguard, intended to ensure Ethereum’s continued operation through a potential Q-day with reduced, but still functional, guarantees. The exact nature of these reduced guarantees is still under active research and definition. The ultimate goal, however, remains full quantum resistance across all layers by December 2029. This necessitates further work, including the development of post-quantum attestations, which are crucial for achieving full economic finality within the consensus design.

The Strawmap also allows for flexibility in the fork order after J. Specifically, the order of K and L might be swapped, potentially advancing lean consensus by one fork and mandatory execution proofs by another. Achieving full post-quantum readiness in K by December 2029 would require a 9-month cadence. Currently, Hegotä, I, and J are being treated as a single delivery sequence, with the final ordering to be determined as research matures and client capacity becomes clearer.

The demanding cadence required for these milestones underscores the necessity for unprecedented collaboration across the Ethereum ecosystem. Forks are expected to overlap, with Hegotä potentially being developed concurrently with the maturation of I specifications and the research leading to testable components for J through L*. A linear progression of forks is insufficient to meet the December 2029 schedule. This will necessitate enhanced communication channels within the Protocol cluster and intensified engagement with client teams, grant recipients, academic institutions, and the broader community to accelerate the pipeline from research to mainnet deployment. The delivery of post-quantum readiness will also demand a significant increase in human resources, including cryptographers, client developers, researchers, security reviewers, and testing specialists, both within and beyond the Ethereum Foundation.

III. The Five Multi-Fork Research Arcs: Pillars of Future Development

The Protocol cluster is concurrently advancing its long-term objectives through five interconnected research arcs, each spanning multiple future forks. This parallel development strategy is crucial for managing the complexity of near-horizon and long-horizon goals, extending beyond the immediate push for minimum viable post-quantum readiness.

• 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 a concept of an "available chain" and a "finality gadget." Specifications and prototypes for this are being developed, targeting inclusion in the I* upgrade, where decoupled consensus is anticipated to be a primary feature.

• Post-Quantum: As detailed in the plan, this arc is the linchpin for meeting the December 2029 commitment. It encompasses all three layers: consensus, data, and execution. Cryptographic agility is paramount for the execution layer, enabling signature schemes to be swapped without requiring hard forks, facilitated by native account abstraction. The consensus layer, however, cannot rely on such agility and must undergo hard forks for cryptographic changes. Consensus cryptography will be rigorously battle-tested and hardened before deployment, with components awaiting the complete post-quantum design rather than being released incrementally.

• Privacy: The objective of this arc is to establish privacy as a core protocol guarantee, allowing users to conduct transactions, manage balances, and interact with decentralized applications without exposing their financial history or relying on third-party trust. The initial focus is on enabling native, trustless, and censorship-resistant private transactions on Ethereum L1, starting with the Hegotä upgrade. Subsequent efforts will address post-quantum privacy at scale and the development of encrypted mempools to obscure transaction contents until they are included in a block.

• State: This arc is dedicated to preventing state growth and access from becoming a bottleneck for Ethereum’s scalability. Its scope includes migrating to a new trie structure, ensuring sustainable state growth, and enabling decentralized access to both current and historical state data. The most significant design and migration work in this area is expected to commence with the I* upgrade and continue thereafter.

• zkEVM: This arc focuses on transitioning execution proofs from an optional to a mandatory requirement for validators. The ultimate goal is for validators to verify succinct proofs rather than re-executing every block. Under the current Strawmap ordering, mandatory proofs are slated for inclusion in the K upgrade. A potential reordering is under consideration: swapping the post-quantum attestation and mandatory proof milestones. This would advance PQ attestations from L to K and move mandatory proofs from K to L*, while keeping other elements of each fork intact. Regardless of the final ordering, the development of an L1 zkEVM is driving advancements in formal verification tooling, workflows, and verified cryptographic components that will benefit other research arcs, particularly the post-quantum efforts.

IV. Setting and Shipping Priorities: A Refined Framework

The Protocol cluster’s guiding imperative, first articulated in July, 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 Glamsterdam and the establishment of the December 2029 post-quantum commitment mark a significant shift, moving post-quantum work from a long-term research concern to a near-term delivery priority. This change is reflected in a revised priority ladder that places formal verification across remaining research arcs as a cross-cutting tooling initiative.

This priority ladder is complemented by a "maturity pipeline," which dictates how work earns inclusion in protocol upgrades. The pipeline consists of the following stages: Research → EIP → Prototype → Devnet → PFI (Pre-Fork Integration) → CFI (Core Fork Integration) → SFI (Staging Fork Integration) → Mainnet. Each stage is designed to systematically add evidence, reduce uncertainty, and establish clear ownership before a commitment is made for the next stage. The process allows for work to be sent back to the research phase if issues arise at any point, such as during devnet testing. Milestones like PFI, CFI, and SFI serve as indicators of increasing confidence among the AllCoreDevs, but they do not replace the need for concrete implementation evidence. A significant portion of Protocol’s unique responsibilities involves guiding ideas through this entire pipeline.

V. The Hegotä Upgrade: The Crucial First Test

The Hegotä upgrade serves as the immediate focus and the first critical test of the Protocol cluster’s new strategic direction. The companion post on Hegotä EIPs provides a detailed assessment of each proposal. This section outlines the core priorities, commitments, and scope boundaries that underpin those assessments.

Crucially, Hegotä is not positioned as the definitive post-quantum upgrade but rather as the upgrade that "decides whether the PQ forks happen on time." Its headline features are EIP-7805, "Fork-choice enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL)" for the consensus layer, and EIP-8141, "Frame Transaction," for the execution layer. The safe and simultaneous shipping of these two components, along with thorough testing of their interaction, constitutes the primary engineering undertaking for Hegotä.

The cluster expresses a minimal appetite for additional scope on the consensus layer beyond FOCIL. Any further additions would need to directly support post-quantum readiness. This cautious approach is driven by the need to conserve researchers and client developers, who are essential for specifying and prototyping decoupled consensus, and for preparing subsequent upgrades (I and J) once Hegotä implementations are complete.

Preserving CROPS: Core Protocol Guarantees

The Ethereum Foundation’s Mandate defines the Protocol cluster’s responsibilities through the acronym CROPS: Censorship Resistance (CR), Open Source and Free (O), Privacy (P), and Security (S). These properties form a foundational set of protocol guarantees, with open-source development and open participation serving as the baseline for all upgrades. Hegotä specifically addresses commitments across CR, P, and S.

• Censorship Resistance (CR): The FOCIL proposal aims to enhance Ethereum’s transaction inclusion guarantees by empowering multiple validators to impose constraints on block builders. Validators will specify sets of transactions that must be included in blocks for them to be deemed valid by attestors. EIP-8369, "VOPS Profiles for FOCIL Eligibility," defines which transactions are eligible and what validators must verify, extending FOCIL’s guarantees to future transaction types. Together, FOCIL and EIP-8369 represent Hegotä’s direct commitment to resisting censorship and capture.

• Privacy (P): The Ethereum protocol currently lacks essential native support for privacy applications. EIP-8250, "Keyed Nonces," will enable multiple users to share a common sender address for enhanced anonymity while retaining distinct nonces for their transactions, preventing them from blocking each other. EIP-8272, "Recent Roots," will allow private transactions to leverage recent on-chain state in a form verifiable by FOCIL, thereby benefiting from its inclusion guarantees. These two EIPs, shipping alongside Frames, are expected to remove significant barriers to trustless, censorship-resistant private activity on L1.

• Security (S): The Frames transaction model introduces programmability at the protocol level for transaction validation, execution, and gas payments. It offers accounts a native pathway to move away from vulnerable secp256k1 keys, supports signature aggregation, and allows for the introduction of new signature schemes without requiring hard forks for each. Frames also ensures that account validation and fee payment remain permissionless. Keyed nonces and recent roots complement the Frames core functionalities required for Hegotä.

EIP-8365, "BLS Withdrawal Credential Retirement," initiates the process of retiring withdrawal credentials tied to vulnerable cryptography, a step that can proceed independently of the full post-quantum consensus design. The Frames-extension package further hardens accounts. EIP-7906, "Transaction Assertions via State Diff Opcode," permits transactions to verify specified effects before commitment, offering protection against attacks such as drainers. EIP-8298, "SETCODEFROM Code Reuse Instruction," enables delegated accounts to evolve into full smart-contract accounts. EIP-8151, "Account Code Restricted ecRecover," restricts legacy key authentication once an account has associated code. The latter two EIPs are crucial for the account-level transition away from secp256k1 as a master key.

Furthermore, to address worst-case block construction scenarios, EIP-8279, "Block Access List Byte Floor," and EIP-8131, "Unified Transaction Content Floor," establish a predictable gas floor for adversarial block content. Any subsequent utilization of the resulting headroom will be subject to separate scope decisions. The safe delivery of FOCIL and Frames, and the rigorous testing of their interaction, represent the core engineering commitment for Hegotä. Any additional proposed features must demonstrate exceptional necessity to justify their inclusion, given the potential to expand the testing surface.

VI. Expectations for the Road Ahead

The companion post detailing the Hegotä EIP tier list and explanations serves as essential reading for a comprehensive understanding of the Protocol cluster’s immediate plans. This document provides the detailed rationale behind the grading of each proposed improvement.

To foster further discussion and transparency, the Ethereum Foundation Protocol cluster will host a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on r/ethereum on September 16th at 2:00 PM UTC. Community members are encouraged to submit questions in advance via the provided form, aiming for clarity and specificity to facilitate a productive discussion on these critical protocol priorities and the Hegotä upgrade.