In May, the Ethereum Protocol cluster welcomed a trio of new cluster coordinators, signaling a period of strategic realignment and forward-looking planning. Following months of internal consolidation and ecosystem-wide alignment, the cluster has now articulated its core priorities, defining the purpose of the Protocol cluster, outlining its commitments through 2029, and detailing the necessary steps for upcoming protocol upgrades. This comprehensive plan aims to secure Ethereum’s long-term viability against emerging threats, particularly the advent of quantum computing, while simultaneously advancing key network functionalities.
The Protocol cluster’s strategy is built upon a foundation of rigorous scoping and collaborative refinement. With the upcoming "Glamsterdam" hard fork approaching mainnet deployment, the cluster has entered its "Hegotá" scoping season. This process, detailed in a prior August 28th post, involved the proposal of 62 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), numerous retrospectives on the Glamsterdam upgrade, the development of 16 contribution templates, and extensive cluster-wide working sessions. These efforts have culminated in a shared set of priorities identified by approximately 60 researchers and engineers. These priorities focus on a critical path, commencing with the scoping of Hegotá, and extend to a longer-term roadmap designed to ensure Ethereum’s resilience and innovation for decades to come. A companion post, "EF Protocol: The Hegotá EIP Opinion Post and Tier List," provides a detailed assessment of each candidate EIP for the Hegotá upgrade.
I. The North Star: Achieving Quantum Resistance by 2029
The overarching objective of the Ethereum Foundation’s (EF) Protocol cluster is to render Ethereum’s Layer 1 (L1) network quantum-resistant across its execution, consensus, and data layers by December 2029. This ambitious deadline aligns with the migration targets independently set by major technology leaders, including Google, Cloudflare, and Microsoft, all of whom are anticipating significant shifts in cryptographic landscapes around the same timeframe. While the precise timing of "Q-day" – the hypothetical moment when quantum computers become capable of breaking current cryptographic standards – remains uncertain, the Protocol cluster has adopted a proactive stance. Current estimates suggest Q-day could occur as early as 2030, prompting the cluster to set a deliberately aggressive self-imposed deadline of December 2029 for full post-quantum readiness. This proactive approach is seen as strategically responsible and a clear signal of Ethereum’s commitment to enduring for centuries. The cluster acknowledges the inherent unpredictability of Q-day, choosing to establish a fixed target rather than await definitive certainty. This self-imposed deadline will be treated as non-negotiable until January 2027, when external expert assessments will inform a reassessment of progress.
The rationale behind this early adoption of quantum-resistant cryptography is multifaceted. It represents the most secure and strategically sound course of action, demonstrating Ethereum’s long-term vision and commitment to its ecosystem. While Ethereum’s ethos generally favors caution over all-in bets, the quantum threat necessitates a deliberate and decisive commitment. By setting a firm deadline, the Protocol cluster aims to circumvent the potential for unforeseen delays and ensure a robust transition.
II. The Plan: A Phased Approach to Post-Quantum Readiness
The path to quantum resistance by December 2029 is structured around two key cadences, each designed to facilitate the necessary upgrades. Client teams are expected to begin Hegotá implementation in late Q4 2026. Following the "July Strawmap" timeline, full post-quantum readiness is slated for L, five hard forks after Glamsterdam. Achieving Glamsterdam in December 2026 and L in December 2029 necessitates an aggressive average cadence of 7.2 months per fork. This schedule leaves minimal room for error and underscores the urgency of the undertaking.
Recognizing the challenges of this aggressive timeline, an August 19th Strawmap update introduced a "minimum viable post-quantum" (MV-PQ) milestone at J. This milestone includes a post-quantum public-key registry at I, and at J*, the implementation of a post-quantum heartbeat on the consensus layer, leanDA sampling on the data layer, and leanSPHINCS transactions on the execution layer. A more manageable 12-month cadence from Glamsterdam would allow the network to reach this contingency milestone by December 2029.
MV-PQ is conceptualized as a temporary safeguard, ensuring Ethereum can continue to operate through Q-day with reduced, but still functional, guarantees. Researchers are actively defining the precise nature of these reduced guarantees. However, the ultimate goal remains full resistance across all three layers by the December 2029 deadline. This ongoing work includes the development of post-quantum attestations, crucial for achieving full economic finality and completing the consensus design.
The fork order following J remains flexible, with potential reordering of K and L to advance lean consensus by one fork and mandatory execution proofs back by one fork. Achieving full post-quantum readiness in K by December 2029 would imply a 9-month cadence. The Protocol cluster is currently planning Hegotá, I, and J as a single delivery sequence, with the final ordering to be determined as research matures and client capacity becomes clearer.
Crucially, the demanding cadence of these milestones necessitates a paradigm shift towards parallel delivery across the entire ecosystem. Forks will overlap, with Hegotá shipping concurrently while I specifications mature and research for J through L* yields testable components. A linear sequence of forks would not suffice to meet the December 2029 schedule. This requires enhanced internal communication within the Protocol cluster, as well as deeper engagement with client teams, grant recipients, academic institutions, and the broader community to accelerate the pipeline from research to mainnet deployment. The successful delivery of post-quantum readiness will undoubtedly require a significantly larger collaborative effort than any previous fork sequence, encompassing cryptographers, client developers, researchers, security auditors, and testing resources from both within and beyond the Ethereum Foundation.
III. The Five Multi-Fork Research Arcs: Expanding Ethereum’s Capabilities
Beyond the immediate push for post-quantum readiness, the Protocol cluster is simultaneously advancing five interconnected multi-fork research arcs. These arcs represent long-term strategic initiatives designed to enhance Ethereum’s core functionalities and maintain its competitive edge.
Fast Finality
The fast finality arc aims to drastically reduce Ethereum’s time to finality from minutes to seconds. The current design direction involves decoupling finality from block production and reconstructing the consensus layer around an "available chain" and a "finality gadget." Specifications and prototypes are actively being developed, targeting inclusion in the I* fork, where decoupled consensus is expected to be a headline feature. This enhancement will significantly improve the user experience and the efficiency of decentralized applications.
Post-Quantum
As detailed in Section II, the post-quantum arc is the lynchpin of the December 2029 commitment, spanning all three layers: consensus, data, and execution. Cryptographic agility is a key focus for the execution layer, where native account abstraction will allow signature schemes to be swapped without necessitating a hard fork for each change. Frames, a proposed framework for native account abstraction, is central to this effort. The consensus layer, however, presents a different challenge, as its cryptography and aggregation schemes can only be altered through hard forks. Consequently, consensus cryptography will undergo extensive battle-testing and hardening before deployment, with components awaiting the complete post-quantum design rather than being released piecemeal.
Privacy
The privacy arc is dedicated to establishing privacy as a fundamental protocol guarantee, enabling users to transact, hold balances, and interact with applications without exposing their financial history or relying on third-party trust. Initial efforts are focused on enabling native, trustless, and censorship-resistant private transactions on Ethereum L1, starting with the Hegotá upgrade. Subsequent work will address post-quantum privacy at scale and the development of encrypted mempools that conceal transaction contents until their inclusion on-chain.
State
The state arc addresses the critical challenge of managing state growth and ensuring efficient access to blockchain data. Its initiatives include migrating to a new trie structure, promoting sustainable state growth, and facilitating decentralized access to both current and historical state. The most significant design and migration work is anticipated to commence with the I* fork and extend beyond it, ensuring the scalability of Ethereum’s ledger.
zkEVM
The zkEVM arc aims to transition execution proofs from an optional feature to a mandatory component of the network. In the long term, validators will 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 review, which would swap the post-quantum attestation and mandatory proof milestones, moving PQ attestations forward to K and mandatory proofs back to L*. Regardless of the final ordering, the development of an L1 zkEVM will drive forward formal verification tooling, workflows, and verified cryptographic components that will benefit other arcs, particularly the post-quantum initiatives.
IV. Setting Priorities and Executing the Plan
The Protocol cluster’s guiding imperative, first articulated in an early July update, remains consistent: "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 readiness commitment have shifted this work from a long-term research concern to an immediate delivery priority. This shift is reflected in a revised priority ladder, which places formal verification as a cross-cutting tooling initiative across the remaining research arcs.
| Priority Level | As of Q2 2026 | Post-Glamsterdam |
|---|---|---|
| P0 | Keep mainnet safe | Keep mainnet safe (unchanged) |
| P1 | Ship Glamsterdam and Hegotá without security or stability issues and in a timely manner | Ship the critical components of Hegotá, I, and J: the path to MV-PQ |
| P2 | Hold research and engineering capacity for the fork after next (I*) | Hold research and engineering capacity for K and L, focused on accelerating PQ items |
| P3 | Hold research capability for the five multi-year arcs | Hold research capability for the four remaining arcs, with formal verification as cross-cutting tooling |
This priority ladder is complemented by a maturity pipeline that governs how work earns inclusion in protocol upgrades: Research -> EIP -> Prototype -> Devnet -> PFI -> CFI -> SFI -> Mainnet. Each stage is designed to systematically add evidence, reduce uncertainty, and establish clear ownership before the next commitment is made. Devnet deployments serve as crucial feedback loops, potentially directing work back to the research phase. Public Testnets (PFI), Community Testnets (CFI), and Final Testnets (SFI) signal increasing confidence among core developers but do not substitute for concrete implementation evidence. The Protocol cluster’s unique role lies in its ability to shepherd ideas through this entire pipeline.
V. Hegotá: The Crucial First Test for Post-Quantum Timelines
The Hegotá hard fork is positioned as the immediate test of the cluster’s ability to execute its ambitious post-quantum roadmap. It is not conceived as the "PQ fork" itself, but rather as the critical upgrade that determines whether subsequent post-quantum forks can proceed on schedule. The SFI’d headliners for Hegotá are EIP-7805, "Fork-choice enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL)" on the consensus layer, and EIP-8141, "Frame Transaction," on the execution layer. The safe, simultaneous deployment of these two EIPs, along with rigorous testing of their interaction, forms the core engineering challenge of this fork.
There is a pronouncedly low appetite for additional scope on the consensus layer beyond FOCIL. Any proposed additions must directly support post-quantum readiness, as each additional item draws resources from the same researchers and client developers needed for specifying and prototyping decoupled consensus, and preparing for the I and J forks.
Preserving CROPS as a Whole
The Protocol cluster’s work is guided by the Ethereum Foundation’s Mandate, which defines its responsibilities through CROPS: Censorship Resistance (CR), Open Source and Free, Privacy (P), and Security (S). These represent fundamental protocol guarantees. Open-source development and open participation are the baseline for all forks. Hegotá makes specific commitments across CR, P, and S.
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 in 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 extend to future transaction types. Together, FOCIL and EIP-8369 represent Hegotá’s direct commitment to censorship and capture resistance.
Privacy (P)
Ethereum currently lacks certain foundational protocol support essential for privacy applications. EIP-8250, "Keyed Nonces," will allow multiple users to share a single sender address for improved anonymity while retaining distinct nonces for their transactions, preventing blockages. EIP-8272, "Recent Roots," will enable private transactions to leverage recent on-chain state in a format verifiable by FOCIL, thus benefiting from its inclusion guarantees. These EIPs, designed to ship alongside Frames, are poised to remove significant barriers to trustless and censorship-resistant private activity on L1.
Security (S)
The Frames transaction model introduces programmability at the protocol level for transaction validation, execution, and gas payment. It provides accounts with a native pathway away from vulnerable secp256k1 keys, supports signature aggregation, and allows for the introduction of new signature schemes without requiring hard forks for each. This also ensures that account validation and fee payment remain permissionless. Keyed nonces and recent roots are integral to the Frames core required for Hegotá.
EIP-8365, "BLS Withdrawal Credential Retirement," initiates the process of retiring withdrawal credentials still tied to vulnerable cryptography, a step that can commence immediately without awaiting the full post-quantum consensus design. The Frames-extension package further hardens accounts directly. EIP-7906, "Transaction Assertions via State Diff Opcode," permits transactions to verify specified effects before commitment, guarding against attacks such as drainers. EIP-8298, "SETCODEFROM Code Reuse Instruction," allows delegated accounts to transition into full smart-contract accounts. EIP-8151, "Account Code Restricted ecRecover," blocks legacy key authentication once an account possesses actual code. These latter two EIPs establish the account-level pathway for retiring secp256k1 as a master key.
Two EIPs, EIP-8279 ("Block Access List Byte Floor") and EIP-8131 ("Unified Transaction Content Floor"), address worst-case block construction by establishing a predictable gas floor under 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 comprehensive testing of their interaction, represent Hegotá’s primary engineering commitment. All proposed additions will be rigorously evaluated against this testing surface and must demonstrate clear necessity.
VI. What to Expect: A Look Ahead
The companion post, "EF Protocol: The Hegotá EIP Opinion Post and Tier List," will provide the Protocol cluster’s detailed Hegotá tier list and a granular explanation for each grade. This publication is highly recommended for those seeking a deeper understanding of the proposed EIPs.
To further engage with the community, the Protocol cluster will host a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) on r/ethereum on September 16th at 2 PM UTC. This session will provide an opportunity to discuss these priorities, the Hegotá tier list, and address any other questions from the community. Questions can be submitted in advance via a dedicated form.
