Following months of organizational alignment following the arrival of a trio of new cluster coordinators in May, the Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol cluster has publicly detailed its core priorities, long-term commitments running through 2029, and the critical path governing upcoming network upgrades. With the Glamsterdam upgrade approaching its mainnet deployment, the Protocol cluster has officially entered the scoping season for the subsequent hard fork, provisionally known as Hegotá.
The comprehensive framework was shaped through a rigorous, collaborative process over recent months. This community-wide effort involved reviewing 62 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), conducting multiple retrospectives on the Glamsterdam upgrade, utilizing 16 contribution templates, and holding several cluster-wide working sessions. Roughly 60 researchers and engineers participated in distilling these initiatives into a cohesive, shared set of priorities centered around a critical path that begins with the scoping of Hegotá.
I. The North Star
The overarching objective for the EF Protocol cluster is to achieve full quantum resistance across all three layers of the Ethereum Layer 1 network—execution, consensus, and data—by December 2029. This aggressive timeline aligns with independently established cryptography migration targets published by major technology enterprises, including Google, Cloudflare, and Microsoft.
While precise estimates for "Q-day"—the hypothetical point in the future when quantum computers become powerful enough to break standard cryptographic algorithms—remain outside anyone’s control, the cluster has chosen to fix a definitive target rather than waiting for absolute certainty. Ethereum Layer 1 is consequently planning for Q-day to potentially occur as early as 2030. Although most credible technical assessments place the arrival of Q-day later—and some suggest it may never materialize at all—planning for a 2030 timeline is viewed as a deliberately aggressive yet strategically responsible safeguard.
By shipping post-quantum readiness ahead of schedule, the ecosystem intends to send a clear signal regarding Ethereum’s longevity over the next 50, 100, and 1,000 years. While Ethereum traditionally approaches all-in bets with caution, the unpredictable nature of quantum advancement necessitates a self-imposed, non-negotiable deadline. This timeline will remain locked at least until January 2027, at which point global quantum progress will be reassessed with guidance from external cryptographic experts.
II. The Plan
Client development teams are projected to begin implementing Hegotá upgrades in late Q4 2026. Under the July Strawmap framework, complete post-quantum readiness is slated for L, which sits five hard forks downstream from Glamsterdam. Deploying Glamsterdam in December 2026 and reaching L by December 2029 demands an intense average cadence of approximately 7.2 months per fork—a demanding schedule that leaves virtually no margin for operational delays.
To mitigate this risk, an August 19 update to the Strawmap introduced a minimum viable post-quantum (MV-PQ) milestone at J. This contingency blueprint integrates the post-quantum public-key registry at I, followed by a post-quantum heartbeat on the consensus layer, lean data availability (DA) sampling on the data layer, and lean SPHINCS transactions on the execution layer at J*. Achieving this milestone within a 12-month cadence from Glamsterdam keeps the December 2029 deadline within reach.
MV-PQ is explicitly designed as a temporary safeguard to maintain network operations through Q-day under reduced economic guarantees, while researchers continue working toward full post-quantum finality. Furthermore, fork sequencing past J* remains flexible, with potential adjustments allowing for parallel delivery and accelerated research pipelines. Meeting these cadence demands will require unprecedented cross-ecosystem collaboration, bridging the EF Protocol cluster, client teams, grant recipients, academic researchers, and independent developers.
III. The Five Multi-Fork Research Arcs
To manage its vast portfolio of near-term and long-term deliverables, the Protocol cluster organizes its ongoing work into five primary multi-fork research arcs: fast finality, post-quantum cryptography, privacy, state management, and the zkEVM.
The fast finality arc aims to reduce Ethereum’s finality latency from minutes down to a matter of seconds. Current designs decouple block production from the finality process, rebuilding the consensus layer around an available chain and a dedicated finality gadget. Specifications and prototypes are advancing rapidly with an eye toward inclusion in the I* upgrade.
The post-quantum arc spans all three network layers to fulfill the December 2029 commitments. Cryptographic agility is prioritized on the execution layer through native account abstraction, allowing signature schemes to be swapped without requiring individual hard forks. Conversely, consensus-layer cryptography relies on rigorous pre-deployment hardening and centralized coordination, deliberately waiting for comprehensive post-quantum designs rather than adopting piecemeal rollouts.
The privacy arc focuses on establishing privacy as a core protocol guarantee, enabling users to hold balances, transact, and interact with smart contracts without exposing financial histories or relying on trusted intermediaries. Work is set to begin during the Hegotá cycle to introduce native, trustless, censorship-resistant private transactions on Layer 1, paving the way for encrypted mempools and post-quantum privacy at scale.
The state arc addresses state growth and access constraints to prevent them from becoming architectural bottlenecks. Key initiatives include migrating to a new trie structure, managing sustainable state expansion, and ensuring decentralized access to historical and current state data, with heavy design work slated to begin during the I* upgrade.
Finally, the zkEVM arc transitions execution proofs from optional features to mandatory network verifications, eventually allowing validators to verify succinct zero-knowledge proofs instead of re-executing entire blocks. This ongoing work simultaneously advances formal verification tooling and cryptographic workflows that benefit the broader research roadmap, particularly post-quantum initiatives.
IV. How We Set Priorities and Ship Them
The overarching guiding principle for the Protocol cluster remains focused on concentrating resources strictly on initiatives that only Protocol can and will execute, ensuring the fulfillment of Ethereum’s core mandate. Following the completion of Glamsterdam, the post-Glamsterdam priority ladder shifts the cluster’s secondary focus from long-term research to near-term fork delivery, establishing formal verification as a foundational cross-cutting tool across all research arcs.
New initiatives must clear a structured maturity pipeline—progressing from initial research through EIP drafting, prototyping, devnets, and progressive milestones such as PFI, CFI, and SFI before reaching mainnet deployment. Each phase is designed to accumulate empirical evidence and reduce uncertainty, ensuring that client readiness and implementation data dictate protocol inclusion rather than mere theoretical consensus.
V. The Next Fork, as the First Test
Hegotá represents the immediate testing ground for these strategic priorities. Far from being a standalone post-quantum upgrade, Hegotá is the critical fork that determines whether subsequent post-quantum milestones can be delivered on schedule. Its headlining features include EIP-7805 for Fork-choice enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL) on the consensus layer and EIP-8141 for Frame Transactions on the execution layer. These major components must be carefully tested in tandem to understand their mutual operational interactions.
Appetite for additional consensus-layer modifications remains strictly limited unless they directly advance post-quantum readiness, ensuring that client developers and researchers are not pulled away from laying the groundwork for subsequent upgrades.
Preserving the core tenets of Censorship Resistance, Open Source accessibility, Privacy, and Security (CROPS) remains paramount. Censorship resistance is bolstered by FOCIL and EIP-8369 VOPS profiles, while privacy enhancements like keyed nonces (EIP-8250) and recent state roots (EIP-8272) remove barriers to trustless private activity on Layer 1. On the security front, Frame Transactions introduce programmable validation and fee payment, accompanied by credential retirements and block content gas floors designed to mitigate adversarial risks.
VI. What to Expect
Detailed assessments and tier lists grading every EIP proposed for Hegotá are available in the companion publication, EF Protocol: The Hegotá EIP Opinion Post and Tier List. To further engage the community, the Protocol cluster will host a Reddit AMA on r/ethereum on September 16 at 2:00 PM UTC to discuss these priorities, answer questions regarding the Hegotá roadmap, and address community feedback.
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