Ethereum reduces Hegotá upgrade candidate list to 66 proposals

Ethereum has begun screening proposals for the Hegotá upgrade expected to be implemented in 2027. As of August 16, 66 proposals were still competing. Among them, FOCIL has locked in seats, and three other EIPs are expected to provide privacy applications with tools that are directly integrated into the protocol layer.

Brief overview

Toni Wahrstätter lists 66 Hegotá proposals to be screened, with the goal of selecting those that can enter the implementation phase, develop the network, and test the network, and ultimately be delivered in 2027.

FOCIL (EIP-7805) aims to increase censorship resistance by allowing verifier committees to force the inclusion of transactions.

EIP-8141, EIP-8250, and EIP-8272 form a triplet primitive that involves authentication, independent nonce, and recent roots, respectively, and is not an enabled privacy mode.

FOCIL came first, but did not turn Ethereum into a privacy network

In the long list of proposals related to Hegotá, FOCIL is currently the only proposal marked as "scheduled."

The operating principle of the proposal is to prevent block proposers from permanently excluding a valid transaction. EIP-7805 requires the Verifier Committee to develop a list of transactions that must be included in a block. The proposer retains its role, but can no longer decide alone which transactions can be entered or excluded.

FOCIL is still in the draft stage and therefore has not yet become a feature available on the main network.

Ethereum Foundation contributor Toni Wahrstätter summarized the current situation on August 16: FOCIL has been selected as Hegotá's flagship proposal. He believes Frame Transactions should also be included.

The nuances at this point are important. FOCIL affects censorship resistance, not transaction privacy. The amount and address will not become invisible. This aspect should be addressed by three other proposals.

Three building blocks to help privacy applications

The goal is not to add a "privacy model" to Ethereum. Developers prefer to provide mechanisms so that applications can be used without having to rebuild everything on top of the protocol.

EIP-8141 (Frame Transactions) first changed the way transactions are structured. Verification, execution and Gas payment can be separated. Accounts can more freely define how operations are authorized and how fees are paid.

This approach is consistent with Ethereum's privacy roadmap. Part of the complexity currently handled by wallets or applications can therefore be transferred to the protocol layer.

EIP-8250 (Keyed Nanges) solves another issue. Instead of using a single nonce sequence, it allows Frame transactions to have multiple independent domains. For some privacy protocols that use the same sending address, this prevents pending transactions from blocking subsequent transactions.

However, this EIP alone does not anonymize any address. EIP-8272 complements this mechanism with "Recent Roots". Transactions can reference a recent cryptographic root that is verified by the client before execution. For privacy apps, this helps prove that a cost is based on recent system states.

Taken together, these three EIPs are more like a toolbox than a ready-to-use privacy solution.

Hegotá still needs to make a choice

The main obstacle at present remains the timetable. All 66 active proposals could not be included in Hegotá.

Toni Wahrstätter said that subsequent developer discussions will mainly need to identify EIPs that can be quickly implemented, then entered the development network and test network, and are expected to be delivered in 2027.

The tracking of proposals demonstrates the complexity of screening. As of August 16, relevant platforms have listed 69 items related to Hegotá: 65 items are "proposed", FOCIL has been "scheduled", and three other proposals have been classified as "considered","rejected" or "withdrawn".

Privacy is just one of many issues. Developers are also discussing issues such as data costs, state growth, shorter block times, circulation, anti-correlation penalties, zkEVM, and post-quantum resistance.

According to the Ethereum roadmap, Glamstam upgrades should occur before Hegotá. Therefore, in the next developer meetings, especially in the first batch of development network tests, the fate of the three proposals EIP-8141, EIP-8250 and EIP-8272 will gradually become clear.

It is still too early to talk about "native privacy." Ethereum is laying the foundation; these proposals still need to survive the screening process and move from paper to code.