The Ethereum Foundation has released two new documents related to the Hegotá upgrade. One focuses on internal ratings of 62 Ethereum Improvement Proposals, and the other outlines key focus areas for the underlying protocol over the coming years, including achieving quantum resistance for Layer 1 by December 2029.
62 proposals have entered the rating phase.
The foundation stated that approximately 60 researchers, engineers, and protocol experts participated in this evaluation, coming from nine Protocol Cluster teams and submitting a total of 397 ratings. These ratings are intended to help developers compare the technical benefits, development costs, and potential conflicts of proposals, but do not indicate that all proposals will proceed to mainnet.
Hegotá is scheduled for 2027 on Ethereum's public roadmap, following the Glamsterdam upgrade, which is planned for Q4 2026. The final set of changes included will depend on implementation progress, development network testing, public testnet results, and coordination among client teams.
FOCIL focuses on trade inclusion
Among the proposed ideas discussed, FOCIL focuses on the issue of transaction inclusion rights. Under this design, the validator committee can publish a list of eligible transactions that block builders must include. If builders unjustifiably exclude these transactions, witnesses can reject the corresponding blocks, thereby mitigating the impact of excessive centralization in block building infrastructure.
The execution layer client teams were also asked to submit their preferred Hego proposals by September 10. Previously discussed directions include native account abstraction, shorter block slots, state growth pricing, privacy tools, and validator incentive adjustments, but none of these topics have been confirmed for inclusion in the upgrade.
The quantum-resistant target is set for December 2029.
Another document lists quantum resistance as a long-term goal spanning a single hard fork. Ethereum currently lacks quantum resistance because its account and validator systems still rely on cryptographic schemes that could be weakened by future quantum computing. However, the foundation notes that existing hardware is still significantly far from being able to carry out such attacks.
This upgrade is not merely a replacement of a single algorithm. The research has been divided into multiple components—including user accounts, validator signatures, the consensus layer, data availability, and zero-knowledge proof systems—each with distinct performance requirements and migration approaches.
The validator migration plan is still being drafted.
In June this year, Ethereum researcher N-token issuance proposed that users could add post-quantum protection to their accounts via smart contract logic, at a cost of approximately $0.07 per account. This solution is based on SPHINCS-type signatures but can only protect the account layer, not immediately confer quantum resistance to the entire network.
A draft submitted on August 24 addresses another aspect of validator migration. By design, the new validator deposit contract will support variable-length public keys and assign identifiers for different signing systems. The first identifier still corresponds to the current BLS deposits, while subsequent identifiers can reserve space for post-quantum signature schemes.
Developers also mentioned an irreversible migration switch that will halt new BLS deposits after the transition period ends. To enable this step, existing validators, staking providers, and client teams must first complete their infrastructure updates.
Additional information: The Ethereum Foundation has scheduled an AMA on September 16 on Reddit’s r/ethereum community to address questions regarding the Hegotá proposal rating, conflicting proposals, and protocol priorities.