Ethereum Foundation Selects Two Must-Ship EIPs for Hegotá Upgrade

Hegotá is planned as Ethereum’s next major protocol upgrade, with developers seeking to strengthen censorship resistance and embed more privacy capabilities at the network layer. The work matters because Ethereum’s transaction-inclusion rules can determine whether block producers are able to exclude activity selectively, while protocol-level privacy improvements could make it easier for decentralized applications to protect users without relying on centralized intermediaries.

Ethereum’s core developers are reviewing 66 improvement proposals to define the final scope of Hegotá, which is targeted for release in 2027. FOCIL has already been confirmed for inclusion, aiming to reduce censorship risk by requiring block producers to consider transaction lists submitted by other validators. Developers are also evaluating several protocol changes intended to support native privacy features and a broader range of decentralized privacy applications.

Ethereum accounts currently require ETH to pay gas fees, while wallet features such as multisignature authorization and key recovery largely rely on external contracts. Native account abstraction would turn accounts into programmable smart accounts, making Ethereum easier to use and preparing for potential security threats from quantum computing.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said smart accounts are expected to launch with the Hegotá upgrade within a year, though no exact date has been announced. The core proposal, EIP-8141, is designed to overcome previous technical barriers, support gas payments in tokens other than ETH, and strengthen multisignature and quantum-resistant security.