Ethereum developers are narrowing the list of features for the Hegotá upgrade, the network release targeted for 2027. The scope under discussion covers censorship resistance, privacy, account abstraction, gas pricing, and validator economics, and client teams are now reviewing the competing proposals closely ahead of the decisions that will define the final package.

Researcher Toni Wahrstätter said on Aug. 16 that the broader Hegotá debate has involved 66 proposals across several areas. That total does not represent approved features for the planned network release.

Ethereum's next year's upgrade, Hegotá, is being scoped right now. 66 proposals are on the table and over the next few core dev calls, this list will be narrowed down to the EIPs that get implementations, devnets, testnets, and a realistic chance of shipping in 2027. What… — Toni Wahrstätter ⟠ (@nero_eth), August 16, 2026

Why FOCIL Leads the Hegotá Upgrade

The Meta EIP lists FOCIL as scheduled for the Hegotá upgrade, while Frame Transactions remain under review. EIP-7805 defines FOCIL, short for Fork-choice enforced Inclusion Lists. Under the design, a validator committee creates and shares lists of eligible transactions that block builders are required to include, and attesters decline to vote for blocks that improperly omit transactions from those stored inclusion lists.

FOCIL aims to reduce the censorship risks caused by specialized builders dominating Ethereum's block production. It would give validators a direct role in enforcing timely transaction inclusion across the network.

The concentration FOCIL targets is a product of how Ethereum blocks are built today: most are assembled by a small set of professional builders and delivered to validators through the MEV-Boost relay marketplace, leaving proposers little discretion over which transactions make it in. When builders or relays exclude transactions, for instance to comply with external sanctions, users can see their transactions delayed or dropped. FOCIL also revives inclusion-list work that core developers set aside in 2024 with the earlier EIP-7547 design.

On the roadmap published on Ethereum.org, Hegotá follows Glamsterdam's fourth-quarter 2026 release, and FOCIL is the only feature scheduled in it so far.

Native account abstraction remains less settled and has not secured the same status. EIP-8141 proposes Frame Transactions, which use programmable frames for validation, execution, and gas payments within the base protocol. The system could support new signature methods, key rotation, sponsored fees, and alternatives to the mandatory ECDSA authentication used today.

Account-abstraction features already reach users through ERC-4337's application-layer infrastructure and through EIP-7702, the transaction type shipped in the 2025 Pectra upgrade that lets externally owned accounts adopt smart-account behavior. Frame Transactions would extend that capability further into the base protocol's own account model.

How EIP-8141 Could Support Native Privacy

According to Wahrstätter, Frame Transactions will be considered along with FOCIL, Keyed Nonces, and Recent Roots for inclusion in Hegotá's technical package, which he described as part of the native privacy stack on Ethereum. These are research statements for now, since core developers have not yet endorsed the technical package as a whole.

Teams will compare EIP-8141 with EIP-8130 as part of the technical breakout sessions on account abstraction scheduled for Aug. 25. Developers intend to arrive at a conclusion at the Aug. 27 ACDE meeting, which will determine the fate of account abstraction in the Hegotá upgrade. The ACDE call is the standing forum where client teams make execution-layer scoping decisions.

Controlling Block Growth as the Gas Limit Rises

Other candidates focus on controlling the growth of blocks as Ethereum's gas limit increases. The stakes are practical: more gas per block allows more transactions and data, but it also raises the processing and storage burden on the operators who run the network's nodes.

EIP-8131 charges a minimum of 64 gas for each byte that a user includes in transactions.

EIP-8279 applies a similar approach to block access list data, limiting any unintended increase as the network's gas limit rises. EIP-8368, meanwhile, suggests adjusting the costs of state creation when the gas limit is above the reference point from Glamsterdam. The draft has unknown parameters, but Glamsterdam seeks to attain a 200 million gas limit, and the proposal was linked to a potential 600 million gas path for Hegotá during ACDE meeting 243.

What Developers Will Decide Before the Deadline

Client teams must submit their ranked preferences by Sept. 10, and proposals that lack active champions may be removed from consideration. Other proposals on the table include eight-second slots under EIP-8198, validator penalties under EIP-7716, post-quantum cryptography, and ETH issuance changes.

Changes to the Meta EIP's scheduled list will offer the clearest early signal of which proposals are genuinely advancing toward the 2027 release.

Until developers integrate other proposals, FOCIL is currently the only proposal scheduled for the Ethereum Hegotá upgrade.