Ethereum developers are considering protocol changes that could let privacy pools pay their own transaction fees, reducing their reliance on third-party services that can expose wallet activity.

Privacy pools, a design first proposed in 2023, let users move funds through zero-knowledge proofs while proving those funds do not come from sanctioned or illicit sources. Because a wallet that pays its own gas would reveal its link to the pool, withdrawals have relied on third-party relayers that submit the transaction and cover the cost — centralized services that can refuse users, shut down, or face legal pressure.

In a post on X on Monday, Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Wahrstätter said the Protocol Architecture team wants to prioritize two proposals for Hegotá, the major Ethereum upgrade scheduled for 2027: Frame Transactions (EIP-8141), which would give wallets more control over how transactions are executed, and Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists, or FOCIL (EIP-7805), which would make it harder to censor eligible transactions.

"Together with Frames, these enable privacy pools where the pool itself can pay fees, removing the need for intermediaries," Wahrstätter wrote. "Add FOCIL support and privacy transactions also gain protocol-level inclusion guarantees."

Frame Transactions would work with Keyed Nonces and Recent Roots (EIP-8272) to let privacy pools cover their own fees without an intermediary. Wahrstätter described frames as a "much more expressive transaction format" and a key building block for Ethereum's next-generation transaction experience. The package also includes Transaction Assertions (EIP-7906), which would let wallets set conditions on what a transaction can do after it is submitted. The push extends a multi-year rework of Ethereum's account and transaction model: the Pectra upgrade in May 2025 introduced EIP-7702, which let ordinary wallets temporarily adopt smart-contract features such as batching and fee sponsorship.

FOCIL is currently the only proposal confirmed for Hegotá. Inclusion lists have circulated in Ethereum research for years as a response to censorship at the block-building layer, where major builders began skipping transactions from sanctioned addresses after the U.S. Treasury designated Tornado Cash, then Ethereum's most-used privacy service, in August 2023. The Treasury lifted those sanctions in March 2025 after a U.S. appeals court ruled that immutable smart contracts are not sanctionable property. The Frame Transactions package is among 66 proposals under consideration for the 2027 upgrade.

"A fork can't be a wishlist by the community or core devs jamming on what Ethereum should eventually become," Wahrstätter wrote in an earlier post on Saturday. "Instead, we have to decide what Ethereum should become next, and what has to wait."

The posts come as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has pushed for major changes to the network, including greater privacy, quantum-resistant security, and less reliance on layer-2 networks. In February, Buterin outlined plans to replace cryptography vulnerable to quantum computers, while Ethereum researchers proposed a roadmap for faster transactions, native privacy, and quantum-resistant security through 2029. Earlier this month, Buterin said privacy and quantum resistance had become greater priorities for Ethereum, alongside simplifying and scaling the network.

Other proposals under consideration focus on scaling, including changes to how Ethereum prices transactions and state growth as the network's gas limit rises toward 500 million to 600 million. Developers are also weighing the separation of block-access-list data from the execution payload and the testing of optional zkEVM proofs on mainnet.

Ethereum's network-wide upgrades require coordinated releases from multiple independent client teams, one reason each fork's scope stays deliberately tight. Hegotá will follow Glamsterdam, which developers aim to ship by the end of 2026, with Wahrstätter cautioning that developers "can't do everything at once and still expect to ship on time."

"Today, we're 256 days into Glamsterdam and want to ship it by the end of this year," Wahrstätter wrote. "Hegotá will need to ship in 2027, and that's what makes the next few decisions so important."