The Ethereum Foundation's Protocol Cluster has completed a large-scale evaluation of proposals for the Hegota hard fork, presenting for the first time in its practice a unified ranking of all 62 candidates. Priorities have been set, and the suspense is resolved: only two EIPs received must-ship status (the highest S level) — FOCIL (EIP-7805) and Frame Transactions (EIP-8141). This decision is not merely a technical choice but a clear signal about the strategic priorities for the network's development in the coming years.
The key element at the consensus level will be FOCIL (Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists). The mechanism involves the formation of mandatory transaction lists by a committee of validators. If a block proposer ignores these lists, their block will not be supported by attesting validators. In essence, we are witnessing an attempt to radically limit the power of large builders and create a reliable barrier against censorship at the protocol level. This is a long-overdue step to strengthen decentralization.
The second mandatory element — EIP-8141 (Frame Transactions) — moves account abstraction into the protocol itself. This makes account verification, transaction execution, and fee payment programmable. For me as an analyst, the cryptographic flexibility of this solution is especially important: accounts will be able to migrate to new signature schemes without the need for separate hard forks. This is a critical foundation for the future abandonment of secp256k1 keys vulnerable to quantum attacks. The developers have made it clear that secure implementation and testing of the interaction between these two EIPs is the main engineering commitment of Hegota. If one of them is at risk of slipping, the upgrade schedule will be adjusted, not the list of mandatory proposals itself.
The Post-Quantum Race and the Acceleration of Hard Forks
In addition to the two S-tier proposals, the cluster highlighted several A-level EIPs that will be included in the upgrade if there is no need to reduce the scope of work. Among them are EIP-8369 (transaction profiles for FOCIL), EIP-8250 (separate nonces to enhance privacy), and EIP-8272 (private operations verifiable by FOCIL). Special attention deserves EIP-8365 — the only directly post-quantum proposal planned for inclusion already in Hegota.
The ambitious goal is to achieve full quantum resistance of Ethereum's base layer by December 2029. This is a tight but deliberate deadline. The developers acknowledge that Q-day is beyond their control, so they set a specific timeframe rather than waiting for certainty. The current roadmap envisions a series of hard forks after Hegota (I*, J*, K*, L*), and to meet the goal, the average interval between upgrades must be just 7.2 months. This is an incredibly aggressive pace that will require parallel development of specifications. It is obvious that simply releasing forks one after another is not enough — synchronization of research and implementation is needed.
My view: Choosing FOCIL and Frame Transactions as mandatory is a pragmatic and forward-looking move. It addresses two key problems of modern Ethereum: censorship resistance and preparation for the quantum era. However, the ambitious timeline to 2029 looks extremely optimistic. The real challenge will lie not only in writing code but also in coordinating a huge number of teams and maintaining network security amid such frequent upgrades. The stated goal is not just a technical plan but a declaration of intent to preserve Ethereum's leadership in the new cryptographic reality.