The Ethereum Foundation (EF) Protocol cluster has officially published a comprehensive, unified tier list evaluating 62 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) earmarked for potential inclusion in the upcoming Hegotäel network upgrade. This milestone marks a significant shift in the Foundation’s governance and development strategy; historically, different research and engineering teams have maintained siloed perspectives on upgrade priorities. By consolidating these views into a single, public-facing document, the EF is signaling a transition toward a more cohesive, cross-functional approach to protocol evolution.
The assessment, which involved roughly 60 researchers and engineers across nine distinct teams, is designed to bring transparency to the often-opaque process of selecting technical features for Ethereum’s roadmap. The resulting "steelman" list serves not as a final decree, but as a robust datapoint for the broader community, outlining what the cluster currently considers essential, speculative, or ready for rejection.
The Evolution of the Tiering Methodology
The development of the Hegotäel tier list follows lessons learned from the previous "Glamsterdam" upgrade. In that cycle, the protocol teams identified several bottlenecks, including the underestimation of integration complexity by EIP champions and the scarcity of testing surfaces required to ensure network stability. To avoid repeating these issues, the current cluster implemented a rigorous, multi-stage evaluation process.
Between August and early September 2026, twelve teams and individual domain experts submitted 16 detailed contribution templates. These inputs generated 397 individual tier grades across the 62 proposals, ensuring that every EIP was scrutinized from multiple angles—from core consensus stability to execution layer performance. The process culminated in a series of group working sessions where contested items were debated face-to-face.
The scoring system was standardized to remove ambiguity: S-tier (4 points) represents must-ship features; A-tier (3 points) indicates high-priority improvements; B-tier (2 points) denotes proposals that are promising but require further specification; C-tier (1 point) contains lower-priority items; and D or DFI (0 points) signifies proposals that have been declined for the current upgrade cycle.
Headline Proposals: FOCIL and Frame Transactions
Two proposals have emerged as the "headliners" for Hegotäel, earning unanimous support from the cluster for their potential to fundamentally improve the Ethereum user experience and network decentralization.
EIP-7805, titled FOCIL (Fork Choice Inclusion List), is the undisputed consensus layer priority. FOCIL provides a robust mechanism for users to include eligible transactions in a block without relying on centralized builders, effectively mitigating censorship concerns. The cluster has recommended that FOCIL be shipped alongside EIP-8369, which defines the "VOPS Profiles" for FOCIL eligibility, thereby extending the protocol’s inclusion guarantees to the rapidly growing ecosystem of smart-contract wallets and "Frames."
On the execution layer, EIP-8141, known as Frame Transactions, stands as the central pillar of the upgrade. This proposal introduces native account abstraction (AA) as a core feature rather than a layer-two overlay. By providing a path to post-quantum (PQ) signature schemes and enabling transaction aggregation, Frame Transactions offers a future-proof architecture that allows the network to retire legacy ‘k1’ keys while significantly reducing the overhead of cryptographic verification.
Categorical Analysis of the EIP Landscape
The proposals were categorized by the cluster into distinct functional domains, including consensus mechanics, execution features, staking hygiene, and network history.
Consensus Layer Dynamics
Beyond FOCIL, the consensus layer focuses on cleaning up technical debt and preparing for post-quantum security. EIP-8015, which removes legacy deposit and eth1data fields, was widely accepted as a necessary cleanup task. Furthermore, EIP-8365 addresses long-term security by initiating the retirement of withdrawal credentials tied to vulnerable cryptographic primitives. These moves underscore a cautious but proactive approach to long-term network security.
Execution Layer Innovations
In the execution layer, the focus remains on optimizing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and enhancing user privacy. EIP-5920, the "PAY" opcode, is set to resolve long-standing issues regarding value transfers that do not trigger recipient code, while EIP-3298 addresses gas metering edge cases by removing certain refund mechanisms. These updates are viewed as essential for maintaining a lean, efficient virtual machine.
The "DFI" (Declined for Inclusion) Block
A large portion of the 62 proposals—28 in total—have been marked for exclusion from Hegotäel. The cluster’s rationale for these declines is as important as its endorsements. For instance, EIP-7645 (aliasing ORIGIN to SENDER) was rejected due to concerns about breaking existing contract assumptions, while EIP-8142 (Block-in-Blobs) was declined because it deepens reliance on KZG structures, conflicting with the long-term goal of migrating to J* (a future-proofed state-retention architecture).
The cluster emphasized that a "declined" grade is not always a permanent rejection of an idea, but rather a reflection of current priorities. Many proposals, such as those related to issuance policy (e.g., EIP-8363), were deferred because the cluster believes such changes require a broader, more inclusive ecosystem process rather than a standard hard-fork scoping exercise.
Official Responses and Community Engagement
The publication of the tier list is accompanied by a call for feedback. Recognizing that protocol governance is a collaborative effort, the EF has scheduled a Reddit AMA for September 16, 2026, to address questions regarding the grading process.
"Success here is determined as much by what we decline as by what we ship," the cluster noted in its closing remarks. The emphasis on "what we decline" highlights the protocol’s commitment to avoiding the accumulation of "complexity debt," which has historically slowed down the development of major upgrades.
The team also underscored the importance of its companion document, EF Protocol: Current and Emerging Priorities. This companion piece details the "north star" vision for the Ethereum protocol, providing the strategic framework that necessitated the tiering decisions.
Broader Implications for Ethereum’s Future
The Hegotäel tier list signals a more mature phase in Ethereum’s development lifecycle. By moving away from decentralized, sometimes conflicting, team-based opinions toward a unified protocol vision, the EF is attempting to provide developers, node operators, and the broader ecosystem with a clearer, more predictable path forward.
However, the process is not without its risks. The reliance on a "steelman" approach—where proposals are debated and then assigned a final tier—requires deep trust between the various teams and the community. Critics of this approach argue that it might inadvertently favor the priorities of the most vocal teams within the cluster. In response, the EF has actively encouraged proponents of "B-tier" and "declined" EIPs to provide pushback, signaling that the list remains a living document until the final code is frozen.
As Ethereum prepares for the implementation of Hegotäel, the focus remains squarely on balancing innovation with stability. The inclusion of FOCIL and Frame Transactions as "must-ship" items suggests that the immediate future of the network will be defined by enhanced transaction inclusion and the formalization of account abstraction—two pillars that are expected to define the next era of decentralized finance and application development on Ethereum.
With the technical specifications for these high-tier proposals already in motion, the focus will now shift to prototyping and rigorous testing. For the broader ecosystem, the Hegotäel tier list provides a vital blueprint, clarifying not just what will change, but what the core development teams believe is truly essential for the long-term health and decentralization of the network.
