Ethereum developers scope Hegotá upgrade for native privacy and censorship resistance
Core developers are reviewing 66 proposals for the upcoming upgrade, focusing on native privacy primitives and inclusion lists.
Ethereum core developers have begun scoping the Hegotá upgrade, a major protocol update aimed at integrating native privacy and enhancing network resilience. The team is currently reviewing a candidate list of 66 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) to determine which will move forward to implementation and testnet deployment.
Among the proposals, Fork-choice enforced inclusion lists (FOCIL), specifically EIP-7805, stands out as a scheduled feature. According to Cointelegraph, FOCIL is designed to boost the network's censorship resistance by allowing validators to force pending transactions into blocks. Additionally, developers are considering the "Frame Transactions" family—comprising EIP-8141, EIP-8250, and EIP-8272—which is proposed to enable native privacy capabilities directly on the protocol.
The Roadmap to Hegotá
The Hegotá upgrade is positioned as a follow-up to the Glamsterdam upgrade, which is planned for 2026 and focuses on hardening the layer-1 and improving scalability. While reports on the exact timing of Hegotá vary, it is targeted for late 2026 or 2027. This sequence represents a strategic shift for the network, moving from a primary focus on infrastructure and scaling toward the integration of complex privacy primitives.
Why Native Privacy Matters
Integrating privacy directly into the Ethereum protocol would significantly change how developers build on the mainnet. Currently, privacy-preserving applications often rely on third-party intermediaries or external layers. By implementing native privacy, Ethereum would allow for the creation of privacy-centric tools—such as identity management and private trading—without the need for these intermediaries. This move aims to make the network more versatile for institutional and individual users who require confidentiality for their transactions.
What's Next
The immediate next step for the developer community is to narrow the list of 66 candidate EIPs down to a final set for the upgrade. While FOCIL is already a headliner for the release, the final inclusion of the Frame Transactions suite and other privacy-related proposals remains subject to the scoping process. Observers will be watching for the final list of approved EIPs as the network prepares for the transition from Glamsterdam to Hegotá.