EF Protocol: Current and Emerging Priorities

What it is

The Ethereum Foundation Protocol cluster's roadmap post detailing the Hegotá hard fork (next fork after Glamsterdam, implementation starting ~Q4 2026) and the fork sequence (Hegotá → I → J → K → L) leading to full post-quantum readiness on L1 by December 2029.

How it works

The Strawmap sets two possible cadences: a 7.2-month average per fork to reach full PQ readiness at L (five forks after Glamsterdam), or a 12-month cadence reaching a contingency "minimum viable post-quantum" (MV-PQ) milestone at J. MV-PQ is a fallback that keeps Ethereum running through Q-day with reduced (not yet fully defined) security guarantees — leanSPHINCS transactions (execution), leanDA sampling (data), and a PQ heartbeat (consensus) land at J, while a PQ public-key registry lands at I. A pending reorder would swap K/L: moving PQ attestations forward to K and pushing mandatory zkEVM proofs back to L, trading a 9-month cadence requirement for earlier consensus-layer PQ coverage. The cluster commits to treating the December 2029 deadline as non-negotiable only until January 2027, when it will be reassessed with outside experts.

Hegotá itself has two SFI'd (spec-frozen-for-implementation) headliners that must ship together and be tested for interaction: EIP-7805 FOCIL and EIP-8141 Frame Transactions. The post explicitly states appetite for additional consensus-layer scope is "close to zero" unless it directly supports PQ readiness, since it would draw researchers/client devs away from I/J prep.

flowchart LR
    Glamsterdam[Glamsterdam<br/>Dec 2026] --> Hegota[Hegotá<br/>FOCIL + Frames]
    Hegota --> Istar[I*<br/>PQ key registry]
    Istar --> Jstar[J*<br/>MV-PQ milestone]
    Jstar -->|9mo cadence, reorder pending| Kstar[K* or L*<br/>mandatory zkEVM proofs]
    Jstar -->|7.2mo cadence| Lstar[L* or K*<br/>Full PQ / PQ attestations]

Preconditions / Affected

Applies to Ethereum L1 client teams, validators, and anyone relying on withdrawal credential or transaction-signature security. BLS withdrawal credentials are affected by EIP-8365 retirement, which can start now independent of the full PQ consensus design.

What to do

No commands; this is a planning/roadmap document. Actionable items are timing-based: client teams should plan Hegotá implementation starting late Q4 2026; the deadline commitment itself is subject to reassessment in January 2027; stakeholders can submit questions ahead of the EF's Reddit AMA (r/ethereum, September 16, 2pm UTC) and should consult the companion "Hegotá EIP Opinion Post and Tier List" for per-EIP grading detail not contained in this post.

Caveats

The 7.2-month and 9-month fork cadences are described by the cluster itself as "quite aggressive" with "little room for error." MV-PQ's exact reduction in security guarantees is explicitly still undefined ("researchers are still defining exactly what that reduction in guarantees would look like"). The K/L fork-order swap (PQ attestations vs. mandatory proofs) is "in review," not finalized.