In a significant shift toward transparency and collaborative governance, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) Protocol cluster has released its unified tier list for the upcoming "Hegot" network upgrade. This milestone marks a departure from the traditional model of fragmented team-by-team opinions, presenting instead a cohesive, research-backed roadmap for the 62 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) currently under consideration.
With over 60 researchers and engineers from across the protocol ecosystem—including the Geth team, who will continue to publish their own supplementary insights—this collaborative effort represents the most rigorous evaluation process in the history of Ethereum’s development lifecycle. By synchronizing the expertise of nine distinct teams, the EF aims to provide the community with a clear "steelman" argument for which proposals deserve immediate implementation and which should remain on the drawing board.
The Genesis of Hegot: A Collaborative Methodology
The "Hegot" upgrade is not merely a collection of patches; it is a strategic maneuver designed to refine the core protocol. The evaluation process was extensive, involving 16 contribution templates and 397 individual tier grades. The result is an average of 6.4 expert reviews per EIP, ensuring that every proposal was scrutinized from multiple technical perspectives.
Chronology of Decision-Making
The road to this publication was paved with lessons learned from previous iterations, most notably the "Glamsterdam" upgrade. Retrospectives on that process highlighted critical bottlenecks: the tendency of champions to underestimate complexity, the compounding nature of technical debt, and the realization that testing surface area is the most precious commodity in protocol development.
Following these retrospectives, the cluster conducted half a dozen group calls and an intensive 90-minute working session to resolve the most contested items. The scoring methodology was rigorous: contributors tiered EIPs independently on a scale where S equals 4, A equals 3, B equals 2, C equals 1, and D/DFI (Decline for Inclusion) equals 0. Averages were calculated based on cast grades only, ensuring that abstentions—often used when a contributor lacked deep expertise in a specific niche—did not unfairly penalize a proposal.
Supporting Data: The Anatomy of the Tier List
The Hegot tier list categorizes proposals into distinct tiers, each signaling the cluster’s delivery expectations.
- S-Tier (Headliners): These are the must-ship components that define the upgrade.
- A-Tier: Highly prioritized features that have reached a consensus for inclusion.
- B-Tier (The Bubble): Proposals that show promise but require specific technical or specification-based requirements before they can be elevated to A-tier.
- C-Tier: Proposals that fall below the current line of priority.
- DFI (Decline for Inclusion): Proposals that, while potentially meritorious in a vacuum, do not align with the current strategic focus or the "Hegot" scope.
Consensus Layer Highlights
The "Headliner" status for the Consensus Layer is held by EIP-7805 (FOCIL). This proposal is viewed as a vital step in democratizing transaction inclusion, allowing users to bypass centralized builders—a critical requirement for decentralization. The cluster recommends shipping it in tandem with EIP-8369, which defines the eligibility profiles for FOCIL.
Conversely, several high-profile ideas, such as EIP-7716 (Anti-Correlation Attestation Penalties), have been placed in the DFI category. Despite its theoretical benefits for reducing centralization, the cluster concluded that the potential impacts on the staker landscape—particularly regarding client diversity and multi-client setups—require further research before it can be considered for a "light" fork scope.
Execution Layer Highlights
On the Execution Layer, EIP-8141 (Frame Transactions) stands out as the primary headliner. By providing a path toward native account abstraction and enabling future-proof, post-quantum (PQ) signature schemes, it is viewed as foundational for the next era of the EVM. It will be accompanied by EIP-8250 and EIP-8272, forming a robust package that promises to modernize how accounts interact with the network.
A notable, if somewhat controversial, decision involves EIP-4758 (Deactivate SELFDESTRUCT), which is slated for the A-tier. While the average grade of 1.5 suggests some skepticism, the engineering teams responsible for maintaining the EVM have pushed for this inclusion, citing it as a necessary step to eliminate a persistent testing hazard that complicates the development of every future EIP.
Official Responses and Strategic Priorities
The EF Protocol cluster has been explicit that success in "Hegot" is defined as much by what they decline as by what they accept. By limiting the scope, the team aims to preserve the stability and security of the network.
The companion post, EF Protocol: Current and Emerging Priorities, serves as the "north star" for these decisions. It details why the cluster is prioritizing certain areas—such as statelessness, account abstraction, and protocol cleanup—while deferring others. The documentation emphasizes that the "Hegot" upgrade is not the place for wholesale changes to issuance policy or experimental cryptographic schemes, such as EIP-8355 (ML-DSA Verification Precompiles), which is currently categorized as C-tier due to concerns over premature standardization.
Addressing the Community
The EF acknowledges that these decisions will invite debate. To facilitate an open dialogue, the team has scheduled a Reddit AMA on r/ethereum for September 16 at 2:00 PM UTC. This session is specifically designed to allow champions and critics of the tier list to voice their concerns directly to the engineers and researchers who authored it. The foundation has invited participants to submit questions via a public portal, signaling a commitment to "radical transparency" in the face of complex technical trade-offs.
Implications for the Ecosystem
The publication of this tier list sends a clear signal to the broader Ethereum developer community: the era of "everything at once" development is over. By providing a transparent roadmap, the EF is enabling infrastructure providers, wallet developers, and layer-2 teams to align their own development cycles with the core protocol.
Technical Debt and Future-Proofing
The focus on "cleanup and deprecations"—such as the removal of bloom filters (EIP-7668) and the retirement of withdrawal credentials (EIP-8365)—indicates a shift toward long-term sustainability. The cluster is actively pruning the "historical baggage" that has accumulated since Ethereum’s inception, making the network more modular and easier to test.
The Role of "Frames"
The prominence of the "Frames" package across both layers suggests that the Ethereum Foundation is doubling down on account abstraction as the primary vehicle for user experience improvements. By standardizing these features in Hegot, the protocol is effectively creating a common language for account-level operations, which will likely accelerate the adoption of more secure, user-friendly wallet designs.
The "Wait and See" Strategy
Finally, the existence of "TBD" entries like EIP-8368 (CPSB Recalibration) underscores a data-driven approach. The cluster is unwilling to commit to changes that rely on theoretical models alone, preferring to wait for real-world data from the "Glamsterdam" upgrade before making further adjustments. This cautious, iterative approach is intended to mitigate the risk of unintended consequences, such as gas limit imbalances or network congestion.
Conclusion
The "Hegot" tier list is a masterclass in modern governance. By moving from isolated team preferences to a unified, public-facing evaluation, the EF Protocol cluster has created a robust framework that aligns technical excellence with community expectations. While the list will undoubtedly spark rigorous debate, it provides the necessary clarity for the next phase of Ethereum’s evolution.
For developers and stakeholders, the message is clear: the path to the next network upgrade is defined by focus, security, and a deep respect for the protocol’s evolving complexity. As the ecosystem prepares for the upcoming AMA, the focus remains on the core tenets of the Ethereum roadmap: ensuring that every change serves the long-term health of the decentralized network, rather than the short-term convenience of any single interest group.
