FOCIL, Verkle Trees and account‑abstraction upgrades have moved to Hegotá, turning it into a late‑2026 “cleanup and hardening” fork while leadership changes in Ethereum’s Protocol Cluster steer the longer Strawmap roadmap.
The Ethereum Foundation has published a new protocol update confirming that the Glamsterdam development network is now online and that work on the Hegotá scalability roadmap is advancing in parallel. In a blog post summarizing an interoperability meeting held in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, core developers outlined how execution-layer changes like enshrined proposer-builder separation (ePBS), gas repricing via EIP‑8037 and censorship-resistance features such as FOCIL are being staged across the next two upgrades rather than crammed into one fork.
Glamsterdam devnet and ePBS status
On the execution side, the Foundation reports that ePBS — Ethereum’s (ETH) external proposer-builder separation architecture — is now running stably on a multi‑client Glamsterdam devnet. The external block builder process has completed end‑to‑end testing and currently covers “almost all client implementations,” allowing separate builder processes to assemble blocks while proposers focus on consensus, a key step in formalizing the MEV supply chain at the protocol level.
Developers also confirmed that EIP‑8037, which increases the gas cost of state creation, has reached its final draft and is now parameterized in the bal‑devnet‑6 test network. The proposal introduces a fixed cost_per_state_byte model designed to target state growth around 60 GiB per year at a 300 million gas block limit, with contract deployment costs rising roughly 10x and new account creation about 8.5x, while maintaining separate metering for code deposit so large contracts like Uniswap pools remain deployable. According to the Foundation’s summary, the combined results of ePBS, BAL optimization work and EIP‑8037 repricing have given client teams a “trusted path” for Glamsterdam’s final scope.
Hegotá, FOCIL and the post‑Glamsterdam roadmap
Scalability and censorship‑resistance features originally slated for Glamsterdam are now explicitly part of Hegotá, Ethereum’s second major 2026 upgrade. The update notes that the FOCIL (Fork-choice Inclusion Lists) prototype has a runnable implementation and that the scope of account abstraction (AA) requirements for Hegotá has been defined, with the next phase entering a multi‑client devnet validation stage. Earlier communications from the Foundation and ecosystem contributors explained that FOCIL was moved out of Glamsterdam to avoid delaying the fork and to keep scope within a manageable envelope; Hegotá will also introduce Verkle Trees to cut node storage requirements by up to 90% and pave the way for stateless clients.
Current development focus, the blog says, remains on “finalizing Glamsterdam’s implementation” while continuing to advance Hegotá’s design and the subsequent Strawmap route evolution for longer‑term roadmap items. The Glamsterdam mainnet activation is still targeted for the first half of 2026 — with Q3 now seen as more realistic by some commentators after the Soldøgn interop devnet wrapped up in early May — while Hegotá is positioned as a late‑2026 “cleanup and optimization” fork that addresses technical debt in Ethereum’s data structures.
Leadership changes in Ethereum’s Protocol Cluster
Beyond code, the Svalbard interop meeting also marked a formal leadership reshuffle inside the Foundation’s Protocol Cluster. The update names three new leaders: Will Corcoran, who will coordinate zkVM proofs and post‑quantum consensus research; Kev Wedderburn, who will lead zkEVM development; and Fredrik, tasked with protocol security and the “Trillion Dollar Security” initiative.
Original Protocol Cluster leads Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko will gradually step back from management roles, while long‑time researcher Alex Stokes is entering a leave period. The Foundation notes that under the outgoing structure, the protocol group “completed modular advancement” and delivered the Fusaka upgrade in December 2025, which introduced PeerDAS to boost data availability and enabled a mainnet gas capacity increase that set the stage for Glamsterdam and Hegotá.
The post ends with a familiar caveat: timelines remain subject to change based on testnet results, and users are reminded that upgrade‑related volatility — in fees, MEV flows or client behavior — carries risk even when the development roadmap looks orderly on paper.
