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The Ethereum Foundation Protocol division released a tier list assessing 62 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) for the upcoming Hegotá upgrade, while fixing a December 2029 deadline for quantum resistance.
The Hegotá list classified two submissions as S-tier, or “must-ship,” since they shape the fork and dictate how the upgrade timeline is organized around them.
Regarding the consensus layer, FOCIL (Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists, EIP-7805) takes center stage. This proposal aims to improve censorship resistance by empowering a validator committee to mandate the inclusion of valid public-mempool transactions, preventing a single dominant builder from easily censoring them.
Concerning the execution layer, Frame Transactions (EIP-8141) received the must-ship designation. This proposal intends to introduce native account abstraction to Ethereum in order to boost security and post-quantum preparedness. It suggests dividing a transaction into programmable “frames” for validation, gas payment, and execution, allowing wallets to leverage custom signatures, sponsored gas, and batched operations independently of offchain operators.
“Delivering both headliners safely, and testing the interaction between them, is the fork’s core engineering commitment,” the EF Protocol team stated in their blog post.
Meanwhile, the post noted that A-tier proposals will be integrated alongside the headliners unless practical delivery constraints require a reduction. This group contains VOPS Profiles for FOCIL Eligibility (EIP-8369), destined to ship with FOCIL, along with Keyed Nonces for Frame Transactions (EIP-8250) and Recent Roots for Frame Transactions (EIP-8272), intended to ship alongside Frame Transactions.
B-tier suggestions will receive individual evaluation rather than bulk processing, whereas C-tier entries feature lower priority without being disqualified outright. Furthermore, 28 EIPs were categorized as DFI—declined for inclusion.
North star
EF Protocol also shared a post outlining its current and emerging focus areas.
Serving as its “north star,” EF Protocol stated its goal for Ethereum L1 to achieve quantum resistance across the execution, consensus, and data layers by December 2029. This target schedule aligns with separate migration timelines from Google, Cloudflare, and Microsoft, according to the entry.
“Its timing is outside anyone’s control, which is exactly why we have fixed a target rather than waiting for certainty,” EF Protocol explained. “For now, Ethereum L1 should plan for Q-day happening as early as 2030.”
EF Protocol noted that the 2030 assumption is purposely aggressive, and that most reliable projections place Q-day further out. It emphasized that the self-imposed 2029 deadline will remain fixed at least until January 2027, at which point quantum advancements will be re-evaluated alongside external specialists.
Hegotá is not intended to be the post-quantum fork itself, but rather the upgrade that ensures subsequent post-quantum milestones remain on schedule. Under the present roadmap, a minimum-viable post-quantum milestone is placed at J* (a placeholder designation for a future fork), while full resistance is targeted at L*.
Reaching December 2029 following the deployment of Glamsterdam in Q4 2026 would necessitate an average pace of 7.2 months per fork, leaving minimal room for error, the publication explained. These forks will overlap, meaning Hegotá will launch while I* specifications continue to mature. Research for J* through L* must likewise advance in a parallel fashion, the protocol observed.
Post-quantum readiness constitutes one of five multi-fork research domains for the protocol, with fast finality, privacy, state, and zkEVM making up the others.
“Shipping post-quantum readiness early is the secure thing to do. It is the strategically responsible thing to do,” the post concluded. “It is the clearest signal we can send that Ethereum intends to exist 50, 100, and 1,000 years from now.”
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/ecosystems/2026-09-08-ethereum-foundation-quantum-resistance-2029-413716.
