Layla Zulfa
The Ethereum Foundation has announced a significant new round of grant funding, strategically deploying capital across a broad spectrum of initiatives aimed at fortifying the network’s core infrastructure, enhancing user experience, bolstering security, and fostering global community development. This latest allocation underscores the Foundation’s unwavering commitment to advancing Ethereum’s long-term resilience, scalability, and decentralization, with projects spanning application infrastructure, developer tooling, cryptographic research, Layer 2 scaling solutions, and community engagement slated for support throughout 2025 and 2026.
A Multi-Faceted Investment in Ethereum’s Future
The grants reflect a holistic approach to ecosystem development, addressing immediate technical challenges while also seeding future innovations. Key areas of focus include critical maintenance for core software, pioneering research into zero-knowledge proofs and privacy-preserving technologies, enhancing developer experience through improved tooling, and cultivating a vibrant, globally distributed community of builders and researchers. The Foundation’s strategy emphasizes sustainability, transparency, and a proactive stance on emerging technical and societal considerations.
Bolstering Core Infrastructure and Protocol Resilience
A substantial portion of the funding is directed towards maintaining and advancing Ethereum’s foundational layers. Application Infrastructure sees continued support for EthereumJS maintenance, ensuring the TypeScript stack remains robust, compatible with execution-layer changes, and capable of implementing protocol updates. This includes rigorous testing and support for downstream developers relying on this critical library. Such foundational work is paramount for the stability of numerous applications built on Ethereum.
Within Ethereum Protocol, grants are designed to propel the network through upcoming transitions and hardforks. The Lighthouse client, a leading consensus client, receives funding for its development efforts from November 2025 to April 2026, focusing on features for the "Fusaka" transition and "BPO" forks. This R&D encompasses implementing "Glamsterdam," "tree sync," and expanding adversarial testing to enhance mainnet resilience and modularity. Similarly, Erigon & Zilkworm (H1 2026) will see the development of Erigon’s zkEVM guest program, Zilkworm, in C++, positioning Erigon as a high-performance, compact client with cutting-edge zero-knowledge proof technology.
Client diversity and robustness are further addressed through projects like DISC-NG Geth Project Proposal, which aims to integrate DISC-NG into Geth to replace random walks with structured advertisements for faster, more predictable Ethereum peer discovery. The Besu client integration with HSM project is set to develop a production-ready PKCS#11 plugin, enabling validator key generation and signing within Hardware Security Modules. This is a crucial step towards removing compliance blockers for institutional adoption of Ethereum staking, enhancing security and operational integrity for enterprise users. Additionally, Vero is developing a multi-node validator client to mitigate consensus bugs by combining views from multiple execution and consensus client pairs, allowing operators to configure safety thresholds for attesting to chain state. These initiatives collectively strengthen the network’s security posture and reduce single points of failure.
Advancing Scalability and Layer 2 Solutions
Recognizing the critical role of Layer 2 solutions in Ethereum’s scaling roadmap, the Foundation is investing in initiatives that enhance transparency, security, and coordination within this ecosystem. L2BEAT – 2026 secures funding to sustain its vital work in providing on-chain transparency and security assessments for Ethereum Layer 2s. Its 2026 priorities include developing an interoperability dashboard, improving token transparency, and establishing a Data Availability (DA) risk framework. L2BEAT serves as a crucial public good, offering objective data and analysis that empower users and developers to make informed decisions about Layer 2 adoption.
Ecosystem coordination for Layer 2s is also supported through the L2 Event at Network School, a private, high-signal gathering of Layer 2 teams in Singapore. This event is designed to facilitate roadmap alignment, Layer 1-Layer 2 coordination, and collaborative R&D, thereby strengthening long-term protocol collaboration across APAC and global ecosystems. Such gatherings are essential for fostering a cohesive and efficient scaling landscape.
Pioneering Cryptography and Zero-Knowledge Proofs
Cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) remain at the forefront of Ethereum’s research and development agenda, driving both privacy and scalability. The grants in these categories are particularly extensive, reflecting their foundational importance.
Cryptography Research includes the Poseidon Bounty, awarded for solutions to the Poseidon team’s Bounty Program M31-6-4, highlighting the community’s engagement in cryptanalysis. Further research into Poseidon instances is seen in Poseidon Gröbner Bases Exploratory, which aims to systematize algebraic modeling to determine attack complexity and derive an updated round-number formula, enhancing security analysis. This is complemented by Improved Round-Skipping for Poseidon(2)(b) and Improved Resultant-based Techniques for the Cryptanalysis of Poseidon(2)(b), both delving deeper into cryptanalytic techniques to ensure the robustness of this widely used hash function.
Groundbreaking privacy research is supported through Local Mixing and Local mixing approach to obfuscation, which aim to develop a practical, open-source indistinguishability obfuscation (iO) using reversible circuits. This Rust implementation seeks to scale from small to large circuits, significantly improving privacy for Ethereum applications. The High Assurance Crypto Software Workshop (HACS) is also supported, bringing together experts to enhance the security and correctness of real-world cryptographic implementations.
In the realm of Zero-knowledge Proofs, funding is allocated to tools and research that advance ZKP technology. Accelerated Minimal Trace Construction optimizes ZisKVM trace construction by pipelining EVM precompile hints and block inputs, significantly lowering latency for real-time proving. AVAZAR: Automatic verification tools for zkVM arithmetization focuses on creating tools to verify the equivalence between witness computation semantics and polynomial constraint systems for zkVMs, crucial for building trust in ZKP systems. The Evolution of the LLZK IR advances an intermediate representation for ZK circuits, supporting formal specifications and witness generation. Furthermore, formal verification efforts include Rust Verification Through Lean 4 Tooling Investigation and Axiom + OpenVM Formal Verification Grant, which aim to formally verify Rust components in zkEVM/zkVM stacks and prove the functional correctness of RV32IM opcode circuits, respectively. These efforts are critical for ensuring the mathematical integrity and security of next-generation ZKP-based scaling solutions.
Enhancing User Privacy and Security
User privacy and security are central tenets of a decentralized ecosystem, and the grants reflect a strong push in these areas. For Privacy, projects like Protecting Ethereum User Anonymity via Tor aim to enhance Ethereum light client privacy by integrating Tor, designing and implementing a Tor-based mitigation scheme to improve user anonymity and network resilience. The Kohaku – Privacy Pool and TC Integrations project focuses on integrating Privacy Pool v1 and TC into the Kohaku SDK, making it easier for wallet teams to adopt privacy features. Complementing this, Oblivious Labs server <> Kohaku will build an Oblivious server to handle requests from the Kohaku extension’s embedded execution client, enabling private state reading. Addressing foundational network privacy, Unblocking Tor bridge scalability tackles issues with Tor bridges to support EF Privacy Team’s integration work.
In Security, grants focus on improving transaction transparency and protocol compliance. Walletconnect clear signing library aims to solve the blind signing problem by developing a library and POC wallet, enhancing transaction security and user transparency. This is further advanced by ERC-7730 v2 Cross-Platform Clear Signing Library, a Rust library with iOS and Android bindings that enables mobile wallets to display human-readable transaction previews, replacing raw hex calldata for a significantly better user experience. The Kohaku light client project integrates the Colibri stateless client into the Kohaku SDK and browser extension, enabling trustless, proof-based verification of on-chain state without reliance on centralized RPCs. Finally, ePBS Specification Compliance extends existing Fork Choice compliance test generators to cover ePBS changes in the Ethereum Consensus Protocol, ensuring the security and correctness of future protocol upgrades.
Cultivating Developer Talent and Ecosystem Engagement
A vibrant and skilled developer community is the lifeblood of any successful open-source ecosystem. The Foundation’s grants reflect a strong emphasis on developer growth, education, and community building.
Under Application Layer / Developer tooling, BuidlGuidl: AI-Ready Ethereum Education & Infrastructure Maintenance transitions flagship Ethereum education and developer tools, including SpeedRunEthereum and Scaffold-ETH 2, into an AI-ready maintenance mode, sustaining core infrastructure and supporting enterprise certification efforts. This ensures that new developers have access to high-quality, up-to-date learning resources. Open Creator Rails is developing a verifiable on-chain runtime for managing time-bound access to digital resources, supporting subscriptions and privacy-preserving linkage, fostering new application models.
Community / Ecosystem development is a significant area of investment. Developer Growth 2026 Support aims to optimize the developer funnel, lead enterprise certification efforts, and shape ecosystem funding strategy for developer growth. This strategic initiative focuses on expanding the pool of skilled Ethereum developers. Global community events are heavily supported, including the Cornell Blockchain Conference 2025, an academic conference convening researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders to examine U.S.-based crypto innovation. The Invisible Garden project supports a developer pop-up city in Buenos Aires focused on Ethereum, ZK, AI, and cybersecurity, fostering grassroots innovation. Similarly, Ethereum Vancouver 2026 and Synergy Seoul: A Meetup for Ethereum Builders aim to cultivate local talent and collaboration in key global hubs, connecting startups, researchers, and the public through high-signal events and strategic matching programs.
Strategic Initiatives for Governance, Identity, and DeFi
Beyond the core technical stack, the grants also extend to crucial areas like decentralized governance, digital identity, and decentralized finance (DeFi).
In DAOs/Governance, the gov/acc support & knowledge commons handbook aims to build a comprehensive knowledge commons to map open problems, solutions, and active contributors in governance research. This project combines data collection and community workshops to create a reusable framework for research coordination, crucial for evolving decentralized governance models.
Decentralized Identity sees support for Advancing the did:ethr Method Specification, modernizing the Decentralized Identifier standard and improving EVM interoperability. This research and tooling update addresses usability gaps to achieve DIF Recommended status, an important step for broader adoption of self-sovereign identity on Ethereum.
For DeFi, an Open-Source Research Platform is being developed to enable systematic study of blockchain and DeFi transaction patterns. This platform will provide curated datasets, benchmarks, and tools for reproducible empirical research, accelerating insights into this rapidly evolving sector.
Addressing Societal Impact and Regulatory Landscape
The Ethereum Foundation also acknowledges the broader societal and regulatory context in which the network operates. Society and Regulatory grants address these critical external factors. The Ethereum Climate Impact Assessment will refine electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions estimates post-Merge, enhancing the public Cambridge Blockchain Network Sustainability Index with current, accurate data. This demonstrates a commitment to transparency and responsible environmental stewardship. Furthermore, support for the European Decentralisation Institute 2026 will deliver four key policy projects, including research, roundtables, and policy briefs, fostering strategic regulatory engagement and policy development for the Ethereum ecosystem. This proactive engagement is vital for shaping favorable regulatory environments globally.
Enhancing User Experience (UX/UI)
Finally, improving the user experience is paramount for mainstream adoption. The Improve UX Work grant focuses on developing the Open Intents Framework and Interop SDK, advancing Ethereum interoperability standards like ERC-7930. This work aims to improve cross-chain UX, supporting token standards, balance consolidation, and messaging for wider adoption. The Use Case Lab – Program Specialist also supports identifying and unblocking high-potential Ethereum use cases beyond finance through research and pilot interventions, ensuring that Ethereum’s utility expands to a broader audience.
Broader Implications and Outlook
This extensive grant funding round by the Ethereum Foundation signals a strategic and comprehensive investment in the network’s future. By supporting a diverse array of projects, from fundamental protocol maintenance to cutting-edge cryptographic research, and from global community building to proactive regulatory engagement, the Foundation is reinforcing Ethereum’s position as a leading decentralized platform.
The emphasis on client diversity, Layer 2 scaling, and robust security measures demonstrates a commitment to the network’s long-term stability and resilience. The significant allocation to privacy-enhancing technologies and developer tooling underscores a dedication to user protection and fostering an accessible, innovative development environment. Furthermore, the global scope of community and research initiatives indicates a recognition that Ethereum’s strength lies in its decentralized, worldwide contributor base. As many of these projects are slated for completion or significant progress in 2026, the coming years are anticipated to bring substantial advancements and solidify Ethereum’s trajectory towards a more scalable, secure, and user-friendly decentralized future.
