Layla Zulfa
The Ethereum core development team has announced a significant evolution of its "Protocol" organizational structure, shifting from its initial three strategic initiatives – Scale L1, Scale Blobs, and Improve UX – to a more integrated three-track system for 2026: "Scale," "Improve UX," and the newly introduced "Harden the L1." This strategic reorientation follows an exceptionally productive 2025, which saw the successful deployment of two major network upgrades, Pectra and Fusaka, along with crucial advancements in network capacity and user experience. The revised framework is designed to streamline development, enhance coordination, and address the increasingly complex demands of maintaining and evolving the world’s leading smart contract platform.
A Retrospective on Ethereum’s Transformative 2025
The year 2025 stands out as one of Ethereum’s most impactful periods at the protocol level, characterized by a relentless pace of innovation and deployment. The community and core developers successfully implemented a series of upgrades that laid critical groundwork for future scalability and usability.
The first major network upgrade of the year, Pectra, landed on the mainnet in May 2025, introducing several pivotal Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). Foremost among these was EIP-7702, a game-changer for Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs). EIP-7702 granted EOAs the temporary ability to execute smart contract code within a transaction, effectively bridging the gap between simple EOA functionalities and the advanced capabilities of smart contract wallets. This innovation unlocked a host of new possibilities, including native transaction batching, which allows multiple operations to be combined into a single transaction, significantly reducing gas costs and improving efficiency. Furthermore, it enabled gas sponsorship, where third parties can cover transaction fees for users, lowering the barrier to entry for new users. Crucially, EIP-7702 also facilitated social recovery mechanisms, enhancing security and accessibility for account holders by allowing trusted contacts to help recover lost or compromised accounts.
Beyond EIP-7702, Pectra also delivered substantial improvements to Ethereum’s data layer and staking infrastructure. EIP-7691 notably doubled blob throughput, increasing the capacity for data availability layers that are vital for the scalability of Layer 2 (L2) rollups. This enhancement directly translated to lower transaction costs and faster settlement times on L2s, making Ethereum’s ecosystem more attractive and efficient. Simultaneously, EIP-7251 raised the maximum effective validator balance to an impressive 2,048 ETH, providing greater flexibility and capital efficiency for staking participants. This adjustment aimed to optimize staking operations and potentially encourage larger institutional participation without compromising network decentralization. To further improve the staking experience, EIP-6110 dramatically shortened validator onboarding times, reducing the waiting period for new validators to join the network and begin earning rewards, thereby enhancing the responsiveness and robustness of the consensus layer.
The momentum continued into December 2025 with the deployment of the Fusaka upgrade. This upgrade was a landmark achievement, bringing EIP-7594, known as PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling), to the mainnet. PeerDAS revolutionized how validators handle blob data. Instead of requiring all validators to download and store full blob data, PeerDAS introduced a sampling mechanism. Validators now only need to sample small portions of the data to verify its availability, significantly reducing the bandwidth and storage requirements for running a full node. This architectural shift was instrumental in enabling an 8x increase in theoretical blob capacity, a monumental leap for Ethereum’s data availability capabilities. Accompanying Fusaka were two Blob Parameter Only (BPO) forks, which initiated the gradual increase from the initial 6 blobs per block towards much higher targets, setting the stage for even greater L2 scalability.
Between these two major upgrades, the Ethereum community also made steady progress on other fronts. The mainnet gas limit, a critical parameter determining the computational capacity of each block, was progressively raised from an initial 30 million to a robust 60 million gas. This marked the first significant increase since 2021, directly translating to higher transaction throughput on Layer 1 and alleviating congestion. On the infrastructure side, History expiry was implemented, a crucial step in managing the ever-growing size of the Ethereum blockchain. This mechanism removed pre-Merge historical data from full nodes, resulting in hundreds of gigabytes of disk space savings. This reduction in storage requirements makes it easier and more cost-effective for individuals and entities to run full nodes, thereby contributing to network decentralization and resilience.
User experience (UX) also saw notable advancements in 2025. The Open Intents Framework reached production readiness, providing a standardized way for users to express their desired outcomes, which can then be fulfilled by various on-chain or off-chain mechanisms. This framework is a foundational piece for more intuitive and powerful dApps. Furthermore, the L1 fast confirmation rule implementations progressed across various consensus clients, aiming to reduce the time users wait for transactions to be considered final and irreversible. Interoperability standards also gained traction, with ERC-7930 + ERC-7828: Interoperable addresses and names and ERC-7888: Crosschain Broadcaster moving forward. These standards are crucial for fostering a seamless and interconnected multi-chain ecosystem, particularly as the L2 landscape continues to expand.
Strategic Reorganization: Ethereum’s Protocol in 2026
Despite the immense success of 2025, the Ethereum core development team recognized the need for an evolved organizational structure to address the burgeoning complexities and long-term vision for the network. The initial "Protocol" framework, organized around "Scale L1," "Scale Blobs," and "Improve UX," served effectively for achieving near-term deliverables like the gas limit increase and PeerDAS deployment. However, with these milestones achieved, the focus shifts to more holistic and foundational challenges.
Starting in 2026, Ethereum’s Protocol development will be structured into three redefined tracks, each led by a dedicated team of experts:
1. The "Scale" Track: Unifying Ethereum’s Throughput Expansion
Led by Ansgar Dietrichs, Marius van der Wijden, and Raúl Kripalani
The new "Scale" track represents a significant strategic consolidation, merging the previously separate "Scale L1" and "Scale Blobs" initiatives into a single, cohesive effort. This unification acknowledges a fundamental reality of Ethereum’s architecture: the work of increasing Layer 1 (L1) execution capacity and expanding data availability throughput are deeply interconnected and interdependent.
For instance, increases in the L1 gas limit directly impact the performance requirements of execution engines, necessitating coordinated efforts between different client teams. Similarly, blob scaling, while primarily focused on data availability, requires significant networking and consensus layer changes that often affect the same client codebases used for L1 execution. By bringing these efforts under one unified leadership, the team aims to enhance coordination, reduce redundant efforts, and foster a more holistic view of Ethereum’s overall scaling strategy. This integrated approach is expected to accelerate development cycles and mitigate potential conflicts or bottlenecks that could arise from siloed initiatives.
Concretely, this track will focus on pushing the boundaries of both L1 transaction processing and L2 data availability. This includes continued research and implementation of sharding-related technologies, further optimizations to the EVM, and exploring advanced data compression techniques to maximize network throughput. The goal is to ensure Ethereum can support a vast and diverse ecosystem of decentralized applications and users without compromising its core principles of security and decentralization. The impact will be felt directly by users through lower transaction fees and faster confirmations, and by developers through a more robust and scalable platform for innovation.
2. The "Improve UX" Track: Towards Native Account Abstraction and Seamless Interoperability
Led by Barnabé Monnot and Matt Garnett
The "Improve UX" track continues to be a cornerstone of Ethereum’s development, but with a sharpened focus on two areas deemed highest-leverage for mainstream adoption in 2026: native account abstraction and interoperability.
Account abstraction (AA) is envisioned as the key to transforming the user experience on Ethereum, making it more akin to traditional web applications. While EIP-7702 was an important interim step, the ultimate goal is to enable smart contract wallets as the default, eliminating the need for bundlers, relayers, or additional gas overhead that currently complicate the user journey. Proposals like EIP-7701 and the more recent EIP-8141 (Frame Transactions) are at the forefront of this effort, pushing towards embedding smart account logic directly into the protocol itself. This means features like multi-factor authentication, programmable spending limits, and social recovery would be native to every Ethereum account, significantly enhancing security and convenience.
A critical intersection for native AA is post-quantum readiness. As quantum computing capabilities advance, the cryptographic algorithms currently used by Ethereum (like ECDSA for signatures) could become vulnerable. Native AA provides a natural and robust migration path, allowing accounts to transition to quantum-resistant signature schemes without requiring users to create new addresses or undergo complex processes. Complementary to this, the track will also explore and implement proposals designed to make verifying quantum-resistant signatures much more gas-efficient within the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), ensuring that future-proofing the network doesn’t come at the cost of usability or affordability.
On the interoperability front, the team will build upon the foundation laid by the Open Intents Framework. The overarching objective remains seamless, trust-minimized cross-L2 interactions. As the Ethereum ecosystem embraces a rollup-centric future, enabling efficient and secure communication between various Layer 2 solutions becomes paramount. Continued progress on faster L1 confirmations and shorter L2 settlement times directly supports this goal, reducing latency and improving the overall fluidity of assets and data across the decentralized landscape. This focus aims to eliminate fragmentation, allowing users and applications to move effortlessly between different L2s and L1 without friction.
3. The "Harden the L1" Track: Fortifying Ethereum’s Core Principles
Led by Fredrik Svantes, Parithosh Jayanthi, and Thomas Thiery
The "Harden the L1" track is a brand-new initiative for 2026, reflecting a dedicated commitment to safeguarding the fundamental properties that make Ethereum valuable. As the network scales and evolves, ensuring its security, decentralization, and resilience against various threats becomes increasingly vital. This track underscores a proactive approach to maintaining the integrity of the base layer.
This track will cover several critical areas:
- Security Enhancements: This includes ongoing efforts to audit and harden the protocol against known and emerging vulnerabilities, improving cryptographic primitives, and ensuring the robustness of the consensus mechanism. This is a continuous process, essential for protecting billions of dollars in user assets and maintaining trust in the network.
- Decentralization Maintenance: As Ethereum scales, there’s a constant need to ensure that the requirements for running nodes remain accessible to a wide range of participants. Efforts like history expiry contribute to this, but "Harden the L1" will explore further optimizations to prevent centralization risks among validators or node operators. This includes research into more efficient state management and execution environments.
- Censorship Resistance: A core tenet of a decentralized network is its resistance to censorship. This track will focus on mechanisms and protocol improvements that strengthen Ethereum’s ability to resist attempts by powerful entities to block or prioritize certain transactions. This could involve exploring various forms of proposer-builder separation (PBS) or other designs that enhance transaction inclusion fairness.
- Protocol Resilience: This involves designing the protocol to be robust against network partitions, denial-of-service attacks, and other forms of systemic stress. It includes improving fault tolerance, optimizing peer-to-peer networking, and ensuring quick recovery mechanisms in case of unforeseen events.
- Long-term Sustainability: This track will also consider the long-term health of the protocol, including economic sustainability for validators and the ongoing maintenance of client software. It’s about ensuring that Ethereum remains a viable and attractive platform for all participants for decades to come.
Looking Ahead: Glamsterdam and Hegotá on the Horizon
The ambitious goals for 2026 are already taking shape with the next major network upgrade, Glamsterdam, targeted for the first half of the year. Glamsterdam is expected to introduce groundbreaking features such as parallel execution, which promises to significantly boost transaction throughput by allowing multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously. This upgrade will also likely feature even higher gas limits, further expanding L1 capacity.
Following Glamsterdam, Hegotá is planned for later in 2026. This upgrade is anticipated to bring enshrined PBS (Proposer-Builder Separation), a critical step towards mitigating centralization risks in block production and enhancing censorship resistance. Hegotá will also continue the relentless pace of blob scaling, pushing the boundaries of data availability. Crucially, both upgrades are expected to incorporate continued progress on native account abstraction and solidify post-quantum security measures, ensuring Ethereum’s preparedness for future technological shifts.
The strategic reorientation of the "Protocol" framework underscores Ethereum’s commitment to continuous innovation while maintaining its foundational principles. The detailed track-level updates, similar to those published in 2025, will provide ongoing transparency and opportunities for community engagement. As Ethereum continues its journey of development, the coordinated efforts across the "Scale," "Improve UX," and "Harden the L1" tracks are poised to deliver a more scalable, user-friendly, and robust decentralized future. The message from the core developers is clear: the work continues, with an unwavering focus on building the next generation of the internet.
