The Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol cluster has graded all 62 proposals for Ethereum’s 2027 Hegotá upgrade, locking in FOCIL and Frame Transactions as must-ship headliners, the cluster said in its opinion post.
FOCIL (EIP-7805) is the locked-in consensus-layer pick. The proposal creates forced inclusion lists, giving any user a path to get an eligible transaction into a block without relying on centralized builders, a structural guard against transaction censorship. The cluster graded it unanimous S-tier and expects it to ship alongside EIP-8369.
On the execution layer, Frame Transactions (EIP-8141) is the other locked-in headliner, shipping with EIP-8250 and EIP-8272. The proposal implements native account abstraction on security grounds: a route to post-quantum signature schemes without requiring a fork for each scheme, aggregation so that post-quantum verification can be priced, and a path to retiring the network’s current k1 keys.
The grades come from the cluster’s roughly 60 researchers and engineers. Sixteen contribution templates were filled out, twelve with tier grades, producing 397 grades across the 62 proposals, an average of 6.4 per proposal. Half a dozen group calls and a 90-minute working session covered the contested items. Scoring ran S=4 through D/DFI=0, with abstentions never counting against a proposal; the published tier is a steelman of each EIP.
The split signals discipline. Of the 62 proposals, two are must-ship, 15 are expected to ship, and 28 are declined with stated reasons. Eight hold B-tier with requirements for inclusion, seven sit below the line at C-tier, and two are marked TBD. Major Ethereum upgrades have historically shipped with somewhere between 5 and 15 EIPs, by one industry tally, meaning most current candidates will be deferred or dropped entirely.
One rejection carries a caveat. EIP-8363, the Tapered Issuance Burn, received a unanimous DFI, but the cluster said the grade is not a judgment on the proposal’s merits. “Issuance policy touches every staker, every holder, and the network’s long-run security budget; at this stage, EF Protocol does not consider itself the right and sole body to give direction on it, and a fork scoping exercise is not the right venue to settle it,” the post read.
The list is a snapshot, not a final scope. Client teams reportedly have until September 10, 2026 to submit their own ranked preferences, which will feed into the final selection, and the cluster will host a Reddit AMA on r/ethereum on September 16 at 2pm UTC. Geth will still publish its own standalone tier list.
Hegotá is the first upgrade beyond Glamsterdam, which is slated for Q4 2026. No specific hard fork date has been set for Hegotá. The full tier list is available as a single visual on Forkcast.
