Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol cluster publishes first unified tier list for 62 Hegotá EIPs

The Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol cluster published a unified ranking of all 62 EIPs proposed for the Hegotá upgrade on Sept. 7.

“We evaluated the 62 EIPs proposed for inclusion, each with a tier and a short note on the grade,” the cluster wrote.

Nine teams participated, alongside several individual domain experts, filling out 16 contribution templates. Twelve contributors supplied grades. That produced 397 tier grades across 62 EIPs, averaging 6.4 grades per proposal. The scoring runs S (4 points), A (3), B (2), C (1), and D/DFI (0).

What the tiers mean

S-tier means the schedule flexes before the scope does. If an S-tier proposal runs into serious trouble, the upgrade date moves rather than the proposal getting dropped. A-tier is high-priority and expected to ship alongside S-tier items — cuttable under genuine delivery pressure, but not casually. B-tier proposals need a prototype, a stable spec, and explicit sign-off before moving into the upgrade. C-tier proposals are below the line and candidates for reconsideration if time remains. DFI means declined on structural grounds. TBD means deliberately unranked until mainnet data settles outstanding questions.

For EIP authors, those are named conditions. Client implementation could realistically start in late Q4 2026. Hegotá itself is scheduled for 2027.

The two headliners

EIP-7805 (FOCIL) comes in at S-tier on the consensus layer, averaging 4.0 across seven grades. EIP-8141 (Frame Transactions) is S-tier on the execution layer, averaging 3.89 across nine. The cluster’s published priorities for upcoming forks frames them as Hegotá’s paired headliners — proposals the cluster says have to ship together safely.

Both sit inside a harder external deadline. The Protocol cluster is targeting full post-quantum resistance across all three of Ethereum L1’s layers by December 2029, and Hegotá is the fork where that schedule either holds or starts slipping.

“Hegotá is not the PQ fork; it is the fork that decides whether the PQ forks happen on time,” the cluster wrote.

That framing carries a direct consequence for scope. The cluster said appetite for additional consensus-layer work in Hegotá is slim unless a proposal directly supports post-quantum readiness. The Protocol cluster’s December 2029 quantum-resistance target constrains Hegotá’s scope in a way that shapes what can realistically move forward on the consensus layer. By this desk’s read, if you’re bringing a consensus-layer EIP that doesn’t touch the post-quantum track, the timing is difficult.

Privacy and censorship resistance

The cluster’s stated mandate runs under the acronym CROPS: Censorship Resistance, Open Source and Free, Privacy, and Security. FOCIL, paired with EIP-8369 (VOPS Profiles for FOCIL Eligibility), handles the censorship-resistance side. Privacy gets its own arc: EIP-8250 (Keyed Nonces), EIP-8272 (Recent Roots), Frame Transactions, and EIP-7906 (Transaction Assertions).

FOCIL is the only proposal the available reporting describes as confirmed for inclusion, though the cluster places both FOCIL and Frame Transactions in its S-tier group.

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