There’s a lot to cover for all Ethereum core developer calls, so this “Checkpoint” series aims to provide high-level updates approximately every 4-8 weeks, depending on what’s happening in core development. Click here for the previous update.
If you like reading updates on core development, you might also like to know that Forkcast publishes call summaries, chats, and transcripts for each All Core Dev (ACD) call and some breakout calls. Usually published within a few hours of the call.
teacher:
The Fusaka upgrade comes with the ability to adjust blob parameters independently of the fork cycle. The next upgrade, Glamsterdam, is fully scoped and progress is underway, while the key features for the next upgrade, Hegotá, are currently being proposed, with the deadline for proposals being February 4th.
Fusaka
Since the last checkpoint, the Fusaka upgrade has gone live, bringing scaling to Ethereum in the form of data availability sampling.
@ethereum and Vitalik both talked about PeerDAS on Twitter, why it’s important to scale securely, and how these improvements fit into the larger framework.
BPO fork
Blob parameter-only forks are now a reality – Ethereum can now increase the number of blobs without waiting the entire fork cycle and already scales with L2 usage. The first two BPO forks were successfully stress tested and integrated into Fusaka, with the first going live a few days after Fusaka, and the second going live in early January. Ethereum targets 14 blobs per block and allows up to 21 blobs. This is a 2.3x increase in L2 data space compared to pre-Fusaka.
The developers discussed what they needed to do to prepare for a third BPO fork, but agreed that it was not a priority until Blob usage increased enough to use the existing increases.
glamsterdam
Progress is being made on the two highlights of Gramsterdam, Proposer Builder Separation (ePBS) and Block-level Access List (BAL), but ePBS is a much more complex change than BAL, so while the latter already has a devnet, it will be a while before we see a devnet for ePBS.
timeline
As with all forks, Headliner needs to move to a stable location on the devnet before we can start adding variables in the form of more EIPs. The developers have finally narrowed down the list of proposed non-headline features from 50 to a more manageable set of 17 necessary and high-impact features, and will be adding these features to the devnet in smaller sets until they are ready to fork. If some of them prove problematic or could cause too much delay for the entire fork, we may choose to remove them from the “considered” set. Here is the complete list of features being considered:
- EIP-2780: Reduce inherent transaction gas
- EIP-7688: Forward compatible consensus data structure
- EIP-7708: Logs are output during ETH transfer.
- EIP-7778: Block gas accounting without refund.
- EIP-7843: SLOTNUM opcode
- EIP-7904: General price resetting
- EIP-7954: Increase maximum contract size
- EIP-7976: Increased call data floor cost
- EIP-7981: Increased access list cost
- EIP-7997: Deterministic factory pre-deployment
- EIP-8024: Backwards compatible SWAPN, DUPN, EXCHANGE
- EIP-8037: Increased cost of state creation gas.
- EIP-8038: National Gas Cost Increase
- EIP-8045: Exclude validators with slashes from suggestions
- EIP-8061: Increased churn for defections and integrations
- EIP-8070: Sparse blob pool
- EIP-8080: Allow exits to use integrated queues
We hope to have a better timeline once the first ePBS devnet is stable and more clarity once all EIPs have been tested on the devnet.
Hegota
A brief explanation of the name change. The original H star name, Heka, was replaced with Heze after a community developer noted that all previously selected star names were in the International Union of Astronomers catalog, but “Heka” was not. The fork name is Heze + Bogotá: Hegotá.
Forcil
The censorship resistance mechanism, Fork Selected Inclusion List (FOCIL), was moved from Gramsterdam to reduce fork scope. Given the strong support among core developers and the general Ethereum community, it will be moved to Hegotá’s consideration status and evaluated alongside other headliner proposals. As of this posting, there is only one competing proposal.
Click here for an overview of FOCIL and its response to Hegota.
timeline
Anyone can suggest a headline feature for Hegota by the February 4 deadline using the Ethereum Magicians Forum template.
The proposal is then presented by the proponent in an ACD call to solicit feedback from the community. The goal is to decide on Hegota’s headline feature by February 26th. Following this decision, you can suggest minor (non-headline) features. These offers have expiration dates, so check Checkpoint for updates. As well as headliner suggestions, anyone can submit non-headliner suggestions. You just have to be willing to go through with it.
January 8th – February 4th: Headliner proposal ( now )
February 5th – February 26th: Headliner discussion and final decision
30 days after headliner selection, deadline to be determined: EIP proposals other than headliners
process
If you’ve ever wondered how to get the features you want into Ethereum, here’s your 2026 guide to getting your features into a fork. Features proposed for Ethereum are called Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) and are first specified using the first EIP, EIP-1, as a guide, and then proposed during a specified period of time and supported throughout the process by technical contacts.
It was a real challenge to pull off the 50 non-headliner features proposed for Gramsterdam, but everyone felt it. This fork with so many suggestions could be the result of more high-context participants, or the process becoming a little more clear – the developers know now when and how We will suggest the characteristics of each. The client and test teams will be the ones doing the actual work of implementing these changes, so they should be familiar with the proposals and make recommendations on the most urgent and impactful changes. It’s a lot of homework to go through 50 specifications to make informed recommendations.
I expect to see more Hegota headliner proposals competing with FOCIL and Crypto Menpool. FOCIL is a cross-layer EIP. This means that it touches both the consensus and execution layers, especially the engine API, making it a little more complicated to combine with other complex feature changes. There has been some talk about a six-second slot, but it is unclear whether it will be offered to Hegota or whether it will wait for the I-star. Whichever key feature you prefer, we encourage you to actively support it during the February discussion period.
Related ACD calls:
(November 14th to January 19th)
ACDT: 66, 65, 64, 63, 62
ACDC: 172, 171, 170
ACDE: 228, 227, 226, 225
