Ethereum Foundation Reveals Major Upgrade Goals for 2026

• Ethereum plans to raise gas limits beyond 100M through unified execution and blob scaling in 2026.
• Native account abstraction and cross-L2 interoperability headline Ethereum’s user experience roadmap.
• Security and censorship resistance become core priorities with a new Harden the L1 track in 2026.

The Ethereum Foundation has laid out its protocol priorities for 2026. Three new tracks will guide the work ahead. They are Scale, Improve UX, and Harden the L1. 

The foundation shared the details in a recent blog post. The update marks a shift in how the organization structures its development efforts.

Ethereum’s 2025 Was a Productive Year

Before looking ahead, the foundation reflected on 2025. It described the year as one of Ethereum’s most productive at the protocol level. Two major upgrades shipped during the year. 

Pectra launched in May, introducing EIP-7702. That change lets regular wallets temporarily run smart contract code. It also doubled blob throughput and raised the max effective validator balance to 2,048 ETH.

Fusaka followed in December. It brought PeerDAS to mainnet, allowing validators to sample blob data instead of downloading it fully. That change cut bandwidth needs significantly. 

Two Blob Parameter Only forks also shipped alongside Fusaka. The gas limit rose from 30M to 60M during the year, the first major increase since 2021.

Three New Tracks to Lead 2026 Development

The foundation announced a restructured approach for 2026. Ansgar Dietrichs, Marius van der Wijden, and Raúl Kripalani will lead the Scale track. 

This track merges what was previously two separate efforts. It targets pushing the gas limit toward and beyond 100M. It also covers ePBS, further blob increases, and advancing a zkEVM attester client toward production.

Barnabé Monnot and Matt Garnett will lead the Improve UX track. Their focus sits on native account abstraction and cross-chain interoperability. EIP-7702 was a step forward, but the goal is smarter wallets without bundlers or extra gas fees. 

Proposals like EIP-7701 and EIP-8141 aim to embed smart account logic directly into the protocol.

Hardening the L1 Gets Its Own Dedicated Focus

The third track is new. Fredrik Svantes, Parithosh Jayanthi, and Thomas Thiery will lead Harden the L1.

The foundation noted this track reflects something that deserves dedicated attention. As Ethereum grows, it must keep the core properties that make it valuable.

Fredrik continues leading the Trillion Dollar Security Initiative. His work includes post-quantum readiness and execution-layer safeguards. Thomas leads research on censorship resistance, covering FOCIL and related extensions. 

Parithosh handles devnets, testnets, and client interoperability testing. That infrastructure is critical as the upgrade pace accelerates.

Glamsterdam and Hegotá Are Next on the Roadmap

Two major upgrades are on the horizon. Glamsterdam targets the first half of 2026. It will include parallel execution, higher gas limits, enshrined PBS, and continued blob scaling. Hegotá is planned to follow later in the year.

The foundation said it will continue publishing track-level updates. Developers and community members can follow progress at protocol.ethereum.foundation. 

The priorities signal a clear direction. Ethereum is pushing toward greater scale, better usability, and stronger core security all at once.

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