On 7 September 2026 the Ethereum Foundation Protocol Cluster published two posts: a Hegotá EIP opinion post with a tier list, and a companion note on current and emerging priorities. About sixty researchers and engineers across nine teams graded 62 Ethereum Improvement Proposals for the next execution-plus-consensus fork after Glamsterdam. It is the first time the cluster has put one ranking on the blog instead of per-team PDFs. Geth, the post notes, will still ship its own execution-client list. That is process. It is not a hard fork.
Two proposals sit in S-tier, which the cluster defines as must-ship: if either is at risk, the schedule moves before the scope does. EIP-7805, FOCIL (fork-choice enforced inclusion lists), is the consensus-layer headliner — a path for eligible transactions to be included without relying on a centralised builder. EIP-8141, Frame Transactions, is the execution-layer headliner — programmable validation, execution, and gas payment, with a route toward new signature schemes without a fork per scheme. Companion A-tier items (EIP-8369 for FOCIL eligibility, EIP-8250 and EIP-8272 for Frames) are part of those packages. Names will leak into marketing as “account abstraction 2” and “censorship resistance”. They are still draft EIPs.
What happened
Twelve contribution templates supplied grades. S means 4, down to declined-for-inclusion at 0. Averages ignore abstentions. The published tier is a steelman from a working session, not a vote count released per team. A-tier means expected to ship unless delivery forces a cut — and A is cut before S. B is on the bubble, one EIP at a time, usually with a prototype, a sign-off, and a settled spec. C is below the line. DFI is out, with a reason. TBD waits on mainnet data. Roughly: two S, a teens-worth of A, a pile of DFI. The visual lives on Forkcast. You do not need it to use ether this week.
The priorities post is blunt about quantum: Hegotá is not “the PQ fork”. It is the fork that decides whether later post-quantum work can still land on time. EIP-8365, retiring BLS withdrawal credentials tied to cryptography the cluster calls vulnerable, is called out as the one PQ-related item that belongs in this fork. A research goal around the end of the decade is a roadmap, not a setting in your wallet. Do not mash Hegotá into Pectra, Dencun, Shapella, the Merge, or London. Pectra changed Ethereum accounts and validators. It did not write a price is the May 2025 activation. This page is a ranking dated 7 September 2026.
Why it matters
If you hold ether, your balance did not change because a blog post used the word S-tier. If you run a validator, your homework is still client versions and whatever actually ships, months away, after devnets. If you use a wallet, FOCIL and Frames will eventually mean new prompts. New prompts are a phishing surface. A wallet signature is not a handshake. Anyone who says you must “migrate ETH to Hegotá” or “upgrade to quantum-safe coins” this week is running a scam that predates this list.
See Ethereum without the jargon if execution layer and attester still slide off the page. See Ethereum fees went quiet. That is still a story about demand if you expected this ranking to move the blob meter. A tier list is how a research org says what it will fight to keep in a fork. It is not a candle and it is not a customer-support bulletin.
What happens next
Spec freezes, devnets, cuts of A-tier items, arguments about Frames versus existing account-abstraction products, and a calendar that will slip if S-tier work is late. Watch ethereum.org and the Protocol Cluster posts, not airdrop sites. We will not translate a grade table into a target.
Not a recommendation to stake, unstake, or change wallets. Not a forecast. Not an activation notice.
