Ethereum research group Ethlabs has outlined four priorities for Hegotá, recommending that developers focus on censorship resistance, faster block times, native account abstraction and continued Layer 1 scaling.
Ethlabs published its Hegotá recommendations on Aug. 16 as Ethereum developers continue narrowing the scope of the network’s planned 2027 upgrade.
The organization describes itself as an independent nonprofit research and development lab focused on Ethereum and ETH. Several Ethlabs contributors are also involved in proposals highlighted in the group's recommendations, a relationship the organization disclosed alongside its rankings.
The recommendations are not an official Ethereum governance decision. The official Hegotá Meta EIP currently lists EIP-7805, or FOCIL, as the only feature scheduled for inclusion. EIP-8141, or Frame Transactions, is listed as considered for inclusion, while numerous other proposals remain under review.
FOCIL and faster slots lead Ethlabs' priorities
Ethlabs places FOCIL at the top of its Hegotá priorities.
EIP-7805: Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists
FOCIL, short for Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists, is designed to strengthen Ethereum's censorship resistance as block construction becomes increasingly concentrated among specialized builders.
The proposal allows a committee of validators to create inclusion lists containing transactions that should be included in blocks. Attesters would then reject blocks that fail to satisfy the applicable inclusion-list requirements.
Ethlabs strongly supports the proposal, which already has the strongest position in the official Hegotá scope.
The group also puts EIP-8198, or Quick Slots, in its highest priority tier.
EIP-8198: Quick Slots
The proposal explores reducing Ethereum's current slot duration, with eight seconds used as a placeholder in the current draft. Ethlabs believes Ethereum could potentially move toward roughly 10-second slots during the Hegotá timeframe.
That is a recommendation rather than an approved network parameter.
Shorter slots could reduce the time between blocks and potentially improve Ethereum's path toward faster finality while retaining the existing 32-slot epoch structure. However, the final target would depend on client implementation, validator performance and network testing.
Frame Transactions push Ethereum toward native account abstraction
Ethlabs places EIP-8141 Frame Transactions in its second-highest priority tier.
EIP-8141: Frame Transactions
The proposal could provide Ethereum with a more native form of account abstraction, allowing transaction validation and gas payment to be controlled through EVM-based logic.
Potential applications include:
Sponsored transactions
Transaction batching
Flexible authentication
Alternative signature schemes
More advanced smart-account designs
Greater control over transaction execution
Frame Transactions have already received stronger consideration within the official Hegotá process than many competing proposals. The Hegotá Meta EIP currently categorizes EIP-8141 as “Considered for Inclusion.”
However, that designation does not guarantee that the proposal will ultimately become part of the upgrade.
Ethereum developers are still comparing competing approaches to account abstraction before finalizing the Hegotá feature set.
Ethlabs supports data repricing for Layer 1 scaling
The third major area highlighted by Ethlabs is continued Layer 1 scaling.
The organization places EIP-8131 and EIP-8279 in its highest priority tier, with both proposals focused on improving Ethereum's gas accounting as the network potentially increases its capacity.
EIP-8131: Transaction Content Floor
EIP-8131 proposes a uniform 64-gas minimum cost for user-controlled transaction bytes.
The proposal is designed to better account for the bandwidth and processing resources consumed by transaction content. Its analysis estimates a worst-case content limit of roughly 0.89 MB at a 60 million gas limit, while fewer than 4% of sampled Ethereum mainnet transactions would reach the proposed minimum.
EIP-8279 extends similar accounting principles to Block Access List data generated during execution.
The two proposals are intended to close potential gaps in Ethereum's resource accounting that could otherwise make future gas-limit increases more difficult.
Neither proposal is currently a confirmed Hegotá feature.
Ethereum's capacity debate is moving beyond bigger blocks
The scaling proposals demonstrate that Ethereum's developers are not simply looking at larger blocks as the answer to Layer 1 capacity.
Increasing the gas limit can allow more transactions to be processed, but it also increases the computational, bandwidth and storage requirements placed on validators.
Data repricing attempts to ensure that Ethereum's gas model more accurately reflects the actual resources consumed by different types of transaction data.
That could give developers greater flexibility to increase network capacity while attempting to preserve reasonable requirements for independent node operators.
The issue is particularly important for Ethereum's decentralization goals, where making validation too resource-intensive could reduce the number of participants capable of running nodes.
Ethlabs leaves Ethereum issuance proposal unranked
Ethlabs did not assign a priority ranking to EIP-8363, which proposes changes to Ethereum's monetary policy.
The proposal would introduce a mechanism that burns an increasing portion of validator rewards as the network's staking ratio rises.
Ethlabs argued that changes to ETH issuance require broader community discussion and should not be treated simply as an ordinary technical upgrade decision.
That distinction highlights the different categories of proposals being discussed for Hegotá.
Some changes primarily concern engineering and network performance, while others could directly affect Ethereum's monetary economics and validator incentives.
EIP-8363 therefore remains a draft and is not part of the confirmed Hegotá package.
What happens next for Ethereum Hegotá?
Ethereum's official roadmap places Hegotá in 2027, following Glamsterdam, which is currently targeted for Q4 2026.
The Hegotá scope is still being narrowed.
Execution-layer client teams are expected to submit their rankings by Sept. 10, after which developers will continue determining which proposals receive implementation and testing resources.
The current process means Ethlabs' recommendations should be viewed as one research group's preferred direction, rather than a finalized Ethereum roadmap.
For now, the clearest picture is:
FOCIL: Scheduled for Hegotá
Quick Slots: Supported by Ethlabs, but not confirmed
Frame Transactions: Considered for inclusion
EIP-8131: Scaling candidate
EIP-8279: Scaling candidate
EIP-8363: Monetary-policy proposal, not ranked by Ethlabs
The final Hegotá package will depend on developer consensus, client implementation readiness, testing and broader Ethereum community discussions.
Until those decisions are finalized, Ethlabs' four priorities offer a view of where one Ethereum-focused research organization believes the network should head: stronger censorship resistance, faster blocks, native account abstraction and more efficient Layer 1 scaling.
