Ethereum developers are considering a package of protocol changes designed to improve transaction privacy as they begin narrowing down priorities for the network's major Hegotá upgrade, currently planned for 2027.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Wahrstätter said the Protocol Architecture team wants to prioritize two proposals: Frame Transactions (EIP-8141) and Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists, better known as FOCIL (EIP-7805).
Together, the proposals could allow privacy pools to pay transaction fees directly, removing their dependence on intermediaries that can potentially expose connections between wallets and transactions.
FOCIL could add another layer of protection by providing protocol-level inclusion guarantees for eligible transactions, making censorship more difficult.
Privacy Pools Could Pay Their Own Fees
One of the biggest changes under consideration is Frame Transactions, a proposed new transaction format intended to give Ethereum wallets greater flexibility over how transactions are executed.
Frames would work alongside Keyed Nonces and Recent Roots (EIP-8272) to enable privacy pools to handle transaction fees themselves rather than requiring an external account or service to pay gas.
This matters because using intermediaries for gas payments can potentially create additional metadata linking otherwise private transactions to individual users.
Wahrstätter described Frames as a more expressive transaction format and an important building block for Ethereum's next generation of wallet and transaction infrastructure.
Another proposal in the package, Transaction Assertions (EIP-7906), would allow wallets to establish conditions governing what a transaction is permitted to do after submission.
Together, these features could provide users with greater control over transaction execution while reducing privacy leaks created by today's transaction model.
FOCIL Targets Transaction Censorship
FOCIL addresses another major priority: Ethereum's resistance to transaction censorship.
The proposal would introduce inclusion lists into Ethereum's fork-choice mechanism, making it more difficult for block builders or other network participants to systematically exclude valid transactions.
Combined with privacy-focused transaction formats, developers believe the mechanism could help ensure private transactions are not only harder to trace but also more difficult to censor.
FOCIL currently stands as the only proposal formally confirmed for Hegotá. Frame Transactions and the related proposals remain under consideration alongside dozens of other potential improvements.
Developers are currently evaluating 66 proposals for inclusion in the 2027 upgrade, meaning many will inevitably be postponed.
Wahrstätter argued that developers must instead decide which improvements Ethereum needs next while pushing less urgent proposals into later upgrades.
Privacy Becomes a Core Ethereum Priority
The discussions follow Vitalik Buterin's growing emphasis on privacy, quantum resistance and protocol simplification.
Earlier this month, Buterin highlighted how Ethereum's roadmap has evolved, with strong privacy and protection against future quantum computers becoming considerably more important than they were in previous versions of the network's development plan.
Ethereum researchers are developing a broader roadmap through 2029 that includes native privacy, faster transactions and quantum-resistant cryptography.
Developers are also investigating potential scaling improvements as Ethereum's gas limit moves toward significantly higher levels.
Other ideas being considered include changes to transaction and state-growth pricing, optional zkEVM proofs on mainnet and modifications to block-access-list architecture.
Hegotá Must Follow Glamsterdam
Before Hegotá arrives, Ethereum developers still need to deliver Glamsterdam, the network's preceding major upgrade.
Developers currently aim to ship Glamsterdam before the end of 2026, putting additional pressure on teams to avoid overloading future upgrades with too many simultaneous changes.
Wahrstätter noted that development on Glamsterdam has already stretched across hundreds of days and warned that trying to include everything could jeopardize Ethereum's upgrade schedule.
That makes the selection process for Hegotá particularly important.
If the Frame Transactions package ultimately joins FOCIL, Ethereum's 2027 upgrade could become one of its most significant privacy-focused protocol changes, moving privacy and censorship resistance deeper into the network itself rather than relying primarily on applications and external infrastructure.
