[ETH Letter] Ethereum's Upcoming Upgrade 'Hegota' Scope Confirmed

Ethereum is a network that possesses the largest ecosystem in the world in terms of key indicators such as the number of developers and total value locked (TVL).
In this ETH Letter, Ethereum Korea shares major news from the Ethereum ecosystem that occurred over the past week.
Ethereum Korea is an organization composed of Korean Ethereum Foundation officials and key contributors to the ecosystem.

Research Field News

1. Hegota Scope Confirmed, EIP-8141 Finalized

The scope of the upcoming Ethereum upgrade candidate, Hegota, has been confirmed.
According to Forkcast, EIP-8141 has moved from the Considered stage to the Scheduled stage.
Considered means that the proposal is under review as an upgrade candidate, while Scheduled indicates that it has been included in a specific upgrade with a set timeline.
In other words, EIP-8141 has been confirmed to be included in the Hegota upgrade.
EIP-8141 is a proposal to introduce frame transactions.
Frame transactions can make Ethereum accounts and transaction structures more flexible, serving as a core component to support native account abstraction and privacy transactions.
For example, features like wallet recovery, fee delegation, transaction approvals with multiple conditions, and privacy transactions can be implemented more naturally.
Previously, Ethereum has mainly implemented such features through smart contract wallets or separate infrastructures.
However, EIP-8141 attempts to bring this structure closer to the Ethereum protocol.
On the other hand, EIP-7609 and EIP-8058 have been Declined.
Declined means that they have been ruled out for inclusion in this upgrade.
EIP-7609 is a proposal to reduce the costs of TLOAD and TSTORE.
TLOAD and TSTORE are commands for reading and writing temporary storage during transaction execution.
Lowering costs can reduce execution costs for some smart contracts and apps, but the overall cost structure of the protocol and potential for abuse must also be considered.
EIP-8058 deals with discounts for bytecode deduplication.
Bytecode is the form in which smart contract code is executed on the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
Handling duplicate code more efficiently can reduce storage costs, but it can also impact state management and gas pricing systems.
In simple terms, Hegota will focus on changing the account structure with EIP-8141 at its core, while excluding some proposals for gas cost optimization and code storage cost discounts from this scope.
This scope confirmation is significant as it indicates that Ethereum is beginning to bring native account abstraction into the actual upgrade schedule.

2. Native Account Abstraction, Debate on EIP-8141 and EIP-8130

A discussion surrounding native account abstraction took place during a frame transaction breakout call hosted by the Ethereum Foundation.
The key issue was how far the Ethereum protocol should directly define the account structure.
Currently, Ethereum's standard accounts have a relatively simple structure where transactions are sent and signed with a private key.
However, in the future, more complex functionalities such as wallet recovery, multi-signature, fee delegation, session keys, privacy transactions, and AI agent transactions may be required.
While these functionalities can be implemented separately by apps or wallets, providing a certain structure at the protocol level can allow for a more standardized approach.
Currently, discussions are centered around EIP-8141 on the Ethereum mainnet.
In contrast, Base has already implemented EIP-8130 on its testnet and has announced its introduction to the mainnet in September.
This raises concerns that the account abstraction directions of Ethereum Layer 1 and major Layer 2s may diverge.
If Layer 1 and Layer 2 adopt different account structures, wallet developers and app developers may need to support different rules.
In this case, user experience could also become complicated.
For example, a wallet function that works on Base may operate differently on the Ethereum mainnet, or conversely, an app designed based on the mainnet may require additional adjustments on a specific Layer 2.
A compromise was also suggested.
The idea is to separate the key storage structure of EIP-8130 for standardization.
Key storage is the structure through which wallets or accounts manage multiple keys and permissions.
Standardizing this could create a common account management foundation that Layer 1 and Layer 2 can both use while reducing the differences between EIP-8141 and EIP-8130.
In simple terms, the core of the debate is about how "smart" to make Ethereum accounts and whether that smart account standard can be aligned between Layer 1 and Layer 2.
This discussion shows that native account abstraction is not just a developer convenience feature, but an important protocol matter that will determine the basic user experience of Ethereum wallets and apps in the future.

3. Gas Reassessment for Glaamsterdam, Recommendations for Layer 1 Contracts

The Ethereum Foundation has advised Layer 1 contract maintainers to conduct pre-checks in preparation for the Glaamsterdam upgrade.
The reason is that the gas reassessment of EIP-8037 and EIP-8038 could change the cost structure of state creation and state access.
Gas represents the computational cost of transactions or smart contract executions on Ethereum.
Each instruction and state access in the Ethereum Virtual Machine has a fixed gas cost.
However, over time, there may be discrepancies between the actual network burden and the assessed gas costs.
The Glaamsterdam upgrade includes work to readjust this cost structure.
The Ethereum Foundation explained that most contracts would not be significantly affected.
However, some contracts that rely on specific gas cost patterns may malfunction or experience performance degradation.
For example, if a contract is designed under the assumption that the gas cost for a specific operation remains the same, it may use more gas than expected or fail to execute after the upgrade.
To verify this, the foundation has guided pre-validation on the Plataberg testnet.
Plataberg is a public testnet for testing the Glaamsterdam upgrade.
In simple terms, after Glaamsterdam, even the same contract may have different execution costs, so important Layer 1 apps and infrastructure should be tested in advance.
This recommendation shows that Glaamsterdam is not just an upgrade to increase Ethereum's throughput, but a change that adjusts the gas cost system and state management methods as well.

Ecosystem News

1. Lido Releases Report for First Half of 2026

Lido has released its report for the first half of 2026.
Lido is the largest liquidity staking protocol on Ethereum.
Users can deposit ETH into Lido and receive stETH in return, which can be used in DeFi.
According to the report, Lido DAO's net profit for the first half of the year was $15.9 million.
Foundation expenditures were $14.3 million, and with one-time costs related to the Kelpf incident factored in, the operating profit recorded a loss of $4.5 million.
This shows that while Lido generates significant revenue, financial management remains a crucial challenge when considering operational costs, incident response costs, and ecosystem expenditures.
A notable part of the report is that the automatic share buyback program, Nest, has been activated.
A total of 2320 stETH was injected into Nest, resulting in a 1.8% reduction in circulating LDO.
LDO is Lido's governance token.
Share buybacks are a method of purchasing tokens from the market, which can reduce circulating supply or support token value.
Additionally, Lido's staking TVL increased to 9.6 million ETH as of August 25.
TVL refers to the total asset size deposited in the protocol.

Lido presented an assessment of EIP-8363 in the same report.

EIP-8363 proposes that as the staking ratio approaches 50%, validator rewards converge to zero, thereby lowering staking yields.

Lido evaluated that this proposal could compress yields across the market.

Staking yields can function not just as simple validator rewards but also as a benchmark interest rate in Ethereum's on-chain finance.

Therefore, a significant reduction in validator rewards could impact liquidity staking tokens, the lending market, collateral yields, and institutional staking products.

In simpler terms, the Lido report shows that Lido has established itself as a direct stakeholder in the debate over Ethereum's monetary policy, going beyond being just a staking protocol.

As the largest staking protocol has officially stated its position on EIP-8363, Lido's voice is likely to play a significant role in future discussions on issuance and staking rewards.

Community News

1. Roman Storm's Retrial Postponed to April 26, 2027

The retrial date for Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, has been postponed to April 26, 2027.

The retrial was initially scheduled for this October, but the timeline was delayed due to pending motions for a not guilty verdict from Roman Storm's side.

Tornado Cash is an Ethereum-based privacy protocol.

Users can sever the direct connection between deposit and withdrawal addresses through Tornado Cash.

This structure can be used to protect users' financial privacy but has faced strong regulatory pressure due to its potential misuse for illegal money laundering.

Roman Storm, as a co-founder of Tornado Cash, has faced charges in the U.S. related to unlicensed money transmission, money laundering, and sanctions violations.

In the first trial, a guilty verdict was reached only for the unlicensed money transmission charge.

The jury could not reach a consensus on the money laundering and sanctions violation charges, resulting in a hung jury.

A hung jury means that the jury could not arrive at a conclusion of guilty or not guilty.

In this retrial, unresolved issues may be revisited.

In simpler terms, the Roman Storm case goes beyond just a criminal case of one developer; it raises questions about how much responsibility a privacy protocol developer should bear for users' illegal activities.

The outcome of this case could significantly impact future Ethereum privacy apps, open-source developers, and decentralized protocol operators.

With the retrial now pushed to 2027, the legal uncertainty surrounding Tornado Cash and privacy technologies is expected to persist for a longer period.

2. Ethereum Foundation Calls for Papers for WPPT 2026

The Ethereum Foundation is calling for papers for the first Privacy-Preserving Technology Workshop.

This workshop will be a new event associated with AsiaCrypt 2026, which will be held in December in Hong Kong.

AsiaCrypt is one of the major international academic events in the field of cryptography.

The theme of this workshop is privacy-preserving technology.

The Ethereum Foundation is soliciting presentations related to ZK, MPC, FHE, and PIR.

ZK refers to zero-knowledge proofs, a technology that proves the validity of a fact without revealing the details necessary to prove that fact.

MPC stands for multi-party computation, a technology that allows multiple participants to obtain computation results without revealing their individual data.

FHE is fully homomorphic encryption, a cryptographic technology that allows computations to be performed on encrypted data.

PIR stands for private information retrieval, a technology that enables users to retrieve data without revealing to the server what information they queried.

All these technologies are connected to Ethereum's long-term privacy roadmap.

Public blockchains have the advantage of allowing anyone to verify transactions and states, but they also face the issue of excessive disclosure of users' transaction information.

Thus, for Ethereum to expand into payments, identity, institutional finance, personal wallets, and agent economies, strong privacy technologies are necessary.

In simpler terms, this call for papers indicates that the Ethereum Foundation aims to connect privacy research not just within the ecosystem's internal development discussions but also with the global cryptographic academic community.

This workshop could serve as a pathway for Ethereum's privacy technologies to be academically validated and developed before being integrated into actual protocols and apps.

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