Daniel Walker
Ethereum core developers have officially selected “Hegota” as the name of the network’s next upgrade, following Glamsterdam, further clarifying Ethereum’s 2026 development timeline as the protocol settles into its twice-yearly release schedule.
Hegota combines the execution-layer upgrade “Bogota”, continuing the tradition of Devcon host city names, with the consensus-layer upgrade “Heze,” which takes its name from a star. Developers emphasized that the headline Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) for Hegota will not be chosen until February, while work on Glamsterdam remains ongoing.
The naming decision was finalized during Thursday’s All Core Developers Execution (ACDE) call, which marked the last meeting of the year. Developer discussions are set to resume on January 5, when the scope of Glamsterdam is expected to be finalized.
ACDE meetings play a central role in coordinating Ethereum’s execution-layer changes, and the January session will likely determine which proposals make it into Ethereum’s first upgrade of 2026.
Ethereum’s Twice-Yearly Upgrade Rhythm Takes Shape
The announcement comes as Ethereum’s upgrade process begins to operate as originally intended.
With Pectra and Fusaka successfully deployed in 2025, Ethereum has effectively entered a predictable, twice-annual hard fork cadence. The goal of this approach is to deliver smaller, more focused upgrades while avoiding infrequent but disruptive overhauls.
Under this timeline, Glamsterdam is expected to activate in the first half of 2026, with Hegota following later in the year.
What Could Land in the Hegota Upgrade
Although Hegota is still in the early planning phase, developers expect its content to draw from long-standing roadmap priorities as well as features that may be deferred from Glamsterdam.
One of the most frequently discussed candidates is Verkle Trees, a critical step toward fully stateless Ethereum clients. While Verkle integration has not been formally approved for Hegota, it remains one of the strongest possibilities for a 2026 hard fork.
Other topics under active discussion include state and history expiry mechanisms and additional execution-layer performance optimizations. Interest in state expiry has intensified following a recent wave of proposals from the Ethereum Foundation.
As previously reported, the Foundation’s Stateless Consensus team has warned that state bloat — the ever-growing amount of data Ethereum nodes must store — is becoming an increasing burden for operators.
Glamsterdam Targets Layer 1 Efficiency and Builder Decentralization
While Hegota planning continues, developers remain focused on refining Glamsterdam, Ethereum’s next scheduled upgrade.
Key proposals still being evaluated include enshrined proposer-builder separation (ePBS), designed to reduce block-building centralization, as well as block-level access lists, which aim to ease state access bottlenecks. Developers are also reviewing gas repricing proposals to better align EVM costs with actual resource usage.
More ambitious changes, such as shortening slot times, have already been postponed to future upgrade cycles. Any proposals that prove too complex for Glamsterdam may ultimately be rolled into Hegota instead.
Ethereum’s Roadmap Extends Well Beyond 2026
The unveiling of Hegota also fits into Ethereum’s broader multi-phase technical roadmap, which has been unfolding for several years.
The transition to proof-of-stake, known as The Merge, was completed in September 2022. Subsequent roadmap phases — The Surge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge — continue to guide long-term development.
The Surge focuses on rollup-driven scaling, with Fusaka advancing blob capacity and Glamsterdam aiming to improve Layer 1 efficiency without introducing new centralization risks.
The Verge centers on statelessness and lightweight verification, making potential Verkle Tree adoption in Hegota especially relevant. Later phases, The Purge and The Splurge, target historical data cleanup and long-term protocol simplification.
