Ethereum Protocol Restructures Into Three Tracks to Drive Scaling and Security Goals in 2026

TLDR:

• Ethereum shipped Pectra and Fusaka in 2025, doubling blob throughput and enabling validator data sampling via PeerDAS. 
• The new Scale track merges L1 and blob scaling efforts, targeting gas limits beyond 100M under unified leadership. 
• The Improve UX track advances native account abstraction and cross-L2 interoperability as top priorities for 2026. 
• The new Harden the L1 track addresses post-quantum security, censorship resistance, and network testing infrastructure.

Ethereum Protocol has announced a major structural shift heading into 2026. The Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol team has reorganized its work into three core tracks: Scale, Improve UX, and Harden the L1.

This follows a productive 2025 that saw two major network upgrades shipped. The restructuring reflects a more mature approach to developing Ethereum’s infrastructure. It also sets a clear roadmap for the year ahead, covering scaling, usability, and network security.

Ethereum Protocol Reflects on a Productive 2025

Ethereum Protocol shipped two major upgrades in 2025: Pectra in May and Fusaka in December. Pectra introduced EIP-7702, allowing externally owned accounts to temporarily execute smart contract code.

This enabled transaction batching, gas sponsorship, and social recovery for users. Pectra also doubled blob throughput and raised the max effective validator balance to 2,048 ETH.

Fusaka brought PeerDAS to mainnet, changing how validators handle blob data. Instead of downloading full blob data, validators now sample it, cutting bandwidth requirements.

This change enabled an 8x increase in theoretical blob capacity. Two additional Blob Parameter Only forks shipped alongside Fusaka to begin ramping up blobs per block.

Beyond the two forks, the mainnet gas limit rose from 30M to 60M during 2025. This marked the first meaningful gas limit increase since 2021.

History expiry also removed pre-Merge data from full nodes, saving hundreds of gigabytes of disk space. On the UX side, the Open Intents Framework reached production and cross-chain address standards moved forward.

These milestones made 2025 one of the most active years at the Ethereum protocol level. With those deliverables behind it, the team saw an opportunity to restructure.

The new track model moves away from milestone-driven initiatives. It instead organizes work around longer-term goals.

Three Tracks Now Guide Ethereum Protocol’s Direction

The Scale track merges what were previously two separate efforts: Scale L1 and Scale Blobs. Led by Ansgar Dietrichs, Marius van der Wijden, and Raúl Kripalani, it targets gas limits beyond 100M.

The track also covers ePBS, zkEVM attester client development, and statelessness research. Blob scaling and execution scaling are treated as one connected effort.

The Improve UX track, led by Barnabé Monnot and Matt Garnett, focuses on account abstraction and interoperability. EIP-7701 and EIP-8141 are pushing smart account logic directly into the protocol.

Work here also connects to post-quantum readiness, since native account abstraction offers a natural path away from ECDSA. Cross-L2 interactions and faster confirmations remain central priorities.

The Harden the L1 track is entirely new and is led by Fredrik Svantes, Parithosh Jayanthi, and Thomas Thiery. Fredrik leads the Trillion Dollar Security Initiative, covering post-quantum hardening and trustless RPCs.

Thomas focuses on censorship resistance research, including FOCIL (EIP-7805) and measurable resistance metrics. Parithosh oversees devnets, testnets, and client interoperability testing infrastructure.

Glamsterdam is the next planned network upgrade, targeting the first half of 2026. Hegotá is expected to follow later in the year.