Ethereum Weekly Research Report (2026-02-09 ~ 2026-02-13)
Key Takeaways
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ACDE #230 finalized the Glamsterdam DevNet-3 scope, and client voting opened for five Hegota EL headliner candidates.
Lucid Encrypted Mempool (Justin/Anders) was officially announced, competing with EIP-8105, EIP-8141 (Frame Transactions), EIP-7807 (SSZ), and others for ranked preference submissions within two weeks (~2/26).
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Only two EIPs remain scheduled for Glamsterdam (ePBS: EIP-7732, BALs: EIP-7928), while EIP-8037 (State Creation Gas Cost) was confirmed for DevNet-3 inclusion, marking the transition of gas repricing from theory to empirical testing.
EIP-8159 (eth/71, BAL P2P exchange protocol) was also newly proposed, signaling that the BAL stack has entered a maturation phase.
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A paradigm shift in the validator operating environment is accelerating.
Quick Slots (slot time reduction), Native DVT (protocol-native distributed validators), FOCIL PTC role redefinition, and Vitalik's AI x Ethereum vision (ZK API Credits) are all unfolding simultaneously, while Lido CMv2 migration ($1.8M–$2.8M/hard fork, 117 days) is expected to begin in spring 2026.
1. Roadmap & Upgrade Highlights
Glamsterdam (Expected mid-2026)
| Item | Status | Changes This Week |
|---|---|---|
| EIP-7732 (ePBS) | Scheduled | epbs-devnet-0 launch target 2/18. No separate mention confirmed at ACDE #230 — risk of deferral to Hegota if interoperability not achieved by end of February |
| EIP-7928 (BALs) | Scheduled | DevNet-3 scope finalized (4 BAL optimizations included). BAL Breakout #012 completed. EIP-8159 (eth/71) P2P protocol newly proposed |
| EIP-8037 (State Gas) | Considered | Confirmed for DevNet-3 inclusion — inflection point from theory to empirical validation |
| EIP-7954 (Max Contract Size) | Considered | Confirmed for DevNet-3 inclusion |
| EIP-7904 | Considered | Title changed: "General Repricing" → "Compute Gas Cost Increase" — significant scope reduction confirmed |
| Gas Repricing Overall | 18 Considered | Further changes deferred to post-March (ACDT #69 decision) |
Hegota (Post-Glamsterdam)
| Item | Status | Changes This Week |
|---|---|---|
| EIP-7805 (FOCIL) | CL Considered | FOCIL Breakout #28 completed. PTC role redefinition discussed. Final CL headliner decision at 2/19 ACDC |
| EIP-8105 (Encrypted Mempool) | Proposed | One of 5 EL headliner candidates |
| Lucid Encrypted Mempool | Newly Announced | Officially presented by Justin/Anders at ACDE #230. Client voting on 5 EL headliner candidates within 2 weeks |
| Quick Slots | Newly Proposed | CarlBeek: Proposal to reduce slot time from 12s to 8–10s. Positioned as non-headliner track |
| LUCID | Headliner Candidate | Encrypted mempool + FOCIL integration. Achieves both MEV protection and censorship resistance |
| 2D PeerDAS | Headliner Candidate | Partial Reconstruction + row-level DA |
Fusaka (Deployed November 2025)
- Mainnet stable operation continues. PeerDAS (EIP-7594) active.
- blob-devnet-0 follow-up optimizations (partial cells, getBlobv3) to be discussed at ACDT #70 (2/16).
New State Management Research
- Base Fee Floor Proposal (2/9): Addresses spam, state bloat, and fee volatility simultaneously with a single parameter
- Hyper-scaling State Research (2/5): Introduces new forms of state for scaling (complements existing state expiry)
- State Expiry Benchmark: 77.5% storage reduction when keeping only 1-year active state (359GB → 81GB)
2. EIP Status Changes (EIP 업그레이드 현황 2/10 Monday vs 2/13 Friday)
Upgrade inclusion stage changes: None
No EIP inclusion status changed across all upgrades — Glamsterdam, Hegota, and Fusaka.
| Category | Glamsterdam | Hegota |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled (Confirmed) | 2 (EIP-7732, EIP-7928) | 0 |
| Considered | 18 | 1 (EIP-7805 FOCIL) |
| Proposed | 0 | 1 (EIP-8105) |
| Declined | 34 | - |
| Withdrawn | 4 | - |
EIP Status Changes (3):
| EIP | Monday (2/10) | Friday (2/13) | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| EIP-3540 (EOF v1) | Review | Stagnant | Confirms entire EOF suite inactive. Declined in both Fusaka and Pectra |
| EIP-7762 (MIN_BASE_FEE_PER_BLOB_GAS) | Review | Stagnant | Fusaka Declined. Blob base fee proposal now inactive |
| EIP-7904 | Title: "General Repricing" | Title: "Compute Gas Cost Increase" | Scope reduction officially reflected. Only raising prices for operations below 60 Mgas/s floor |
New EIP Registrations: None (241 unchanged)
Interpretation: The absence of any forkcast inclusion stage changes this week suggests that Glamsterdam is still transitioning from the scoping to testing phase, and ACDE call outcomes have not yet been reflected in forkcast. The scope reduction of EIP-7904 (title change) is the most substantive change.
3. Validator & Infrastructure Issues
Validator Operations
| Issue | Urgency | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Lido CMv2 Migration | Urgent (Spring Start) | $1.8M–$2.8M/hard fork, 117 days, ~3,882 0x02 keys, 92% of $25B TVL affected |
| EIP-8148 Custom Sweep | Medium-term | Removes key friction for 0x02 transition. Custom threshold from 33 ETH |
| ePBS-devnet-0 | Urgent (D-5) | Launch target 2/18. Risk of Glamsterdam exclusion if interoperability not achieved by end of February |
| FOCIL PTC Redefinition | Medium-term (Hegota) | PTC handles inclusion verification. Reduces attester burden, expands PTC role |
| Native DVT | Long-term | Vitalik's proposal. Protocol-native M-of-N. Reduces SSV/Obol dependency |
| zkFOCIL Benchmark | Medium-term | Proof 1.5s (achieved), verification 50ms (target 20ms not met), size 7.7KB (target 1.5KB not met) |
- Staking status: APR ~3.3%, ~35.86M ETH staked (28.91%), ~1.1M active validators
Infrastructure
| Issue | Details |
|---|---|
| EIP-8159 (eth/71) | BAL P2P exchange protocol newly proposed. Average 70 KiB additional bandwidth per block |
| BAL Performance Benchmark | Block processing time reduced 42% (708ms → 409ms), storage reads improved 69% |
| State Expiry | 77.5% storage reduction with 1-year active state only, 15% execution speedup |
| PeerDAS Evolution | EIP-8136 cell-level delta broadcast. Hegota 2D PeerDAS candidate |
| zkEVM Breakout #001 | First official L1-zkEVM breakout call (2/11). Long-term ZK proof integration begins |
| Multiple Devnets Running | Fusaka blob-devnet-0 + Glamsterdam bal-devnet-2/epbs-devnet-0 simultaneously |
| Latest Clients | Geth v1.16.8, Lighthouse v8.1.0. Erigon DevNet-3 joining delayed by 1 week |
4. Protocol Call Key Decisions
6 protocol calls were held this week.
ACDT #069 (2/9) — All Core Devs Testing
- bal-devnet-2 gas limit: Adjusted to 70M or 100M (to avoid 10MB block size limit)
- EIP-8037 DevNet-3 inclusion: Urgency of state growth issue acknowledged
- ETH/70 independent testing: Unexpected behavior discovered in large receipt processing
- Additional gas repricing deferred to post-March: Focus on current devnet stabilization
FOCIL Breakout #28 (2/10) — Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists
- FOCIL CL headliner final decision: To be made at 2/19 ACDC
- PTC role redefinition: Payload Timeliness Committee handles inclusion verification (Jihoon's proposal)
- 1-slot delay bandwidth savings: Negligible at ~0.1% (Pelle's simulation)
- CL spec update: Jihoon to prepare CL/EL/Engine API updates by 2/19 ACDC
ACDT #069 RPC Breakout #020 (2/9) — RPC Discussion
- RPC standardization discussion in progress
BAL Breakout #012 (2/11) — Block-Level Access Lists
- Major EL client (Besu, Nethermind, Reth, Erigon) implementation updates
- Spec clarification issues being resolved
zkEVM Breakout #001 (2/11) — L1-zkEVM Integration
- First official L1-zkEVM breakout call
- Long-term roadmap for ZK proof-based verification transition begins
ACDE #230 (2/12) — All Core Devs Execution (Most Important This Week)
- Glamsterdam DevNet-3 scope finalized: BAL optimizations (parallel execution, state recalculation, batch reads, sync) + EIP-8037 + EIP-7954 + ETH simulate V1
- Hegota EL headliner voting opened: Lucid Encrypted Mempool officially announced. Client teams to submit ranked preferences for 5 EL options within 2 weeks
- EIP-8024 first amendment rejected: Code size impact concerns. Only simple encoding adjustments approved
- eth/70 confirmed for Glamsterdam: Geth, Besu ready
- Erigon 1-week delay: Team vacation + parallel EVM work
5. Next Week's Key Schedule
| Date | Event | Importance | Watch For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2/16 (Sun) | ACDT #70 | Critical | blob-devnet-0, bal-devnet-2, epbs-devnet-0 updates, Hegota CL headliner selection discussion |
| 2/18 (Tue) | epbs-devnet-0 Launch Target | Critical | Launch success = key signal for ePBS staying in Glamsterdam |
| 2/18 (Tue) | Post-Quantum (PQTS) Breakout #2 | Medium | Long-term quantum security transition roadmap |
| 2/19 (Wed) | ACDC (Consensus Layer) | Critical | FOCIL (EIP-7805) Hegota CL headliner final decision |
| 2/23 (Sun) | Stateless Implementer's Call #49 | Medium | Binary Trie transition, ERC-8147 follow-up |
| ~2/26 | Hegota EL Headliner Client Voting Deadline | Critical | Selection result from 5 EL options |
| End of Feb | Glamsterdam Scope Freeze Expected | Critical | ePBS retention/removal, repricing EIP finalization |
Devnet Milestones
| Devnet | Status | Next Step |
|---|---|---|
| bal-devnet-2 | Running, stable | Transition to DevNet-3 |
| epbs-devnet-0 | 2/18 launch target | Interoperability testing |
| blob-devnet-0 | In progress | Update at ACDT #70 |
| Glamsterdam DevNet-3 | Scope finalized | BAL optimizations + EIP-8037 + EIP-7954 + ETH simulate V1 |
Appendix: New EIP/ERC Proposals This Week
| Number | Title | Type | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EIP-8148 | Custom Sweep Threshold for Validators | Core | 2/6 | Accelerates 0x02 transition. Not yet on forkcast |
| EIP-8158 | Invariant Layout Guard Opcode (MUTABLE) | Core | 2/11 | Enhances proxy security. Early Draft |
| EIP-8159 | eth/71 - Block Access List Exchange | Networking | 2/12 | BALs P2P exchange. Complements Glamsterdam |
| ERC-8153 | Facet-Based Diamonds | ERC | 2/10 | EIP-2535 variant |
| ERC-8155 | Kernel-Orchestrated Modular Contracts | ERC | 2/12 | AI-first modular contracts |
| ERC-8160 | Primary Agent Registry | ERC | 2/12 | AI agent on-chain identity |
Written by: @r2jamong
Data Sources: ethereum/pm, ethereum/forkcast, Ethereum Magicians, ethresear.ch