Research & Development
Announcements related to research and development of the Ethereum protocol.
May 2, 2026
R&D

by Tim Beiko
This past week, just over 100 Ethereum core contributors gathered above the Arctic Circle — in Longyearbyen, Svalbard — for the Soldøgn Interop: a week of intense work on the Glamsterdam network upgrade. Soldøgn followed last year's Berlinterop, but returned to the format used by Amphora 🏺, Edelweiss 🏔️, and Nyota ✨: a single-track week of focused, multi-client progress toward a specific upgrade — in this case, hardening Glamsterdam. By Friday, the group had delivered on its three core goals: alignment on a post-Glamsterdam gas limit floor of 200M, stable ePBS implementations running with external builders, and final EIP-8037 repricing numbers locked in. Meaningful progress was also made on Hegotá features like FOCIL and native account abstraction, as well as a slew of other topics.
April 30, 2026
R&D

by Protocol Support Team
TL;DR: 📝 Applications for EPF7 are open until May 13 🔎 Review the program details for EPF7 🎙️ An introductory town hall will be held on May 6 at 1500 UTC We are excited to announce that applications are now open for the seventh cohort of the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship (EPF7). EPF provides a pathway for aspiring protocol developers to make meaningful contributions to Ethereum. In each cohort, a diverse group is assembled to work toward advancing Ethereum's roadmap focused on the core properties that define Ethereum; censorship resistance, open source, privacy, and security. This includes the development of client implementations, testing and specifications, and engaging with the latest core protocol research. With an overarching goal of finding placement for fellows in R&D teams working on core
April 10, 2026
R&D

by Protocol Support Team
Ethereum's All Core Developer calls can be a lot to keep up with, so this "Checkpoint" series aims for periodic high-level updates, depending on what's happening in core development. See the previous update here. !image
March 23, 2026
R&D

by Josh Rudolf, Julian Ma, Josh Stark
The North Star of the Platform team is for Ethereum to scale as a cohesive system and enable confident adoption by all users. This post is intended to share our perspective on the L1 \ L2 relationship, the roles of each layer, and how we (as an ecosystem) are leveraging the strengths of L1 & L2 to create the most compelling platform for all users. Some of this is already clear today, and some of this will need to be validated through ongoing experimentation and iteration with the community and users 🙏.
February 18, 2026
R&D

by Protocol track leads
We introduced Protocol last June which organized our work around three strategic initiatives: Scale L1, Scale Blobs, and Improve UX. A lot has happened since then! In this post, we want to share what we accomplished last year, how our thinking has evolved, and where Protocol is headed in 2026.
February 17, 2026
R&D

by Josh Rudolf
Platform is a new team inside the EF with one goal: Deliver the strongest possible Ethereum platform, where L1 and L2s are best positioned to support users, apps, and all organizations building on Ethereum. This requires improving the L1 \ L2 relationship, so that we grow as a mutually reinforcing system across each layer. Since the rollup-centric roadmap was first proposed 5 years ago, an ecosystem of chains has grown up around the Ethereum L1. The early mental model of rollups has given way to a network of differentiated L2s, each with distinct and valuable economies, extending Ethereum’s core properties to millions of users. As Ethereum matures, we must do more to deliver a cohesive platform that fully leverages the unique capabilities of Ethereum as a
February 17, 2026
R&D

by Josh Davis and Mario Havel
tl;dr: Ethereum Protocol Studies returns for 2026 with new content tracks in cryptography, lean consensus and zkEVM, plus a new self-paced learning platform. The program kicks off February 23rd. Visit epf.wiki to get started. Ethereum Protocol Studies (EPS) is back. Since launching as a 10-week study group ahead of EPF5, EPS has grown into the primary educational on-ramp for anyone looking to understand Ethereum's core protocol. Hundreds of participants have used the program to go from general Ethereum familiarity to reading specs, navigating client codebases, and contributing to protocol development. This year's program expands in both depth and format. EPS 2026 introduces two new content tracks covering areas of the protocol that are increasingly central to Ethereum's roadmap, alongside a self-paced learning platform that makes the curriculum
January 20, 2026
R&D

by Protocol Support Team
Ethereum’s All Core Developer calls are a lot to keep up with, so this "Checkpoint" series aims for high-level updates roughly every 4-8 weeks, depending on what’s happening in core development. See the previous update here. If you enjoy reading core development updates, you may also be keen to learn that Forkcast now publishes call summaries, chats and transcripts for each All Core Dev (ACD) call and some breakout calls, usually available within a couple hours of the call.

