Q2 2026 carried forward our focus on advancing Ethereum’s resilience and capabilities, supporting key work in zero-knowledge proofs, client diversity, formal verification, and open-source tooling. See the list below of the projects and ecosystem efforts supported this quarter as builders build and strengthen the network.
Explore the full list of EF Funded Projects on the ESP website here!!
| Domain | Category | Project Name | Description | Link/Repo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAOs/Governance | Research | Faculty Research Fellowship: Ethereum Studies (AY 2025–2026) | Enables Prof. Strnad to dedicate substantial research time to Ethereum-focused problems, including DAO governance, decentralized system administration, and optimistic rollup challenge periods, while advising OpenLab scholars. | |
| Security | Research | EL+CL & Glamsterdam Security | Enhances Ethereum's security by proactively identifying vulnerabilities in execution and consensus layer clients ahead of the Glamsterdam upgrade. This research strengthens the network's resilience. | |
| Nodes and Clients | Application | Lodestar 2026 | Develops and maintains the Lodestar consensus client, implementing hard forks and contributing protocol research. This supports operator UX and ecosystem tooling for TypeScript and Zig Ethereum communities. | Link |
| Ethereum Protocol | Application | Lighthouse - May to October 2026 | Lighthouse client development continues with ePBS, Gloas, and partial messages networking for mainnet. This work expands tree sync, the Diamond testing framework, and ZK-verified consensus. Formal verification and client hardening efforts also progress. | Link |
| Cryptography | Developer tooling | Poulpy PIR tooling | Develops a production-grade, Rust-based Private Information Retrieval library. This enables efficient, batched queries for key-value databases up to 32GB, optimizing server and client communication without requiring state. | Link |
| Ethereum Protocol | Developer tooling | ETHeorem | Maps Ethereum consensus specifications to client implementations, ETHeorem enables systematic security assessment across Lighthouse, Prysm, geth, and Reth. This agentic system combines LLMs with program analysis for full-stack coverage. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Application | Ream - Lean Consensus Client in Rust | Develops Ream, a Rust-based Lean Consensus Client, to advance post-quantum-ready consensus with fast finality and 4-second slots. This renewal supports core client development, testing infrastructure hardening, and scaling devnets to 10,000 validators. | Link |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Robust Incentives Group | Models economic incentives and participant behavior to optimize protocol game theory, enhancing network stability and efficiency. | |
| Application Infrastructure | Research | Ethereum LLM Optimization (Inseeq) | Enhances AI models with current Ethereum development tooling and ethskills data. This improves LLM accuracy and strengthens Ethereum's appeal for developers seeking a blockchain to build on. | Link |
| Cryptography | Research | Technical Review of Fiat–Shamir From Duplex Sponges | Audits the security arguments of Fiat-Shamir transformations instantiated via duplex sponges. This work clarifies key abstractions to support future Lean formalization, strengthening zero-knowledge proof systems. | |
| Zero-knowledge Proofs | Research | Ethproofs Additional Hardware - Brevis | Brevis is building an on-premise, multi-GPU L1 block-proving stack to stress-test real-world operational resilience. This initiative will generate an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook for future provers. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | quic-go priorities for ethp2p | Enhances quic-go, the Go QUIC implementation underpinning Ethereum's consensus layer networking. This work improves performance, transport capabilities, and connection efficiency for go-libp2p. | |
| Application Infrastructure | Developer tooling | Web3j: Sustaining Ethereum’s JVM and Android integration infrastructure | Keeps Web3j, the dominant JVM client library, in sync with upcoming Glamsterdam hard fork. This ensures continued seamless integration for Java, Kotlin, and Android applications, alongside AI-targeted documentation. | Link |
| Zero-knowledge Proofs | Research | Ethproofs Additional Hardware - Succinct Labs | Succinct is moving L1 block-proving to on-premise, multi-GPU setups. This will stress-test operational resilience and reduce cloud dependency, generating an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook for future provers. | |
| Zero-knowledge Proofs | Research | Ethproofs Additional Hardware - SilentSig | Enables ZisK to transition their L1 block-proving stack to on-premise, multi-GPU configurations. This initiative will generate an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook to reduce ecosystem dependency on centralized cloud providers. | |
| Other | Ecosystem development | Blockchain Curriculum train the trainers program for Mindanao | Enables 8 Philippine academic institutions to develop blockchain curricula. Supports faculty in becoming trainers, fostering local Ethereum education through a 6-day program. | |
| Application Infrastructure | Developer tooling | mevlog-rs - EVM transactions querying CLI/TUI powered by Revm | Indexes on-chain data into a local SQLite database, accessible via TUI and MCP. This tool enables flexible local querying and IPFS sharing of results for developers and LLM agents. | Link |
| Ethereum Protocol | Research | Transaction Assertions | Enables users to programmatically verify transaction outcomes before signing with EIP-7906. This includes positive and negative conditions against any smart contract, enhancing security and user control. | Link |
| Application layer | Application | Steward, A Self-Sovereign Ethereum Wallet with an On-Device AI Assistant | Builds Steward, a fully local macOS Ethereum smart account wallet. Every component, from the light client to the AI assistant, runs on-device, ensuring end-to-end verifiable security and sovereignty. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Cryptography | Develops novel cryptographic primitives and security protocols, enhancing Ethereum's foundational security and privacy for all users. | |
| Privacy | Research | The Open Anonymity Project | Enables unlinkable access to gated API services, starting with AI inference. This open-source modular stack uses blind signatures and TEE-friendly servers for anonymous credit verification. | |
| Zero-knowledge Proofs | Research | Ethproofs Additional Hardware - Matter Labs | Enhances Matter Labs' L1 block-proving stack by transitioning to on-premise, multi-GPU configurations. This initiative stress-tests operational resilience and reduces cloud dependency, generating an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Cryptography Research | Formalizes the security model of Encrypted Mempools, enhancing transaction privacy and network resilience for Ethereum users. | |
| Security | Developer tooling | Verity | Develops Verity, a Lean 4-based smart contract language and formally verified compiler. It enables developers to write, formally specify, and prove contract properties, compiling to EVM bytecode with verified semantics. | Link |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Protocol Snarkification | Verifies cryptographic protocols and zkVM circuits, ensuring mathematical correctness for Ethereum's scaling infrastructure through formal methods. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Robust Incentives Group | Optimizes protocol game theory by applying mechanism design and economic modeling to understand and improve participant incentives. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | ZK + testing exploration work | Explores zkVM runtime behavior across diverse hardware to optimize proving performance. This research aims to identify bottlenecks and enable more practical, near real-time proving for Ethereum mainnet applications. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Geth | Supports Geth's core protocol development, client maintenance, and the implementation of new Ethereum Improvement Proposals. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Protocol Prototyping | Translates novel protocol research into working code. This enables empirical testing of theoretical assumptions and quantifies design trade-offs for future Ethereum upgrades. | |
| Security | Application | SafeLens | Enables offline verification of Gnosis Safe multisig transactions. SafeLens generates evidence packages for signatures, hashes, and enriched proofs, allowing local transaction replay and human-readable details via built-in interpreters. | Link |
| Zero-knowledge Proofs | Research | Ethproofs On-Prem Multi-GPU Prover Initiative - SilentSig | Enables ZisK to transition L1 block-proving to on-premise, multi-GPU setups. This initiative stress-tests operational resilience and reduces cloud dependency, generating an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook for the ecosystem. | Link |
| Zero-knowledge Proofs | Research | Ethproofs On-Prem Multi-GPU Prover Initiative - Brevis | Develops an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook, enabling L1 block provers to transition from cloud-hosted environments to resilient multi-GPU configurations, reducing centralized dependencies. | Link |
| Nodes and Clients | Application | Gean, A Lean Ethereum Consensus Client | Builds Ethereum's long-term resilience with Gean, a new Go-based consensus client. This open-source implementation replaces quantum-vulnerable cryptography and diversifies the client ecosystem from Africa. | Link |
| Privacy | Developer tooling | Quixote Private Reads + Aave Integration | Enhances Quixote, a Rust EVM event indexer, with Tor-based private reads and GraphQL support. Demonstrates its value by integrating it into the Aave frontend, replacing TheGraph for improved data access. | Link |
| Security | Developer tooling | Ethereum Protocol Security Agents - SPECA & LeanAgent | Develops an LLM-powered system to automate Ethereum client spec compliance checking and bug discovery. This includes formal verification of Gasper Lean 4 and a pipeline to bridge SPECA outputs into Lean 4 formal specifications. | |
| Security | Developer tooling | Cantina Apex AI Code Analyzer for Security Vulnerabilities | Enhances Ethereum's security posture with 52 AI-powered smart contract scans for client and protocol repositories over the next year. | |
| Cryptography | Research | leanVM under Bitcoin constraints | Optimizes leanVM's post-quantum signature aggregation for Ethereum's consensus layer. This work enhances speed, improves efficiency, and ensures Bitcoin compatibility to establish an industry-wide standard. | Link |
| Other | Ecosystem development | Programming the AI x Ethereum Convergence in Rome | Fostering the AI x Ethereum intersection, Urbe Hub in Rome hosts recurring workshops, demos, and builder sessions. This initiative cultivates cross-pollination events, strengthening both communities and collaborating with the EF dAI Team. | Link |
| Cryptography | Developer tooling | Fast Field Arithmetic for CompPoly | Develops efficient, verified implementations of prime and binary tower fields in Lean4. This work covers small STARK fields, large SNARK/curve fields, and binary tower fields, all proven correct via RingEquiv. | Link |
| Application layer | Research | Ethereum "Reasonably Necessary" Frontier Use Case R&D | Investigates unique Ethereum use cases with real-world impact. This research also explores novel organizational structures beyond traditional crypto setups. | |
| Zero-knowledge Proofs | Developer tooling | CompPoly Polynomials Lean Libary - Parts of Roadmap 2 | Optimizes polynomial evaluation in CompPoly using Horner, batch, and NTT methods. Implements and verifies the Guruswami-Sudan algorithm for zkVMs, complete with Lean proofs and benchmarks. | Link |
| Security | Application | LLM-Based Client Compliance Analysis for Ethereum | Enhances Ethereum client security by deploying AI agents to scan Geth, Nethermind, Lighthouse, and Prysm against EIP specifications, identifying divergences and edge-case bugs. | |
| Other | Research | Onchain Capital Instruments for Digital Public Goods | Develops onchain ESG funding instruments for Digital Public Goods, leveraging Ethereum to shift public goods funding from grants to scalable capital markets. This initiative designs bond-like mechanisms for large-scale infrastructure. | Link |
| Cryptography | Developer tooling | Bivariate Polynomials — CompPoly Phase 2, Item 6 | Extends CompPoly with advanced bivariate polynomial operations, including Guruswami-Sudan infrastructure and performance optimizations like Kronecker substitution, enhancing cryptographic primitive development. | |
| Cryptography | Research | The recursive extraction problem | Investigates the security of recursive SNARKs, probing the limits of knowledge extractors in deep recursion. This research will analyze SNARK variants with superpolynomial extractor complexity to inform new proof frameworks for real-world systems. | |
| Cryptography | Ecosystem development | Efficient Single-Server PIR for Ethereum Indexers | Evaluates modern Private Information Retrieval schemes for Ethereum data access. This work will specify a state-of-the-art scheme, complete with reusable tests, to enhance user privacy and reduce MEV risks. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Poseidon | Develops efficient post-quantum signature schemes for Ethereum's execution layer, leveraging Poseidon-based constructions to prepare the network for the post-quantum transition. | |
| Zero-knowledge Proofs | Research | Ethproofs On-Prem Multi-GPU Prover Initiative - Matter Labs | Decentralizes L1 block-proving by moving infrastructure from cloud to on-premise, multi-GPU setups. This initiative will open-source an On-Prem Ops Playbook, providing a blueprint for future provers to enhance resilience. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | STEEL | Enhances Ethereum's core Python specifications (EELS) and test suites (EEST). This critical work ensures client compatibility and strengthens network consensus. | |
| Privacy | Application | Kohaku Wallet Frontend Support - Follow Up | Refactors the Kohaku browser extension wallet and Railgun SDK integration. This work enhances maintainability and modularity, advancing the wallet for broader adoption and community contributions. | Link |
| Other | Ecosystem development | Bhutan Blockchain Offline Residency 2026 | Cultivates a new cohort of Ethereum developers in Bhutan through an intensive residency. This program fosters local talent and seeds a self-sustaining developer community in the region. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | PandaOps | Enables safe, well-tested network upgrades by building custom tooling, deployment scripts, and data pipelines for Protocol R&D. | |
| Application Infrastructure | Ecosystem development | Open Intents Framework - Adoption & Maintenance 2026 | Develops the Open Intents Framework, enhancing cross-chain liquidity rebalancing and supporting ERC-7683 specification development. This expands multi-chain capabilities and tooling for Ethereum. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Hong Kong Polytechnic University - Sponsorship of the Research Centre for Blockchain Technology (RCBT) | Fosters academic excellence in blockchain technology through scholarships for outstanding MScBT students. Supports talent development and engagement with Devconnect/Devcon, alongside sponsoring Asiacrypt 2026. | |
| Zero-knowledge Proofs | Ecosystem development | CompPoly Roadmap Contributions — Exponentiation, Multilinear Transforms, ECC | Optimizes exponentiation and proves multilinear transform equivalence for CompPoly. Integrates error-correcting interpolation via Berlekamp-Welch, enhancing the protocol's robustness. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Protocol Consensus | Analyzes and designs advanced consensus mechanisms. This work strengthens protocol guarantees, fostering long-term network decentralization. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Funding Coordination | Facilitates connections between EF grantees and external funding sources. This helps essential public goods projects secure vital support from government, philanthropic, and ecosystem partners. | |
| Zero-knowledge Proofs | Research | Ethproofs On-Prem Multi-GPU Prover Initiative - Succinct Labs | Enables decentralized provers to transition from cloud to on-premise, multi-GPU setups. This initiative will yield an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook, strengthening ecosystem resilience and reducing reliance on centralized infrastructure. | |
| Security | Developer tooling | Octane: LLM-Powered Protocol Security for Ethereum Clients | Enhances smart contract security with AI-powered vulnerability detection. This subscription provides 25 comprehensive scans, a project dashboard, and VIP support for up to four client projects. | Link |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | zkEVM | Advances ZK-EVM research, developing scaling solutions and integrating ZK-proofs directly into the Ethereum execution layer. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Protocol Security | Enhances Ethereum's security posture through proactive code reviews, advanced tooling, and robust bug bounty program management. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Protocol Consensus | Analyzing consensus mechanisms to strengthen long-term decentralization. This research helps close the gap between current protocol guarantees and future network goals. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Cryptography | Supports research into advanced cryptographic primitives and security protocols, ensuring Ethereum's continued leadership in secure, privacy-preserving technology. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | Cryptography | Advances Ethereum's cryptographic security by designing and analyzing new primitives and protocols. This ensures robust, privacy-preserving technology for the future. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Verified zkEVM ArkLib Day at ZKProof 8 | Expands ZKP standardization efforts by bringing together over 1,000 practitioners at ArkLib Day at ZKProof 8. This event fosters collaboration on formal verification and applied zero-knowledge proofs. | Link |
| Security | Developer tooling | Noir to LLZK compiler | Develops a Noir to LLZK compiler, bridging two critical SNARK ecosystems. This enhances interoperability and expands the developer base for LLZK tooling, strengthening Ethereum's SNARK security efforts. | Link |
| Application layer | Developer tooling | Composable Orchestration, Batching Ethereum UX and Interop | Enables dynamic smart account batching and predicate-based execution. This project standardizes and open-sources a production orchestration stack, making composable multi-step, multi-chain transactions a public good for the Ethereum ecosystem. | Link |
| Zero-knowledge Proofs | Developer tooling | Improved Proving Infrastructure for RISC-V zkVMs | Verifies SP1 Hypercube zkVM's arithmetization using Lean 4, formally proving its constraint systems correctly implement RISC-V ISA semantics for each instruction. | |
| Ethereum Protocol | Ecosystem development | Internship Program 2026 | zkEVM | Advances ZK-EVM research, developing scaling solutions and integrating ZK-proofs directly into Ethereum's execution layer for enhanced efficiency. | |
| Privacy | Application | Kohaku Wallet Frontend Support | Refines the Kohaku browser extension for a robust, privacy-first wallet UX on Sepolia. Integrates Privacy Pools and Railgun, optimizing the Ambire fork and user flows. | Link |
Total awarded in Q2 2026: 5,502,930.20 USD