Ethereum developers name post-Glamsterdam upgrade ‘Hegota’ as 2026 roadmap takes shape

Ethereum core developers have officially named the network’s next upgrade after Glamsterdam as “Hegota,” further defining the network’s 2026 development cycle as it continues its twice-a-year release cadence.

Hegota blends the execution layer’s “Bogota” upgrade, following the tradition of naming updates after Devcon host cities, with the consensus layer’s “Heze”, named after a star. Developers said the headliner EIP for Hegota will not be selected until February, while work on Glamsterdam — Ethereum’s first scheduled upgrade of 2026 — continues.

The naming decision was made during the All Core Developers Execution (ACDE) call on Thursday, the final meeting of the year. ACDE calls are set to resume on Jan. 5, when developers aim to finalize Glamsterdam’s scope.

2026 release cycle

The naming comes at a moment when Ethereum’s upgrade process is settling into its intended rhythm.

With Pectra and Fusaka shipped in 2025, the network has effectively begun its twice-annual upgrade schedule. The approach intends to make improvements more iterative, predictable, and narrowly scoped, reducing the need for rare, sweeping overhauls.

Based on the established cadence, Glamsterdam would likely land in the first half of 2026, with Hegota following later in the year.

While Hegota itself remains in early planning, its eventual upgrade is expected to draw from long-running roadmap goals and any overflow items deferred from Glamsterdam. Particularly, Verkle Trees — a prerequisite for fully stateless clients — have been frequently cited as a candidate for inclusion in one of the 2026 hard forks. However, no formal selection has been made.

Other areas under discussion include state and history expiry mechanisms and additional execution-layer optimizations. Notably, state expiry conversations may garner more attention following a recent batch of proposals from the Ethereum Foundation.

As The Block previously reported, the EF’s Stateless Consensus team warned that state bloat — the steady expansion of Ethereum’s stored data — is becoming a growing burden for node operators.

Glamsterdam focuses on Layer 1 efficiency and builder decentralization

Meanwhile, developers continue to refine Glamsterdam’s hard fork. Proposals still under consideration include enshrined proposer-builder separation, or ePBS, intended to curb centralization in block building; block-level access lists, which aim to reduce state access bottlenecks; and gas repricings to better align EVM costs with resource usage.

More complex changes, such as reducing slot times, have already been pushed to later cycles. Any items that prove too ambitious for the timeline may roll into Hegota, with final decisions expected once calls resume in the new year.

A roadmap that stretches beyond 2026

Hegota’s reveal also situates Ethereum within its broader, multi-phase technical roadmap. Back in September 2022, developers executed the first part of this path, dubbed The Merge, which transitioned Ethereum from a proof-of-work blockchain to a proof-of-stake network.

The following components have been framed as The Surge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge.

The Surge focuses on achieving massive rollup-driven scaling. Fusaka advanced this goal through PeerDAS and expanded blob capacity, while Glamsterdam aims to improve Layer 1 performance further to better support rising rollup activity without creating new centralization pressures.

Next, The Verge centers on statelessness and light-client verification. Potential Verkle integration in Hegota aligns directly with this phase by reducing node storage requirements and enabling broader network participation. Later phases — The Purge and The Splurge — address historical cleanup and long-term protocol simplification.

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