Ethereum (ETH) developers agreed on "Hegota" for the blockchain's second major 2026 upgrade.
The upgrade will follow Glamsterdam, expected in the first half of 2026.
The decision reflects Ethereum's shift toward more frequent network upgrades rather than annual releases.
Developers faced criticism earlier this year for protocol development lagging behind network growth.
What Happened
Ethereum core contributors selected Hegota during the final All Core Developers Execution call of 2025.
The name combines "Bogota" for the execution layer upgrade with "Heze" for the consensus layer upgrade, following Ethereum's convention of blending Devcon host cities with star names.
Developers plan to finalize Glamsterdam's complete scope at their January 5 meeting.
Major Ethereum Improvement Proposals for Hegota won't be announced until at least February.
Glamsterdam will include Block-level Access Lists and enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation.
Verkle Trees emerged as a potential Hegota feature in early discussions.
This data structure would help Ethereum nodes store and verify large amounts of data more efficiently.
If implemented, Verkle Trees could significantly reduce hardware requirements for node operators.
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Why It Matters
The twice-yearly upgrade schedule marks a strategic shift for Ethereum development.
Previous upgrades bundled large numbers of changes into releases that happened roughly once annually.
The faster cadence aims to address community criticism about slow protocol development relative to the network's rapid expansion.
Deferred work from Glamsterdam will likely populate Hegota's feature set.
Ethereum historically pushes EIPs that miss one release deadline to the following upgrade.
Lower hardware requirements from Verkle Trees could improve decentralization by enabling more participants to run nodes.
The Ethereum Foundation noted that Fusaka shipped PeerDAS alongside minor features, setting a template for the accelerated development approach.
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