Ethereum Foundation researchers want the network's 2027 Hegotá upgrade to prioritize two changes that would let privacy pools cover their own transaction fees without a third-party relayer. The proposal pairs a new transaction format with a censorship-resistance mechanism, though it remains one researcher's preferred package rather than a final decision.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Wahrstätter said in an Aug. 17 X post that the Protocol Architecture team wants developers to prioritize Frame Transactions, listed as EIP-8141, and Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists, known as FOCIL or EIP-7805, for the Hegotá upgrade.
A pool that pays its own fees
Frame Transactions would introduce a programmable transaction format that gives wallets more control over validation, execution, and gas payments. Under the proposal, transaction logic would split into programmable frames instead of relying on Ethereum's current fixed structure.
For privacy pools, the fee-payment feature could remove the need for a separate relayer to submit a transaction and pay its gas — a step that can expose transaction details, wallet behavior, or network information to an outside service. According to Wahrstätter: "Add FOCIL support, and privacy transactions also gain protocol-level inclusion guarantees."
Frame Transactions would work alongside Keyed Nonces and Recent Roots, listed as EIP-8272, plus Transaction Assertions, or EIP-7906, which would let wallets define conditions that must remain true when a transaction is processed.
FOCIL guards against exclusion
FOCIL is currently the only Ethereum Improvement Proposal confirmed for Hegotá. The design would let a committee of validators publish inclusion lists that block builders are expected to follow, and attesters could reject a block if its builder improperly left eligible transactions out.
FOCIL would not make transactions private on its own, but it would add a protocol process for resisting selective exclusion. Hegotá currently has 66 proposals under discussion, and most have not entered implementation, development networks, or public testnets.
US scrutiny keeps privacy tools in focus
The proposals concern how Ethereum processes private transactions, not federal rules on money transmission or sanctions. The US Treasury removed sanctions against Tornado Cash in March 2025, though it said it remained concerned about North Korean hackers using digital assets.
A Manhattan jury convicted Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm in August 2025 of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, but jurors did not reach verdicts on the money-laundering and sanctions charges. The Justice Department said Tornado Cash had transmitted more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds, including funds tied to North Korea's Lazarus Group.
Hegotá follows Glamsterdam, the upgrade Ethereum developers want to release before the end of 2026. Execution client teams are due to submit their Hegotá preference lists by Sept. 10, with EIP-8141 compared against a competing account-abstraction design, EIP-8130, at an Aug. 25 breakout meeting ahead of the Aug. 27 All Core Developers Execution call.
Source: crypto.news
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