Ethereum Names Its Post-Glamsterdam Upgrade Hegota

During the final All Core Developers Execution call of the year, Ethereum developers officially confirmed that the upgrade following Glamsterdam will be known as Hegota. The name blends two established conventions. Bogota represents the execution layer upgrade, continuing the tradition of using Devcon host cities, while Heze refers to the consensus layer, named after a star. Together, they form Hegota, marking the next step in Ethereum’s 2026 development cycle.

At this stage, Hegota remains firmly in early planning. Developers have not yet chosen its headline Ethereum Improvement Proposal, with a decision expected around February. For now, attention remains on finalizing the scope of Glamsterdam, which is set to be Ethereum’s first scheduled upgrade of 2026.

A Twice-Yearly Upgrade Rhythm Takes Hold

The timing of the Hegota announcement matters. Ethereum’s upgrade process is now settling into its intended twice-annual cadence. After shipping Pectra and Fusaka in 2025, the network has effectively moved away from infrequent, sweeping hard forks toward smaller, more regular updates.

This rhythm is designed to make progress more predictable and manageable. Instead of bundling years of changes into a single release, developers can iterate faster, reduce risk, and better prioritize improvements. Under this cadence, Glamsterdam is expected to land in the first half of 2026, with Hegota likely following later in the year.

What Could End Up in Hegota?

Although no final decisions have been made, Hegota is expected to draw from longer-term roadmap goals and any proposals that do not make the cut for Glamsterdam. One frequently mentioned candidate is Verkle Trees, a key prerequisite for fully stateless Ethereum clients. Verkle integration has been discussed for multiple upgrade cycles, and 2026 is widely seen as a realistic window for progress on that front.

Other topics under discussion include state and history expiry mechanisms, as well as additional execution-layer optimizations. These conversations have gained urgency after recent proposals from the Ethereum Foundation highlighted the growing burden of state bloat. As Ethereum’s stored data continues to expand, running a node becomes more resource-intensive, putting pressure on decentralization. Addressing that problem is increasingly seen as unavoidable.

Glamsterdam’s Focus on Layer 1 Efficiency

While Hegota takes shape in the background, developers are still refining Glamsterdam. The upgrade is focused squarely on improving Layer 1 efficiency and reducing centralization pressures in block production. Proposals under consideration include enshrined proposer-builder separation, which aims to limit block-building centralization, and block-level access lists designed to ease state access bottlenecks.

There is also discussion around gas repricing, with the goal of better aligning EVM costs with actual resource usage. More ambitious changes, such as reducing slot times, have already been deferred to later cycles. Anything that proves too complex or risky for Glamsterdam’s timeline could ultimately be rolled into Hegota instead.

Placing Hegota in Ethereum’s Long-Term Roadmap

Hegota’s reveal also fits neatly into Ethereum’s broader multi-phase roadmap. That journey began with The Merge in 2022, when the network transitioned from proof of work to proof of stake. Since then, development has been framed around several major themes: The Surge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge.

The Surge is about scaling through rollups, an area where Fusaka made progress with PeerDAS and increased blob capacity. Glamsterdam continues that effort by improving Layer 1 performance to better support growing rollup demand. The Verge, which focuses on statelessness and light-client verification, aligns closely with potential Verkle Tree adoption in Hegota. Later phases address historical data cleanup and long-term protocol simplification.

A Clearer Path Into 2026

What this really means is that Ethereum’s development is becoming more disciplined. The naming of Hegota is not just a branding exercise. It signals confidence in a structured release process and reinforces the idea that Ethereum’s most ambitious goals will be reached through steady, incremental progress rather than disruptive leaps.

As developers return to core calls in early January to finalize Glamsterdam’s scope, attention will gradually shift toward shaping Hegota. By the time its headline EIP is chosen, the contours of Ethereum’s 2026 roadmap should be much clearer, and with it, the next phase of the network’s evolution.