Points of Focus

• Ethereum is restructuring protocol work into three permanent tracks rather than milestone-driven initiatives.
• The shift centers on scaling execution and data, improving user experience, and hardening Layer 1 security.
• The change signals a shift away from chasing individual upgrades toward managing protocol risk over years, not forks.

Ethereum is changing how it builds itself. Instead of organizing protocol work around short-term upgrade goals, the network is moving to a standing structure designed for continuous scaling, usability, and core protection. The Ethereum Foundation says the shift reflects lessons from 2025, when overlapping work on gas limits, blob scaling, and client upgrades strained coordination across teams and made prioritization harder as upgrades accelerated.

The new structure breaks protocol development into three tracks: Scale, Improve UX, and Harden the L1. Each track runs in parallel and carries long-term ownership rather than expiring after a single fork. For Ethereum, the emphasis has shifted from speed to tighter coordination and control.

Protocol Priorities Update for 2026https://t.co/gW41FhqA4q

— Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) February 18, 2026

Scaling Ethereum without fragmenting the protocol

The Scale track merges work that was previously split between execution scaling and data availability. The foundation argues the separation no longer made sense as gas limits, blob throughput, and client performance increasingly depend on the same code paths.

In 2025, Ethereum raised the gas limit from 30 million to 60 million for the first time since 2021, following the Pectra and Fusaka upgrades. Fusaka introduced PeerDAS in December 2025, cutting validator bandwidth needs while expanding theoretical blob capacity. According to the Ethereum Foundation, these changes unlocked headroom that now needs coordinated management rather than ad hoc increases.

Looking ahead, developers aim to push gas limits toward and beyond 100 million during 2026 through block-level access lists under EIP-7928 and sustained client benchmarking. The upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade, targeted for the first half of 2026, also includes enshrined proposer-builder separation and further blob parameter changes.

🚨ICYMI: The Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol team has unveiled its 2026 roadmap, structured around three core tracks: scaling, user experience improvements, and strengthening Layer 1 security.

The “Glamsterdam” upgrade is targeted for the first half of 2026, with “Hegotá” planned… pic.twitter.com/alpC6aYD7F

— The Crypto Times (@CryptoTimes_io) February 19, 2026

User experience moves closer to the protocol layer

With scaling work increasingly focused on execution capacity and data flow, developers say usability has become the next constraint the protocol must address directly. The Improve UX track narrows focus to two areas where friction still blocks adoption: account abstraction and cross-chain interaction. 

As of late 2025, smart contract wallets still account for a small share of active Ethereum accounts, while most cross-rollup transfers continue to rely on third-party bridges rather than native intent-based flows, according to Ethereum Foundation research discussions.

EIP-7702, shipped with Pectra in May 2025, allowed externally owned accounts to temporarily execute smart contract logic. That enabled batching and gas sponsorship, though developers view it as a stepping stone. Proposals like EIP-7701 and EIP-8141 now aim to embed smart account logic directly into the protocol, removing reliance on relayers and reducing overhead.

Interoperability work builds on the Open Intents Framework, which reached production readiness in 2025. The foundation says faster Layer 1 confirmations and shorter Layer 2 settlement times remain critical to making cross-rollup transactions feel native rather than stitched together.

Hardening Layer 1 as scaling accelerates

Harden the L1 is the most telling addition. It reflects concern that rapid scaling can weaken Ethereum’s core guarantees if security work stays reactive.

This track groups post-quantum readiness, censorship resistance, and network testing under one mandate. In January 2026, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake confirmed the formation of a dedicated post-quantum team, framing it as a long-term risk rather than a theoretical one. Work on censorship resistance includes FOCIL under EIP-7805 and measurable resilience metrics across clients.

Today marks an inflection in the Ethereum Foundation's long-term quantum strategy.

We've formed a new Post Quantum (PQ) team, led by the brilliant Thomas Coratger (@tcoratger). Joining him is Emile, one of the world-class talents behind leanVM. leanVM is the cryptographic…

— Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) January 23, 2026

For you as a builder or user, the message is clear. Ethereum isn’t optimizing for the next upgrade headline. It is restructuring itself to scale without losing the properties that made the network credible in the first place. By 2026, success will be measured less by individual upgrades and more by whether rollups feel cheaper and faster, user friction meaningfully drops, and Ethereum can defend its position as newer chains push aggressively on performance.