Ethereum's Hegotá upgrade will include a new transaction format that splits user actions into up to 64 frames, according to the Ethereum Foundation's April 10 developer update. The change, known as Frame Transactions (EIP-8141), is listed as "Considered for Inclusion" and is a non-headliner, but it could be a building block for account abstraction and on-chain privacy.
What Frame Transactions do
Each frame plays a specific role — validation, gas approval, or execution. That breakdown lets users employ custom signature schemes, including post-quantum-resistant ones, without needing layer-2s or third-party relayers. Gas payment abstractions become first-class too, so sponsors and multi-asset rules can be encoded as frames.
Frames also separate proving and authorization logic from state-changing writes. That separation matters for privacy tooling, because it enables standard verifiable choreography — meaning proofs can be checked without exposing the underlying transaction details.
FOCIL and the Hegotá headliner
The Hegotá upgrade's headliner is FOCIL (EIP-7805), enforced inclusion. It's designed to make it harder for validators to censor transactions. Frame Transactions fit alongside that: private writes require both Frame Transactions and FOCIL for censorship-resistant submission, per the privacy roadmap updated July 27, 2026.
The privacy roadmap
The roadmap outlines three outcomes: private reads, private writes, and private proving. Private reads need Private Information Retrieval (PIR) so wallets can fetch data without revealing what they're looking at. Private writes need the frames plus FOCIL. Private proving needs client-side proving and zkVMs for confidential semantics.
Separately, EIP-8182 proposes a system contract for private ETH and compatible ERC-20 transfers using a split-proof architecture — pool proof and auth proof. The goal is a canonical shielded pool on L1, which would avoid fragmented anonymity sets.
Why protocol changes alone aren't enough
The roadmap notes that protocol changes alone won't get end-to-end privacy. Complementary layers have to compose cleanly with what's built into the network. So while Frame Transactions and FOCIL are necessary pieces, they're not the whole puzzle.
