Ethereum’s next big upgrade has 66 proposals, including a major privacy fix
Ethereum developers have assembled 66 improvement proposals for the network's next major protocol upgrade, according to a report from CoinDesk published August 17, 2026. Among the proposals is a significant privacy enhancement that would alter how transaction data is handled on the base layer, marking one of the more substantive privacy-focused changes considered for Ethereum in recent years.
The inclusion of a large proposal set reflects Ethereum's ongoing effort to address scalability, security, and user privacy through its structured upgrade process. Ethereum Improvement Proposals, or EIPs, are evaluated and debated by core developers before any are incorporated into a scheduled hard fork. Previous major upgrades, including the Merge and subsequent Shanghai and Cancun upgrades, each carried their own sets of EIPs targeting specific technical improvements to the network.
A privacy fix of this magnitude could have broader implications for institutional adoption, as regulatory scrutiny around on-chain transaction transparency has been a persistent concern for enterprise users and financial entities exploring Ethereum-based infrastructure. Developers and industry stakeholders will be closely watching which proposals survive the selection process before a final upgrade scope is confirmed.
With 66 proposals currently under consideration, the core developer community faces a period of technical deliberation and community debate to determine which changes will move forward. The timeline for the upgrade and the final list of included EIPs have not yet been confirmed.
Source: CoinDesk
