Ethereum Research Daily

February 18, 2026

• EF Protocol's 2026 priorities become Scale
• Improve UX and Harden the L1
• Native Key Delegation for EOAs EIP submitted
• PrivateX402 private payment channels for multi agent AI
• a Lean Ethereum video series

EF Protocol published its 2026 priorities, regrouping last year's Scale L1, Scale Blobs and Improve UX into three tracks: Scale, Improve UX and Harden the L1. prestwich submitted the Native Key Delegation for EOAs EIP, letting EIP-7702 delegation support non ECDSA keys. Nethermind researchers proposed PrivateX402, private payment channels for multi agent AI systems.

February 17, 2026

• Universal Enshrined Encrypted Mempool EIP-8105 merged
• Block Access List Sidecars EIP merged
• the EF launches a Platform team
• Ethereum Protocol Studies 2026
• EIP-8037 reservoir clarified

jannikluhn's Universal Enshrined Encrypted Mempool EIP merged (EIP-8105), one of the Hegotá execution layer headliner candidates. The EF announced a new Platform team to strengthen the L1 and L2 relationship. spencer-tb submitted clarifications of EIP-8037's reservoir mechanics. nerolation's BAL sidecars EIP merged.

February 16, 2026

• ACDT #70 sets bal-devnet-3 for March 4
• EIP-7928 simplifies BAL capping
• Encrypt The Mempool #0 agenda
• Agent Subscription ERC-8162
• vibehouse the zero dev consensus client

ACDT #70 set bal-devnet-3 for March 4. nerolation submitted a simpler cap for block level access lists after the earlier max items cap PR merged. The agenda for the first Encrypt The Mempool call was posted. deiu submitted an Agent Subscription ERC.

February 15, 2026

• EIP-7976 raises the calldata floor to 64/64 gas per byte
• eth/71 Block Access List Exchange EIP merged
• EIP-7773 adds EIP-7975 and EIP-8159 to CFI
• EIP-7851 back to Draft
• EIP-7979 better validation

nerolation's EIP-7976 update merged, raising the calldata floor from 15/60 to 64/64 gas per byte, so a 10 MiB payload needs about 671M gas instead of about 105M. The eth/71 Block Access List Exchange EIP merged. colinlyguo submitted moving EIP-7851 (deactivating a delegated EOA's key) back to Draft.

February 14, 2026

• EIP-7708 adds ETH burn logs
• EIP-8142 rebased on 7732 merged
• VitalikButerin worries about prediction markets
• corcoranwill to coordinate post-quantum security deliveries
• OWASP Smart Contract Top 10

A quiet Saturday. raxhvl added ETH burn logs to EIP-7708 and tidied the spec, submitted and merged. nerolation's EIP-8142 rebase onto ePBS (EIP-7732) merged. tkstanczak said corcoranwill will coordinate Ethereum's post-quantum security deliveries.

February 13, 2026

• EF leadership change with Tomasz Stańczak stepping down as Co-Executive Director
• Bastian Aue appointed interim Co-Executive Director
• Fluidkey private payments
• Aztec Ignition Chain reaches 90k blocks
• ZK proofs come to optimistic L2s

The EF Board announced that Tomasz Stańczak is stepping down as Co-Executive Director and appointed Bastian Aue as interim Co-Executive Director alongside Hsiao-Wei. Tomasz wrote that he leaves at the end of February. The ethereum account featured the private payments app Fluidkey. Protocol spec work was quiet.

February 12, 2026

• ACDE #230 lists Hegotá execution layer headliner candidates LUCID
• EIP-8141
• EIP-8105 and EIP-7807
• bal-devnet-3 scope
• eth/71 Block Access List Exchange EIP-8159

ACDE #230 reviewed Hegotá execution layer headliner candidates: LUCID's encrypted pool was presented with a breakout on February 18, EIP-8141 frame transaction spec implementation and tests are in progress, and EIP-8105 encrypted pool and EIP-7807 SSZ execution blocks are also in the running; client teams will write up preferences for the next ACDE, with a decision the call after. bal-devnet-3 scope includes EIP-8037 and EIP-7954. The first L1-zkEVM breakout took place.