Allocation Update – Q1 2026

Application Infrastructure Developer tooling EthereumJS maintenance Maintenance for the EthereumJS TypeScript stack to ensure reliability and compatibility with execution-layer changes. This includes implementing protocol updates, improving tests, and supporting downstream developers. Link Application layer Research Protecting Ethereum User Anonymity via Tor Enhances Ethereum light client privacy by integrating Tor. This project designs and implements a Tor-based mitigation scheme, improving user anonymity and network resilience. Application layer Ecosystem development ERC-8004 Developers Engagement Fosters ERC-8004 community growth by providing technical assistance and coordinating builder engagement. Supports decentralized AI engineers through direct feedback and Devconnect event curation. Application layer Developer tooling BuidlGuidl: AI-Ready Ethereum Education & Infrastructure Maintenance Transitions flagship Ethereum education and developer tools, including SpeedRunEthereum and Scaffold-ETH 2, into an AI-ready maintenance mode. The project sustains core infrastructure and supports enterprise certification efforts. Link Application layer Developer tooling Open Creator Rails Developes a verifiable on-chain runtime for managing time-bound access to digital resources, supporting subscriptions and privacy-preserving linkage. Application layer Developer tooling Walletconnect clear signing library Developes a library and POC wallet to solve the blind signing problem, enhancing transaction security and user transparency. Link Community Ecosystem development Developer Growth 2026 Support Optimizes the developer funnel, leading enterprise certification efforts, and shaping ecosystem funding strategy for developer growth. Community Ecosystem development Specialized Event Support Supports the operations and systems rollout for Specialized Events in H1 2026, including planning coordination and invoicing workflows. Community Ecosystem development Cornell Blockchain Conference 2025 An academic conference at Cornell Tech convening researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders to examine U.S.-based crypto innovation and its implications for financial systems and public infrastructure. Link Community Ecosystem development L2 Event at Network School A private, high-signal gathering of Layer 2 teams in Singapore focused on roadmap alignment, L1–L2 coordination, and collaborative R&D, strengthening long-term protocol collaboration across APAC and global ecosystems. Link Community Ecosystem development Invisible Garden Support for Invisible Garden, a developer pop-up city in Buenos Aires focused on Ethereum, ZK, AI, and cybersecurity. Link Cryptography Research Poseidon Bounty Awarded for solutions to the Poseidon team’s Bounty Program: M31-6-4 Link, More details on the bounties can be found here Cryptography Research Poseidon Gröbner Bases Exploratory Systematizes algebraic modeling to determine Gröbner basis attack complexity on Poseidon instances. Large-scale experiments will derive an updated round-number formula, enhancing security analysis. Cryptography Research Local Mixing Develops a practical, open-source indistinguishability obfuscation (iO) using reversible circuits. This Rust implementation aims to scale from small to large circuits, improving privacy for Ethereum applications. Link Cryptography Developer tooling GPU-Accelerated R1CS Witness Generation based on MLIR Compiler stack Builds an MLIR-based compiler stack for an end-to-end R1CS pipeline to decouple ZK circuit authoring from hardware optimizations. This reduces fragmentation and demonstrates GPU-based witness generation for future zkVM integration. Link Cryptography Ecosystem development High Assurance Crypto Software Workshop The High Assurance Crypto Software Workshop (HACS) is a small workshop that brings together cryptographers, cryptographic software engineers, and formal verification experts to improve the security and correctness of real world cryptographic Link Cryptography Research Formalising Proximity Generators and Related Properties Add new coding theory definitions and theorems to the ArkLib Lean library, focusing on distance preservation and proximity generators for Reed Solomon codes. Link Cryptography Research Local mixing approach to obfuscation Researches local mixing as a new approach to practical obfuscation, aiming to prove its security and develop a new cryptographic primitive. Link DAOs/Governance Research gov/acc support & knowledge commons handbook Builds a comprehensive knowledge commons to map open problems, solutions, and active contributors in governance research. This project combines data collection and community workshops to create a reusable framework for research coordination. Link Decentralized Identity Ecosystem development Advancing the did:ethr Method Specification Advances the did:ethr Decentralized Identifier standard by modernizing its specification and improving EVM interoperability. This research and tooling update addresses usability gaps to achieve DIF Recommended status across the ecosystem. Link DeFi Dashboard Open-Source Research Platform Enables systematic study of blockchain and DeFi transaction patterns. This open-source platform provides curated datasets, benchmarks, and tools for reproducible empirical research, accelerating cumulative insights. Ethereum Protocol Ecosystem development Internship Program 2026, Protocol Snarkification Ensuring the mathematical correctness of Ethereum’s scaling infrastructure, this work applies formal verification to cryptographic protocols and zkVM circuits. Ethereum Protocol Ecosystem development Ethereum Founders and VCs – Hong Kong Strategic Forum A focused, strategic Forum and networking mixer in HK to bring together institutional capital, leading VCs, and Ethereum mainnet founders to define the future of the EVM landscape toward 2026. Ethereum Protocol Dashboard [Pectra Round] Post-Pectra Network Dashboard Insights into the Beacon network’s validator consolidation and p2p bandwidth usage are now available. This dashboard tracks improvements post-Pectra hardfork with real-time and historical data. Link Ethereum Protocol Application Lighthouse – November 2025 to April 2026 Develops Lighthouse client features for the Fusaka transition and BPO forks. This R&D effort will implement Glamsterdam, tree sync, and expand adversarial testing for improved mainnet resilience and modularity. Link Ethereum Protocol Ecosystem development Performance Benchmarking Grant Develops tooling to generate bloated and easily maintainable states 10x Mainnet size. This work identifies and addresses performance bottlenecks, prioritizing critical, underrepresented areas in stateful testing. Link Ethereum Protocol Research Zeam Phase 3 – leanEthereum spec & impl with a zig lean client Develops Lean consensus, focusing on PQ consensus, fast finality research, and ZK-verified consensus with a ZK lightclient attesting protocol. Link Layer 2 Dashboard L2BEAT – 2026 Sustains L2BEAT’s critical work providing onchain transparency and security assessments for Ethereum Layer 2s. Supports 2026 priorities including an interoperability dashboard, tokens transparency, and a DA risk framework. Link Nodes and Clients Research DISC-NG Geth Project Proposal Integrates DISC-NG into Geth, replacing random walks with structured advertisements for faster, more predictable Ethereum peer discovery. Link Nodes and Clients Application Erigon & Zilkworm (H1 2026) Develops Erigon’s zkEVM guest program, Zilkworm, in C++. This enhances Erigon’s capabilities as a high-performance, compact Ethereum client with cutting-edge zero-knowledge proof technology. Link Nodes and Clients Developer tooling Besu client integration with HSM Develops a production-ready PKCS#11 plugin for the Besu client to ensure validator key generation and signing occur entirely within Hardware Security Modules, removing a major compliance blocker for institutional Ethereum adoption. Nodes and Clients Ecosystem development Vero Develops a multi-node validator client that mitigates consensus bugs by combining views from multiple execution and consensus client pairs. Operators can configure safety thresholds before attesting to chain state. Link Nodes and Clients Research Ethproofs zkAttester Validates zk-based attestation in a live Ethereum staking environment by operating a mainnet validator running the Lighthouse zkAttester branch. Link Other Ecosystem development Productizing the Commons This project is focused on scoping pilots to Productize the Commons, exploring embedded and voluntary mechanisms, specifically around DeFi curators as public goods stewards, and public goods UI or frontends for protocols like ENS, Aave, and Uniswap. Other Ecosystem development Ethereum Vancouver 2026 Fosters a vibrant Ethereum ecosystem in Vancouver, connecting startups, researchers, and the public through regular, high-signal events. This initiative cultivates local talent and collaboration. Privacy Developer tooling Kohaku – Privacy Pool and TC Integrations Integrates Privacy Pool v1 and TC into the Kohaku SDK, empowering wallet teams to adopt privacy features with minimal developer effort. Link Privacy Research OpenAC Analysis and Documentation Analyzes the OpenAC access control system’s relationship to selective disclosure and credential presentation standards. This project produces technical mappings to inform ecosystem discussions without introducing new mechanisms. Link Privacy Developer tooling dRPC NodeCore load balancer Funding to support dRPC’s work on open-sourced RPC load balancer NodeCore. Link Privacy Developer tooling Oblivious Labs server <> Kohaku Builds an Oblivious server to handle requests from the Kohaku extension’s embedded execution client, enabling private state reading. Link Privacy Developer tooling Unblocking Tor bridge scalability Addresses scalability issues with Tor bridges to support the EF Privacy Team’s integration work and advance network-level privacy. Link Security Research Improved Round-Skipping for Poseidon(2)(b) Expands cryptanalysis of Poseidon2, exploring advanced round-skipping techniques and extending attacks to new parameter sets and modes. This research also investigates countermeasures like improved round constant selection. Security Research Improved Resultant-based Techniques for the Cryptanalysis of Poseidon(2)(b) Explores resultant degrees in Poseidon2 polynomial systems, developing new algorithms for iterated resultants. Benchmarks these against Gröbner basis techniques for CICO-k, k >= 2. Security Developer tooling ERC-7730 v2 Cross-Platform Clear Signing Library Enables mobile wallets to display human-readable transaction previews. This Rust library implements ERC-7730 v2 clear signing, with iOS and Android bindings, replacing raw hex calldata for a better user experience. Link Security Developer tooling Kohaku light client Integrates the Colibri stateless client into the Kohaku SDK and browser extension. This enables trustless, proof-based verification of on-chain state in user-facing environments without relying on centralized RPCs. Link Security Developer tooling ePBS Specification Compliance “ePBS Specification Compliance” extends the existing Fork Choice compliance test generator to the ePBS changes in the Ethereum Consensus Protocol. Link Security Research Formal Verification of the Brevis Pico RISC-V zkVM Formally verifies the Brevis Pico RISC-V zkVM core in Lean against the RISC-V specification. It produces a reusable workflow to check zkVM constraints against verified instruction semantics, delivering a proof library and tooling. Link Society and Regulatory Research Ethereum Climate Impact Assessment Updates to the Ethereum Climate Impact Assessment will refine electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions estimates post-Merge. This research enhances the public Cambridge Blockchain Network Sustainability Index with current, accurate data. Society and Regulatory Research European Decentralisation Institute 2026 Supports EDI’s 2026 roadmap to deliver four key policy projects, including research, roundtables, and policy briefs. This effort fosters strategic regulatory engagement and policy development for the Ethereum ecosystem. Link Society and Regulatory Ecosystem development Synergy Seoul: A Meetup for Ethereum Builders Synergy Seoul is a 3-day meetup featuring a strategic matching program to connect local builders with key stakeholders. This initiative aims to foster deep, sustainable integration within the Korean Ethereum ecosystem. UX/UI Ecosystem development Improve UX Work Develops the Open Intents Framework and Interop SDK, advancing Ethereum interoperability standards like ERC-7930. This work improves cross-chain UX, supporting token standards, balance consolidation, and messaging for wider adoption. Link UX/UI Research Use Case Lab – Program Specialist Supports the Use Case Lab in identifying and unblocking high-potential Ethereum use cases beyond finance through research and pilot interventions. Zero-knowledge Proofs Research Cryptanalysis of Poseidon within Fiat-Shamir Investigates cryptographic vulnerabilities in Poseidon-based Fiat-Shamir proof systems and folding schemes. Explores potential weaknesses in FRI-based commitments and whether SumCheck reductions expose new attack vectors. Zero-knowledge Proofs Developer tooling Accelerated Minimal Trace Construction Optimizes ZisKVM trace construction by pipelining EVM precompile hints and block inputs with sequential emulation. This concurrent workflow significantly lowers end-to-end latency and increases throughput for real-time proving. Link Zero-knowledge Proofs Research AVAZAR: Automatic verification tools for zkVM arithmetization Automatic tools to verify the equivalence between witness computation semantics and polynomial constraint systems for zkVMs. Link Zero-knowledge Proofs Developer tooling The Evolution of the LLZK IR Advances the LLZK intermediate representation with support for formal specifications, polymorphic free functions, and witness generation. Link Zero-knowledge Proofs Research Rust Verification Through Lean 4 Tooling Investigation Investigates the formal verification of Rust components in zkEVM/zkVM stacks using Lean 4 and the hax toolchain. Link Zero-knowledge Proofs Research Axiom + OpenVM Formal Verification Grant Establishes a Lean-based formal verification system for OpenVM to prove the functional correctness of RV32IM opcode circuits. Link