Supports new developers joining core protocol development. This five-month fellowship provides mentorship and project support to grow the Ethereum builder ecosystem.

Onboards new talent to core protocol development through mentorship and project support. This five-month fellowship fosters the next generation of Ethereum contributors.

Enhances Ethereum's peer-to-peer networking with PeerDAS cell-level deltas, gossipsub topic streams, and Encrypted Client Hello for libp2p QUIC, boosting mainnet readiness and network efficiency.

Supports the next generation of Ethereum core developers. This fellowship provides mentorship and resources to onboard new talent into protocol development.

Supports new developers entering core protocol development through a five-month mentorship and project support program.

Builds an open, neutral RFP Hub to aggregate Ethereum ecosystem funding opportunities. This off-chain system will feature a standard data format, public API, and transparent governance.

Explores participatory budgeting in decentralized funding contests and researches Condorcet voting for block reward distribution. This work will inform an EIP on public goods funding.

Fabric supports synchronous composability research, guiding the EF and community on based rollups and preconfirmations. Their work helps inform Ethereum L1 to L2 synchronous composability efforts, like EEZ.

Enables Prof. Strnad to dedicate substantial research time to Ethereum-focused problems, including DAO governance, decentralized system administration, and optimistic rollup challenge periods, while advising OpenLab scholars.

Maps Ethereum consensus specifications to client implementations, ETHeorem enables systematic security assessment across Lighthouse, Prysm, geth, and Reth. This agentic system combines LLMs with program analysis for full-stack coverage.

Develops Ream, a Rust-based Lean Consensus Client, to advance post-quantum-ready consensus with fast finality and 4-second slots. This renewal supports core client development, testing infrastructure hardening, and scaling devnets to 10,000 validators.

Enhances Ethereum's security by proactively identifying vulnerabilities in execution and consensus layer clients ahead of the Glamsterdam upgrade. This research strengthens the network's resilience.

Lighthouse client development continues with ePBS, Gloas, and partial messages networking for mainnet. This work expands tree sync, the Diamond testing framework, and ZK-verified consensus. Formal verification and client hardening efforts also progress.

Develops and maintains the Lodestar consensus client, implementing hard forks and contributing protocol research. This supports operator UX and ecosystem tooling for TypeScript and Zig Ethereum communities.

Develops a production-grade, Rust-based Private Information Retrieval library. This enables efficient, batched queries for key-value databases up to 32GB, optimizing server and client communication without requiring state.

Models economic incentives and participant behavior to optimize protocol game theory, enhancing network stability and efficiency.

Enhances quic-go, the Go QUIC implementation underpinning Ethereum's consensus layer networking. This work improves performance, transport capabilities, and connection efficiency for go-libp2p.

Audits the security arguments of Fiat-Shamir transformations instantiated via duplex sponges. This work clarifies key abstractions to support future Lean formalization, strengthening zero-knowledge proof systems.

Enhances AI models with current Ethereum development tooling and ethskills data. This improves LLM accuracy and strengthens Ethereum's appeal for developers seeking a blockchain to build on.

Brevis is building an on-premise, multi-GPU L1 block-proving stack to stress-test real-world operational resilience. This initiative will generate an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook for future provers.

Enables unlinkable access to gated API services, starting with AI inference. This open-source modular stack uses blind signatures and TEE-friendly servers for anonymous credit verification.

Develops novel cryptographic primitives and security protocols, enhancing Ethereum's foundational security and privacy for all users.

Indexes on-chain data into a local SQLite database, accessible via TUI and MCP. This tool enables flexible local querying and IPFS sharing of results for developers and LLM agents.

Keeps Web3j, the dominant JVM client library, in sync with upcoming Glamsterdam hard fork. This ensures continued seamless integration for Java, Kotlin, and Android applications, alongside AI-targeted documentation.

Builds Steward, a fully local macOS Ethereum smart account wallet. Every component, from the light client to the AI assistant, runs on-device, ensuring end-to-end verifiable security and sovereignty.

Enables ZisK to transition their L1 block-proving stack to on-premise, multi-GPU configurations. This initiative will generate an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook to reduce ecosystem dependency on centralized cloud providers.

Succinct is moving L1 block-proving to on-premise, multi-GPU setups. This will stress-test operational resilience and reduce cloud dependency, generating an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook for future provers.

Enhances Matter Labs' L1 block-proving stack by transitioning to on-premise, multi-GPU configurations. This initiative stress-tests operational resilience and reduces cloud dependency, generating an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook.

Enables users to programmatically verify transaction outcomes before signing with EIP-7906. This includes positive and negative conditions against any smart contract, enhancing security and user control.

Enables 8 Philippine academic institutions to develop blockchain curricula. Supports faculty in becoming trainers, fostering local Ethereum education through a 6-day program.

Optimizes protocol game theory by applying mechanism design and economic modeling to understand and improve participant incentives.

Verifies cryptographic protocols and zkVM circuits, ensuring mathematical correctness for Ethereum's scaling infrastructure through formal methods.

Develops Verity, a Lean 4-based smart contract language and formally verified compiler. It enables developers to write, formally specify, and prove contract properties, compiling to EVM bytecode with verified semantics.

Explores zkVM runtime behavior across diverse hardware to optimize proving performance. This research aims to identify bottlenecks and enable more practical, near real-time proving for Ethereum mainnet applications.

Investigates unique Ethereum use cases with real-world impact. This research also explores novel organizational structures beyond traditional crypto setups.

Develops onchain ESG funding instruments for Digital Public Goods, leveraging Ethereum to shift public goods funding from grants to scalable capital markets. This initiative designs bond-like mechanisms for large-scale infrastructure.

Formalizes the security model of Encrypted Mempools, enhancing transaction privacy and network resilience for Ethereum users.

Builds Ethereum's long-term resilience with Gean, a new Go-based consensus client. This open-source implementation replaces quantum-vulnerable cryptography and diversifies the client ecosystem from Africa.

Enables offline verification of Gnosis Safe multisig transactions. SafeLens generates evidence packages for signatures, hashes, and enriched proofs, allowing local transaction replay and human-readable details via built-in interpreters.

Enables ZisK to transition L1 block-proving to on-premise, multi-GPU setups. This initiative stress-tests operational resilience and reduces cloud dependency, generating an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook for the ecosystem.

Develops an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook, enabling L1 block provers to transition from cloud-hosted environments to resilient multi-GPU configurations, reducing centralized dependencies.

Enhances Ethereum client security by deploying AI agents to scan Geth, Nethermind, Lighthouse, and Prysm against EIP specifications, identifying divergences and edge-case bugs.

Optimizes polynomial evaluation in CompPoly using Horner, batch, and NTT methods. Implements and verifies the Guruswami-Sudan algorithm for zkVMs, complete with Lean proofs and benchmarks.

Translates novel protocol research into working code. This enables empirical testing of theoretical assumptions and quantifies design trade-offs for future Ethereum upgrades.

Supports Geth's core protocol development, client maintenance, and the implementation of new Ethereum Improvement Proposals.

Develops efficient, verified implementations of prime and binary tower fields in Lean4. This work covers small STARK fields, large SNARK/curve fields, and binary tower fields, all proven correct via RingEquiv.

Fostering the AI x Ethereum intersection, Urbe Hub in Rome hosts recurring workshops, demos, and builder sessions. This initiative cultivates cross-pollination events, strengthening both communities and collaborating with the EF dAI Team.

Optimizes leanVM's post-quantum signature aggregation for Ethereum's consensus layer. This work enhances speed, improves efficiency, and ensures Bitcoin compatibility to establish an industry-wide standard.

Enhances Ethereum's security posture with 52 AI-powered smart contract scans for client and protocol repositories over the next year.

Develops an LLM-powered system to automate Ethereum client spec compliance checking and bug discovery. This includes formal verification of Gasper Lean 4 and a pipeline to bridge SPECA outputs into Lean 4 formal specifications.

Enhances Quixote, a Rust EVM event indexer, with Tor-based private reads and GraphQL support. Demonstrates its value by integrating it into the Aave frontend, replacing TheGraph for improved data access.

Investigates the security of recursive SNARKs, probing the limits of knowledge extractors in deep recursion. This research will analyze SNARK variants with superpolynomial extractor complexity to inform new proof frameworks for real-world systems.

Evaluates modern Private Information Retrieval schemes for Ethereum data access. This work will specify a state-of-the-art scheme, complete with reusable tests, to enhance user privacy and reduce MEV risks.

Enables safe, well-tested network upgrades by building custom tooling, deployment scripts, and data pipelines for Protocol R&D.

Cultivates a new cohort of Ethereum developers in Bhutan through an intensive residency. This program fosters local talent and seeds a self-sustaining developer community in the region.

Refactors the Kohaku browser extension wallet and Railgun SDK integration. This work enhances maintainability and modularity, advancing the wallet for broader adoption and community contributions.

Extends CompPoly with advanced bivariate polynomial operations, including Guruswami-Sudan infrastructure and performance optimizations like Kronecker substitution, enhancing cryptographic primitive development.

Enhances Ethereum's core Python specifications (EELS) and test suites (EEST). This critical work ensures client compatibility and strengthens network consensus.

Decentralizes L1 block-proving by moving infrastructure from cloud to on-premise, multi-GPU setups. This initiative will open-source an On-Prem Ops Playbook, providing a blueprint for future provers to enhance resilience.

Develops efficient post-quantum signature schemes for Ethereum's execution layer, leveraging Poseidon-based constructions to prepare the network for the post-quantum transition.

Enhances smart contract security with AI-powered vulnerability detection. This subscription provides 25 comprehensive scans, a project dashboard, and VIP support for up to four client projects.

Refines the Kohaku browser extension for a robust, privacy-first wallet UX on Sepolia. Integrates Privacy Pools and Railgun, optimizing the Ambire fork and user flows.

Advances ZK-EVM research, developing scaling solutions and integrating ZK-proofs directly into Ethereum's execution layer for enhanced efficiency.

Advances ZK-EVM research, developing scaling solutions and integrating ZK-proofs directly into the Ethereum execution layer.

Enhances Ethereum's security posture through proactive code reviews, advanced tooling, and robust bug bounty program management.

Enables decentralized provers to transition from cloud to on-premise, multi-GPU setups. This initiative will yield an open-source On-Prem Ops Playbook, strengthening ecosystem resilience and reducing reliance on centralized infrastructure.

Analyzing consensus mechanisms to strengthen long-term decentralization. This research helps close the gap between current protocol guarantees and future network goals.

Facilitates connections between EF grantees and external funding sources. This helps essential public goods projects secure vital support from government, philanthropic, and ecosystem partners.

Supports research into advanced cryptographic primitives and security protocols, ensuring Ethereum's continued leadership in secure, privacy-preserving technology.

Advances Ethereum's cryptographic security by designing and analyzing new primitives and protocols. This ensures robust, privacy-preserving technology for the future.

Fosters academic excellence in blockchain technology through scholarships for outstanding MScBT students. Supports talent development and engagement with Devconnect/Devcon, alongside sponsoring Asiacrypt 2026.

Analyzes and designs advanced consensus mechanisms. This work strengthens protocol guarantees, fostering long-term network decentralization.

Expands ZKP standardization efforts by bringing together over 1,000 practitioners at ArkLib Day at ZKProof 8. This event fosters collaboration on formal verification and applied zero-knowledge proofs.

Develops a Noir to LLZK compiler, bridging two critical SNARK ecosystems. This enhances interoperability and expands the developer base for LLZK tooling, strengthening Ethereum's SNARK security efforts.

Enables dynamic smart account batching and predicate-based execution. This project standardizes and open-sources a production orchestration stack, making composable multi-step, multi-chain transactions a public good for the Ethereum ecosystem.

Optimizes exponentiation and proves multilinear transform equivalence for CompPoly. Integrates error-correcting interpolation via Berlekamp-Welch, enhancing the protocol's robustness.

Develops the Open Intents Framework, enhancing cross-chain liquidity rebalancing and supporting ERC-7683 specification development. This expands multi-chain capabilities and tooling for Ethereum.

Verifies SP1 Hypercube zkVM's arithmetization using Lean 4, formally proving its constraint systems correctly implement RISC-V ISA semantics for each instruction.

Ensuring the mathematical correctness of Ethereum's scaling infrastructure, this work applies formal verification to cryptographic protocols and zkVM circuits.

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.

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.

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.

Awarded for solutions to the Poseidon team's Bounty Program: M31-6-4
More details on the bounties can be found here: www.poseidon-initiative.info

Integrates DISC-NG into Geth, replacing random walks with structured advertisements for faster, more predictable Ethereum peer discovery.

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.

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.

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.

Explores resultant degrees in Poseidon2 polynomial systems, developing new algorithms for iterated resultants. Benchmarks these against Gröbner basis techniques for CICO-k, k >= 2.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Enhances Ethereum light client privacy by integrating Tor. This project designs and implements a Tor-based mitigation scheme, improving user anonymity and network resilience.

Fosters ERC-8004 community growth by providing technical assistance and coordinating builder engagement. Supports decentralized AI engineers through direct feedback and Devconnect event curation.

Develops Lean consensus, focusing on PQ consensus, fast finality research, and ZK-verified consensus with a ZK lightclient attesting protocol.

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.

Integrates Privacy Pool v1 and TC into the Kohaku SDK, empowering wallet teams to adopt privacy features with minimal developer effort.

Project Name	Domain	Output	Date
EPF7	Ethereum Protocol	Ecosystem development	2026 Q3
EPF7	Ethereum Protocol	Ecosystem development	2026 Q3
Ethereum P2P Networking Efficiency, Privacy, and Interoperability	Nodes and Clients	Research	2026 Q3
EPF7	Ethereum Protocol	Ecosystem development	2026 Q3
EPF7	Ethereum Protocol	Ecosystem development	2026 Q3
RFP Hub	Application layer	Application	2026 Q3
Participatory Budgeting, Deep Funding, and Condorcet Voting	Economics	Research	2026 Q3
Commit-Boost and Fabric - 2026	Ethereum Protocol	Research	2026 Q3
Faculty Research Fellowship: Ethereum Studies (AY 2025–2026)	DAOs/Governance	Research	2026 Q2
ETHeorem	Ethereum Protocol	Developer tooling	2026 Q2
Ream - Lean Consensus Client in Rust	Ethereum Protocol	Application	2026 Q2
EL+CL & Glamsterdam Security	Security	Research	2026 Q2
Lighthouse - May to October 2026	Ethereum Protocol	Application	2026 Q2
Lodestar 2026	Nodes and Clients	Application	2026 Q2
Poulpy PIR tooling	Cryptography	Developer tooling	2026 Q2

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