Who Decides Which Changes Go Into an Ethereum Upgrade?

Client developers decide which changes go into an Ethereum upgrade. Clients are the programs that the network's nodes run. The developers reach agreement on open calls by rough consensus. Anyone can propose a change by writing it up as an EIP. Coin holders do not vote, and the last word belongs to node operators, who install the new software version or decline to.

What is an EIP?#

An EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal) is a document that describes a change: what changes, why, and how to implement it. Each proposal has a number and authors. Any community member can submit one. Publishing the document changes nothing on the network: it is a request for discussion.

A network upgrade, or hard fork, bundles several EIPs that activate together. Upgrades have names. The next one now being assembled is called Hegota.

What stages does a proposal go through?#

The order is set out in EIP-7723. Each upgrade has a summary document (a Meta EIP) listing the proposals and their statuses.

1. Proposed for Inclusion (PFI). The author opens a request to add the EIP to the summary document. Anyone can do this. At this stage client teams are expected to review the proposal.
2. Considered for Inclusion (CFI). Client developers signal that they intend to try including the EIP in developer test networks.
3. Scheduled for Inclusion (SFI). Developers agree the proposal is mature and on track for inclusion unless unforeseen issues come up. Full implementations and tests are required.
4. Included. The upgrade has been activated on the network.

There is a fifth status: Declined for Inclusion. Client teams can move a proposal there at any time. EIP-7723 specifies that a proposal declined for one upgrade may be proposed again for a later one.

Who makes the call at each stage?#

Client developers. Ethereum has several independent client programs, and a change has to be implemented in each. The teams discuss proposals on regular open All Core Devs calls and move them between stages once agreement forms. EIP-7723 contains no formal vote count and gives no single organisation a veto.

ETH holders do not vote with their coins in this process. In that respect Ethereum differs from protocols with onchain governance, where token counts determine the decision. Holders, staking services and applications exert influence through public objections, and the EIP-8363 case shows it.

What happened to the reward burn proposal?#

EIP-8363, titled Tapered Issuance Burn, proposed burning a share of validator rewards that grows with the share of ETH staked. At 60.25 million ETH staked, about half the supply, 100% of rewards would be burned. The rollout was spread over 18 months, and net staking yield would have dropped from about 2.6% to 1.2%, Unchained writes. The proposal has six co-authors, among them Jérôme de Tychey and Justin Drake.

In the Hegota upgrade the document sat at the earliest stage, PFI. In early October 2026 the authors withdrew it themselves, The Block reports. De Tychey explained that industry participants and core protocol and client contributors saw a fork scoping exercise as the wrong venue for settling an issuance policy change. The authors plan dedicated discussions from the Devcon conference in November through EthCC in April 2027.

For someone staking ETH this means the reward rules are not changing now. What to do with your coins during an upgrade itself is covered in "What Happens to Your Coins During an Ethereum Network Upgrade, and Do You Need to Do Anything?".

What limits and risks should you keep in mind?#

• PFI status says almost nothing about the odds. Anyone can submit a proposal, and many EIPs never get past this stage.
• Even SFI status carries a caveat about unforeseen issues. An upgrade's contents and date can change.
• The process runs on agreement and has few formal rules. The document does not define who takes part in that agreement or with what weight.
• Staking economics may change in the future: withdrawing EIP-8363 from Hegota does not mean the idea was dropped. Staking yield is not fixed and can fall.
• The details on EIP-8363 come from media reports dated October 1 and 2, 2026.