Odaily reported that the Ethereum Foundation has released its list of grants and ecosystem support for the first quarter of 2026, focusing on cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), protocol security, and core infrastructure development, further strengthening the Ethereum core tech stack and long-term scalability.
This quarter's grants cover several key areas. At the protocol and client level, support includes optimizations for Geth and Erigon clients, upgrades to the Lighthouse client, and post-Pectra upgrade network monitoring tool development, with a focus on enhancing network performance and attack resistance. Simultaneously, projects such as HSM key management, the validator security tool Vero, and the DISC-NG node discovery mechanism have also received support to improve node-level reliability and institutional-grade compliance capabilities.
In the cryptography and ZK domain, the foundation continues to increase investment in projects such as Poseidon hash function analysis, Gröbner basis attack research, hybrid encryption exploring quantum resistance and homomorphism, and formal verification of RISC-V zkVM, further strengthening the security boundaries of zero-knowledge proofs and cryptographic infrastructure.
On the developer ecosystem front, toolchains like the BuidlGuidl education system upgrade, ERC standard community building, the WalletConnect clear signing library, and Open Creator Rails are advancing steadily, aiming to lower development barriers and enhance user interaction security. Meanwhile, L2BEAT continues to provide Layer 2 transparency analysis, bolstering the scaling ecosystem's data infrastructure.
Additionally, the foundation is supporting privacy technologies (such as Tor integration and the Privacy Pool SDK), decentralized identity (did:ethr standard upgrades), DAO governance research, and public goods experimental projects, covering the complete ecological structure from the protocol layer to the application layer.
Overall, this round of grants continues Ethereum's long-term commitment to the three core directions of "cryptography + ZK + protocol engineering," emphasizing the support of future multi-layer scaling and institutional-grade application deployment through infrastructure and standardization development.
