Protocol Development - Roadmap Update (May, June, Jul 2026)

Governance
1

Hey everyone!

Here’s the latest roadmap update, covering May, June, Jul 2026.

Glamsterdam

With the Ethereum Glamsterdam release due this year, the team has been investigating how it will affect the protocol.

Two items marked for inclusion require protocol updates:

  • EIP-7732 Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation
  • EIP-7688 Forward compatible consensus data structures

Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS)

This is the headline item for the Glamsterdam release. It enshrines builders as protocol participants and removes relay trust assumptions, while changing how fees are processed, how withdrawals work, what infrastructure is involved in block proposals, and the beacon state structure.

To support the fork, we need to update how withdrawal proofs (notifyFinalBalance) are verified, along with related smart node infrastructure changes.

Forward compatible consensus data structures

This EIP was championed by Etan from Nimbus and supported by Rocket Pool and Lido. Both our protocols rely heavily on EIP-4788 Beacon State Root proofs to minimise trust.

EIP-4788 has a drawback: its proofs can be affected by changes to the beacon state object with each new fork. This means changes unrelated to our functionality can still force us to upgrade our proof verification code in the contracts.

This EIP fixes that by making the beacon state less volatile from a proof perspective, limiting the downstream changes we need to make to our contracts.

Progress

For both EIPs, we’ve made the necessary contract changes and are now working on the smart node side. We’re testing these changes using the same local devnet tooling that Ethereum core devs use. Scoping the remaining infrastructure work is still underway, and we’ll continue to develop it as client implementations become available.

Saturn 2

Scoping / Design

Saturn 2 is the major focus of this period. Following community discussion, an indicative scope has reached consensus.

The team has been supporting the RPIP drafting process - thanks to @knoshua for drafting the RPIPs - alongside workshops to design the solutions needed to meet the RPIP goals.

Estimation and Timeline

The team ran sizing/estimation workshops covering each of the RPIPs to understand the effort required, and are using these estimates to put together an indicative timeline.

Development

In parallel with scoping and design work, the team started development of the key Saturn 2 features and has progressed well through RPIP-73 and RPIP-80. Much of this work is code complete, pending refinement and significant testing.

Websites and APIs

User-facing websites

  • General website updates, improvements, performance enhancements, security tightening, and dependency updates
  • Cloudflare-related improvements: speed, scaling, and distribution improvements
  • DDoS mitigations for sites targeted by attacks

APIs and backend services

  • Clear Signing Registry pull request
  • V8 of the Snapshot strategy
  • API migrations, fixes, and rewrites reducing dependencies on other APIs, plus payload adjustments for endpoints with new Saturn 1 related data
  • Interstage (Rust proxy) updates, maintenance, and new features
  • General maintenance on critical infrastructure: monitoring, status reporting, and uptime reporting

New tools and products

  • Rocketwatch Sentinel: provisioning, deployment, and testing
  • Provisioned and deployed the new Rocket Pool App — a performant, cohesive dashboard for liquid staking, node staking, and exploring the wider Rocket Pool ecosystem. Built entirely in Rust over the past year, it covers node management, viewing other nodes, DAO exploration, governance proposals, Snapshot votes, on-chain votes, delegates, an event/transaction explorer, and an oDAO performance tracker. Now live in beta at app.rocketpool.net

Smart Node

Performance and reliability

  • Optimized proof memory usage
  • Improved memory efficiency in state SSZ parsing (thanks Patches)
  • Fixed the notify exit condition
  • Fixed a `getNodeMinimumRPLStake` error
  • Fixed a negative value on the node collector
  • Fixed an incorrect RPL bonded ratio on the Grafana collector
  • Fixed the voting power check when no delegate is set
  • Restored masquerade functionality following the HTTP API migration
  • Removed an unused `getNodeEffectiveRPL` call and added context to a number of wait functions
  • Updated many project dependencies

Node operator experience

  • Added a --bundle flag to the minipool close command, distributing the fee distributor and minipool balances and finalizing the minipool in a single block
  • Added an --observe flag to wallet masquerade so node and watchtower loops can run against a masqueraded address
  • Added a list of already-exiting validators to the validator exit command
  • Fixed headless configuration, exit-status handling, and gas limit prompts (thanks Patches)
  • The ESC key now saves changes before exiting textboxes
  • Fixed the update command for cases where tmpdir sits on a different device (thanks Patches)

Client and infrastructure support

  • Added QUIC support for Teku and updated it to bind IPv4 and IPv6 to separate ports
  • Added a migration path for node operators using the deprecated beaconstate.info checkpoint sync URL
  • Besu now only uses --p2p-host when EXTERNAL_IP is set
  • Randomized member selection for RPL price submission to keep ODAO costs consistent
  • Migrated the version checker from the external tracker into the Smart Node API (the new version now shows on Dashboard v1.4.1)
  • Added a network state provider to make it easier to test the Smart Node against a previously saved state

Please let me know if you have any questions.

9 Likes
2

What is the timeline for the Glamsterdam changes? I assume these must be released earlier and seperately from Saturn 2. Are external audits required and planned for these changes?