Ethereum Foundation Releases Q1 Grant Project List: Continued Support for ZK, Cryptography, and Protocol Infrastructure

Jinse Finance reported that on April 29, the Ethereum Foundation announced the list of funding and ecosystem support projects for the first quarter of 2026, with a focus on cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), protocol security, and core infrastructure development, continuing to strengthen the underlying technology stack and long-term scalability of Ethereum. This quarter's funding covers several key areas. At the protocol and client level, projects include optimization of the Geth and Erigon clients, upgrades to the Lighthouse client, as well as the construction of network monitoring tools following the Pectra upgrade, with an emphasis on improving network performance and resistance to attacks. At the same time, projects such as HSM key management, the validator security tool Vero, and the DISC-NG node discovery mechanism also received support, aiming to enhance node-level reliability and institutional-grade compliance capabilities. In the fields of cryptography and ZK, the Ethereum Foundation continues to increase support for projects such as Poseidon hash function analysis, research on Gröbner basis attacks, exploration of post-quantum and homomorphic hybrid encryption, and formal verification of RISC-V zkVM, further strengthening the security boundaries of zero-knowledge proof and cryptography infrastructure.