Brainbot Update for February 2026

Shutter DAO
1

Summary

In February, brainbot made a massive push to ensure an encrypted public mempool is a headliner for the Hegotá hardfork. (Background: On Dec 17, brainbot published EIP-8105 and, on Jan 16, we proposed it has a headliner for Hegotá.) On February 4, EF and Besu devs proposed LUCID encrypted mempool as an alternative to EIP-8105. Over the next few weeks, brainbot and the LUCID team worked together to improve and converge the proposals. On February 22, brainbot announced our full support for LUCID as a headliner for Hegotá. On February 26, core devs and client teams discussed proposals for headliners on the ACDE call, but did not reach a consensus. ACDE will make a decision on March 12.

Priorities for T1 2026

Tech Priorities

  • :one: :green_circle:Encrypted Mempool R&D (work with client teams on specs and implementation)
  • :two: :green_circle:Encrypted Mempool Proof Points - Testnet, Primev Mainnet and/or Gnosis Chain
  • :three: :yellow_circle:Shielded Voting 2.0 (El Gamal on Snapshot)
  • :four: :yellow_circle:Determine how scalable is the current Keyper setup

Business Priorities

  • :one: :green_circle: Encrypted Mempool as Headliner for Hegotá (or SFI if not Headliner
  • :two: :yellow_circle: Business model for en/decryption services under EIP and for the Primev POC

MarComs Priorities

  • :one: :green_circle:Build Awareness of / Support for Encrypted Mempool
  • :two: :green_circle:Octant V2 (launch, SHU locking, projects applications, voting)
  • :three: :yellow_circle: Communicate Vision & Roadmap (common story between EaaS/UEEM/PrivateVoting, how we drive value)

Key: :white_check_mark: Done / :green_circle:On Track / :yellow_circle: Needs Work / :cross_mark:Not Done or Achievable

Team

FTEs - 8.25 FTEs - 0.5 CEO, 0.5 Admin, 1.25 Business, 1 MarComs, 5 Developers.

Keypers

Keyper Sets - Gnosis Keypers: 7 Keypers online / 6 active (Threshold 4/7). API Keypers: 9 Keypers online / 9 active (8 external + 3 internal) (Threshold 5/9).

Keyper Operations - Following the Chiado network rewrite, we worked on restoring the Chiado Keyper sets, alongside our Chiado nodes, and bringing Keypers back online.

Keyper Compensation Program - Tracked Keyper uptime and communications. Worked with all Keypers to update software and improve performance.

Encrypted Mempools

Ethereum Mainnet (EIP / Standards Track):

  • Converged the design with the newly proposed LUCID encrypted mempool, inc: 1) Adopted the LUCID “bottom of block n to top of block n+1” transaction placement, and 2) Convinced LUCID to formalize Key Providers (decryptors) as a role.
  • Withdrew EIP-8105 as a Hegotá headliner and publicly committed our support behind LUCID.

Ethereum Mainnet (POC): Our Primev mainnet PoC remains feature-complete on our side, including the demo DEX, and we continued supporting external builders with integration. Work is still primarily gated by partner bandwidth, so we are focusing on keeping integrations unblocked where possible and staying ready to support the next step in bringing the PoC live end-to-end.

Gnosis Chain:

  • Achieved a 100% inclusion rate for encrypted transactions on Chiado and mainnet.

  • Identified a client-side issue in Erigon’s encrypted mempool implementation that effectively limited users to one encrypted transaction per block. The Erigon team implemented a fix that removes this per-block limitation. We are now running long-term stability testing on Chiado and mainnet to validate the fix under sustained conditions, with a focus on multi-tx per block behavior, absence of regressions, and consistent performance ahead of a broader validator rollout.

Shutter API

Private Voting - Continued iterating on the city government technical document and the associated cryptography specification.

Event-Based Decryption Triggers - Developed and internally tested a demo app showcasing event-based decryption triggers with a “pay-to-decrypt” use case (decrypting images). We are now finishing the mainnet integration so we can announce the feature and support external integrations.

Shutter API Infrastructure - Continued work on Shutter API infrastructure improvements and ongoing stabilization across deployments.

Snapshot Integration - Shared the Snapshot implementation guide for migrating from the custom Shutter integration to the Shutter API.

Cryptography Research

Research Grant - Continued work on the government research grant application together with TU Darmstadt and PolyCrypt.

Partner / Developer Support

EIP-8105 Feedback - Created direct channels with Ethereum core devs and client teams to collect feedback and collaborate on improvements. Also reached out to wallets and white-glove servicer providers (and their clients) for feedback.

EIP-8105 Support - Built a coalition of prospective Key Providers to support EIP-8105, including: Fairblock, Lit, Nillion, Enclave, and SpaceComputer.

Octant v2 - Supported Octant in creating test transactions for the community growth program approved in an earlier Temp Check vote.

MarComs

Shutter Takes Protocol Guild’s 1% Pledge

EIP Headliner Content:

PR/Media

Shielded Voting