Following its successful activation on the Sepolia testnet earlier this month on October 6, Ethereum’s highly anticipated Glamsterdam network upgrade is officially marching forward. Core developers and client teams have now scheduled the next critical milestone for the upgrade: deployment on the Hoodi testnet. This major protocol evolution represents a massive leap forward for Ethereum’s Layer 1 scaling roadmap, introducing protocol-level enhancements designed to optimize block production, revamp gas pricing, and curb state growth while simultaneously easing the computational burden on node operators.
According to the finalized deployment schedule, the Glamsterdam network upgrade will activate on the Hoodi testnet at epoch 132,352, which corresponds to slot 4,235,264. The activation is officially set to take place on October 26, 2026, at precisely 17:42:48 UTC. Alongside this transition, the Hoodi network’s gas limit will see a substantial raise to 200 million, mirroring the parameters previously established on Sepolia. While the testnet rollout is moving swiftly, developers have confirmed that an official mainnet activation date has not yet been decided and will be determined only after exhaustive testing and stability confirmation across the test environments.
In preparation for the upcoming change, node operators across the ecosystem are being strongly advised to ensure they update both their execution layer and consensus layer clients well ahead of the scheduled activation time. Only client software versions explicitly confirmed to support the Glamsterdam activation on Hoodi should be utilized to maintain network synchronization.
Glamsterdam Overview and Core Architecture
The Glamsterdam upgrade is a comprehensive, dual-layer protocol overhaul that effectively combines the Amsterdam execution layer upgrade with the Gloas consensus layer upgrade. At its core, the upgrade aims to systematically resolve some of Ethereum’s most pressing bottlenecks by reshaping how transactions are ordered, validated, and processed. The two headlining technical pillars of this release are enshrined proposer-builder separation and block-level access lists, both of which fundamentally alter the mechanics of block generation to support significantly greater Layer 1 throughput without compromising decentralization.
Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation
One of the most transformative architectural additions introduced by Glamsterdam is Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation, codified under EIP-7732. Historically, the separation between those who propose Ethereum blocks and those who construct them has relied on complex, trusted external middleware layers and out-of-protocol relays. EIP-7732 internalizes this dynamic directly into Ethereum’s consensus protocol.
Under the new framework, a block proposer includes a cryptographic commitment provided by an external builder detailing an execution payload. The builder subsequently reveals the actual execution payload in a later phase. Crucially, the protocol itself manages the direct payment from the builder to the proposer, drastically reducing the ecosystem’s reliance on trusted third-party entities. Furthermore, this mechanism effectively decouples consensus validation from execution validation, granting validators significantly more breathing room and time to thoroughly validate execution payloads. A newly established payload timeliness committee will actively attest to whether builders reveal their payloads and ensure that corresponding blob data remains available on time. Validator operators and development teams managing builder infrastructure are strongly encouraged to carefully review these new protocol duties and interfaces prior to deployment.
Block-Level Access Lists
Complementing ePBS is the introduction of Block-Level Access Lists via EIP-7928. This protocol-enforced mechanism meticulously records all accounts and specific storage locations accessed during the lifecycle of a block, alongside post-transaction state changes.
For client software, these access lists provide a massive optimization. By knowing precisely which parts of the state are going to be touched beforehand, clients can read state data directly from disk in parallel, validate transactions simultaneously, and compute state roots with vastly improved efficiency. Together, ePBS and block-level access lists establish a robust, highly scalable foundation for Ethereum execution capacity, ensuring that block validation remains entirely practical for individual node operators even as network usage expands.
Gas Pricing, State Growth, and Developer Impact
As Ethereum scales, managing state bloat and ensuring that gas pricing accurately reflects real-world computational costs remain paramount. Glamsterdam introduces targeted adjustments to gas accounting designed to better align transaction fees with actual resource consumption. Specifically, EIP-8037 increases and separately meters the financial and computational cost of creating new state, while EIP-8038 updates general state-access costs. Additional protocol adjustments comprehensively overhaul intrinsic transaction gas, calldata pricing, access lists, and broader block gas accounting rules.
For application and smart contract developers, these modifications necessitate careful testing and validation. Contracts that rely on fixed gas stipends, hardcoded gas limits, or legacy assumptions regarding remaining gas may experience unexpected behavior and will likely require code modifications. Developers have been directed to consult the official Glamsterdam repricing impact guide, which provides search tools and testing methodologies to identify affected contracts and calibrate gas estimations under the new rules.
Beyond gas adjustments, Glamsterdam delivers a variety of developer-friendly enhancements and validator improvements. These include the introduction of native Ethereum transfer logs, a dedicated slot-number opcode, an increased maximum contract size limit, a deterministic factory contract, and advanced stack-manipulation instructions. On the consensus side, the upgrade introduces forward-compatible data structures, explicit rules to exclude slashed validators from proposing new blocks, and increased exit and consolidation churn rates to maintain network fluidity.
Security, Activation, and Client Releases
In alignment with previous network upgrades, the Ethereum Bug Bounty Program is fully active for all Glamsterdam specifications and associated EIPs. Client implementations become eligible for bug bounty rewards as soon as their respective software releases are officially cataloged in the client release tables. Security researchers and developers are encouraged to review the official Ethereum Bug Bounty documentation for complete details regarding reward multipliers, submission guidelines, and reporting requirements.
With the Hoodi testnet activation locked in for October 26, 2026, the global Ethereum community is entering the final phases of testing. While non-staking users and holders of Ether on the mainnet do not need to take any immediate action regarding this specific announcement, node operators, stakers, and infrastructure providers utilizing the Hoodi testnet must complete their software updates ahead of the scheduled epoch and slot parameters. Mainnet activation timelines will be formally announced by core client teams once testing concludes and network stability is definitively proven.
Ethereum & Smart Contracts
Ethereum & Smart Contracts
Ethereum & Smart Contracts
