Ethereum (ETH) Glamsterdam Upgrade Enters Final Testing Phase — What to Expect

Key Points

• Final devnet testing is underway with complete implementation of all proposed protocol changes
• Glamsterdam represents Ethereum‘s most substantial protocol modification since transitioning to proof-of-stake
• Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation will integrate block construction directly into the base layer protocol
• New Block-level Access Lists enable faster transaction processing through data preloading
• Comprehensive gas model adjustments will reduce computational costs while increasing state storage expenses

The Ethereum network’s Glamsterdam upgrade has reached its final development milestone. Core developers are currently operating private testing environments known as devnets, which incorporate the complete suite of protocol modifications scheduled for deployment.

Parithosh Jayanthi, who serves as both a core developer and DevOps engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, provided confirmation of this progress.

“We’re working on devnets with all the EIPs in them right now,” he said. “This is the last phase before we work on hardening and then shipping the testnets.”

While an exact deployment timeline remains unannounced, current projections place the upgrade’s mainnet activation during the latter months of 2026.

Most Substantial Network Modification Since 2022

Jayanthi characterized Glamsterdam as “probably the largest fork we’ve had since the Merge.” The referenced Merge event occurred in September 2022, transitioning Ethereum’s consensus mechanism from energy-intensive proof-of-work to the more efficient proof-of-stake model.

According to Jayanthi, this upcoming upgrade will “change a lot of assumptions about Ethereum and set us up for much more scaling in the future.”

Glamsterdam succeeds the Fusaka upgrade that went live in December 2025. While Fusaka concentrated on fundamental protocol refinements, Glamsterdam introduces more substantial architectural transformations to Ethereum’s base layer.

The upgrade encompasses three core technical implementations designed to work synergistically and enhance network performance.

Protocol-Native Block Construction Integration

The primary technical advancement involves enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation, documented as EIP-7732.

Currently, the mechanism for constructing and proposing transaction blocks operates predominantly outside the core protocol. This arrangement introduces trust dependencies and creates vulnerabilities related to maximal extractable value (MEV) exploitation.

EIP-7732 embeds this entire process within Ethereum’s base protocol layer. The objective is to establish more equitable block production while minimizing opportunities for value extraction manipulation.

The second significant innovation introduces Block-level Access Lists, specified in EIP-7928. This functionality allows individual blocks to explicitly declare which account states and smart contract storage they require before execution begins.

This advance declaration enables Ethereum clients to retrieve and cache necessary data proactively, eliminating the need for real-time database queries during block validation. The result is accelerated processing speeds and more consistent performance.

The third component consists of extensive gas pricing restructuring. Gas serves as Ethereum’s fee mechanism for quantifying and charging computational resource consumption.

Following the upgrade’s implementation, computationally intensive operations will see reduced costs. Conversely, on-chain data storage will become substantially more expensive.

“This will majorly change the cost of actions on Ethereum,” Jayanthi said. “High-level compute gets cheaper and state gets more expensive.”

The recalibrated pricing model is additionally optimized to enhance compatibility with zero-knowledge proof systems, which underpin contemporary Layer 2 scaling infrastructure.

Developers are presently conducting comprehensive testing, completing technical specifications, and engaging with the broader Ethereum ecosystem regarding the implications of these pricing adjustments for both users and application developers.

The roadmap ahead involves transitioning from internal devnets to publicly accessible testnets, followed by final deployment to the production mainnet.

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