- Ethereum will deploy Glamsterdam on Hoodi testnet on October 26, raising its gas limit from 60 million to 200 million.
- Glamsterdam introduces ePBS and block-level access lists to improve block production, transaction validation, and parallel processing.
- Gas repricing could affect contracts with hardcoded gas assumptions, while Ethereum developers have yet to confirm a mainnet activation date.
Ethereum developers will activate the Glamsterdam upgrade on the Hoodi testnet on October 26 at 17:42:48 UTC, raising its gas limit from 60 million to 200 million. The Ethereum Foundation announced the schedule as developers test changes to transaction processing, block production, and gas costs before setting a mainnet activation date.
Hoodi Upgrade Follows Sepolia Test
The Ethereum Foundation said Hoodi will activate Glamsterdam at epoch 132,352, slot 4,235,264. The upgrade follows its October 6 activation on Sepolia, where the network already uses a 200-million gas limit.
Hoodi’s limit will increase approximately 3.3 times at the scheduled activation. However, this change applies to the testnet and does not establish Ethereum’s mainnet gas limit. Developers will use the Hoodi deployment to test client compatibility and network behavior.
Validators and node operators must update their execution and consensus clients before activation to follow the upgraded chain. During the Sepolia fork, some validator clients retained a default gas target of 60 million. Operators needed to adjust that setting manually to propose blocks containing 200 million gas.
ePBS and Access Lists Change Block Processing
Glamsterdam includes two core changes: enshrined proposer-builder separation, or ePBS, and block-level access lists, known as BALs. The ePBS mechanism brings the relationship between block proposers and builders into Ethereum’s protocol.
It reduces reliance on external arrangements between the parties. Meanwhile, BALs identify accounts and storage locations accessed within a block. This information allows clients to process state data and validate transactions in parallel.
Ethereum researcher Toni Wahrstätter said Hoodi is the final testnet before mainnet. He also suggested that a 300-million gas limit could be a realistic next step, although developers have not confirmed that setting.
Gas Repricing May Affect Existing Tools
Glamsterdam also revises gas pricing for state creation and data access. Replays of historical mainnet transactions identified a small group of contracts whose existing gas assumptions could break under the upgrade.
The Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol DevOps team previously warned that tools relying on hardcoded maximum gas limits would need updates. Developers first tested Glamsterdam’s gas model on the Plataberget testnet, which launched August 13.
After Sepolia activated the upgrade on October 6, Hoodi became the next scheduled testnet. The Ethereum Foundation has not announced a mainnet activation date, and ETH holders do not need to take action.
