The Ethereum network is preparing for its largest upgrade since The Merge: Glamsterdam in its final stage
The Ethereum ecosystem is entering a new era: the Glamsterdam hard fork has officially moved into its final development stage. At this point, all planned Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) are undergoing final testing before the launch of public testnets. The exact activation date has not yet been announced, but in my estimation, the mainnet launch should be expected in the second half of 2026.
Key Changes and Their Significance
Glamsterdam is likely to become the most extensive network upgrade since the historic transition to Proof-of-Stake (The Merge) in 2022. The fork includes three critically important components. The first is ePBS (EIP-7732), which fundamentally reforms the mechanism for separating roles between validators and block builders, increasing the network's resistance to censorship. The second is block-level access lists (EIP-7928), which will allow for more efficient gas management and improve the user experience when interacting with DeFi protocols. The third is a large-scale revision of operation costs (gas), which will affect dozens of opcodes and make working with the network more predictable and cheaper for end users.
Analytical Perspective
From my point of view, Glamsterdam is not just another routine upgrade. It is a strategic step that lays the foundation for the next generation of Ethereum scaling. ePBS, in particular, addresses one of the most acute problems of the current architecture — the risk of centralization due to dependence on a small number of block builders. If testing is successful, we will see a significant increase in network decentralization and security, which will positively impact the trust of institutional investors. However, as always, the key risk remains the deployment timeline: delays could give competitors, such as Solana or new L2 solutions, an additional advantage in the race for users.