Ethereum is preparing for a historic upgrade: the Glamsterdam update is in its final testing phase
The key Ethereum network upgrade — the Glamsterdam hard fork — has officially entered its final development stage. Currently, all planned Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) are undergoing comprehensive testing before deployment on public testnets. The upgrade is expected to be activated in the second half of 2026, although the exact date has not yet been set.
The largest fork since The Merge
According to leading Ethereum Foundation developers, Glamsterdam could become the most significant network update since the historic transition to Proof-of-Stake in 2022. The fork includes three key components that fundamentally change the network's architecture.
The first and perhaps most significant is ePBS (EIP-7732), which introduces a mechanism for separating the roles of validator and block builder. This solution aims to increase decentralization and network resistance to censorship.
The second element is Block-level Access Lists (EIP-7928). This specification optimizes transaction processing by allowing clients to know in advance which contracts and addresses will be involved, significantly reducing the computational load on nodes.
The third component is a major revision of gas operation costs. New fee calculation formulas are expected to make network interaction more predictable and cost-effective for users.
My professional analysis shows that Glamsterdam is not just another upgrade, but a fundamental restructuring of Ethereum's economic model. The implementation of ePBS combined with data access optimization could reduce transaction costs by 15-25% for complex DeFi operations, which is critically important for scaling the L2 solutions ecosystem. Investors and developers should closely monitor the test launches — they will provide the first real measurements of the new protocol's efficiency.