Ethereum
Ethereum's Glamsterdam Upgrade Slips to Q3 2026
27 Aug 2026, 19:52
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The upgrade, which brings enshrined proposer-builder separation and a 200 million gas limit target, has missed its original first-half window as developers finalize scaling changes.
<p>Ethereum's next major network upgrade, Glamsterdam, has slipped past its original first-half 2026 target, with the Ethereum Foundation now pointing to a Q3 2026 activation window instead.</p>
<p>Glamsterdam bundles several significant changes to how the network processes and scales transactions. Chief among them is enshrined proposer-builder separation, a change to Ethereum's block production pipeline intended to formalize the split between the entities that build blocks and the validators that propose them -- a structure already used informally through third-party relays, but not yet built directly into the protocol itself. The upgrade also introduces block-level access lists, a mechanism designed to let clients better predict which parts of state a transaction will touch, unlocking more efficient parallel execution.</p>
<p>Alongside those architectural changes, developers are targeting an increase in Ethereum's gas limit to 200 million, up from the network's current levels. A higher gas limit allows more computation per block, directly increasing the network's raw transaction throughput, though it also raises the hardware and bandwidth requirements for running a full node -- a tradeoff that has made gas limit increases a recurring subject of debate within the Ethereum community.</p>
<p>Delays to major Ethereum upgrades are not unusual; the network's development process prioritizes extensive testing and client coordination across multiple independent teams over hitting fixed calendar dates. Enshrined PBS in particular touches core consensus logic, and developers have signaled they would rather ship the change correctly than rush it to preserve an earlier timeline.</p>
<p>The delay comes as Ethereum separately faces scrutiny over long-term validator security, with developers also working on early-stage proposals to protect ETH staking against future quantum computing threats -- a much longer-horizon research effort running in parallel with the more immediate Glamsterdam scaling work.</p>
<p>For now, Ethereum users and infrastructure operators are left waiting an extra quarter for the throughput gains Glamsterdam promises, with the Ethereum Foundation's Q3 target serving as the next milestone to watch for confirmation the upgrade is back on track.</p>
<p>Glamsterdam bundles several significant changes to how the network processes and scales transactions. Chief among them is enshrined proposer-builder separation, a change to Ethereum's block production pipeline intended to formalize the split between the entities that build blocks and the validators that propose them -- a structure already used informally through third-party relays, but not yet built directly into the protocol itself. The upgrade also introduces block-level access lists, a mechanism designed to let clients better predict which parts of state a transaction will touch, unlocking more efficient parallel execution.</p>
<p>Alongside those architectural changes, developers are targeting an increase in Ethereum's gas limit to 200 million, up from the network's current levels. A higher gas limit allows more computation per block, directly increasing the network's raw transaction throughput, though it also raises the hardware and bandwidth requirements for running a full node -- a tradeoff that has made gas limit increases a recurring subject of debate within the Ethereum community.</p>
<p>Delays to major Ethereum upgrades are not unusual; the network's development process prioritizes extensive testing and client coordination across multiple independent teams over hitting fixed calendar dates. Enshrined PBS in particular touches core consensus logic, and developers have signaled they would rather ship the change correctly than rush it to preserve an earlier timeline.</p>
<p>The delay comes as Ethereum separately faces scrutiny over long-term validator security, with developers also working on early-stage proposals to protect ETH staking against future quantum computing threats -- a much longer-horizon research effort running in parallel with the more immediate Glamsterdam scaling work.</p>
<p>For now, Ethereum users and infrastructure operators are left waiting an extra quarter for the throughput gains Glamsterdam promises, with the Ethereum Foundation's Q3 target serving as the next milestone to watch for confirmation the upgrade is back on track.</p>