Ethereum Sets October 26 Hoodi Test For Glamsterdam Upgrade
Key Summary
Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade will activate on the Hoodi test network on October 26, introducing changes to block proposer-builder separation and gas accounting. The test network's gas limit will rise to 200 million, helping determine whether the planned changes behave as expected under real operating conditions.
Precedent & Market Context
The Ethereum Foundation has announced that Glamsterdam, the upcoming upgrade, will activate on the Hoodi test network on October 26. This further step in testing changes to how Ethereum produces blocks and accounts for execution costs follows the upgrade's October 6 activation on Sepolia. The Ethereum Foundation says the upgrade will activate at Hoodi epoch 132,352, slot 4,235,264.
Two changes sit at the heart of Glamsterdam: enshrined proposer-builder separation, or ePBS, and block-level access lists. ePBS moves the relationship between block proposers and builders into Ethereum's protocol instead of relying as heavily on outside arrangements. Block-level access lists are intended to make it easier for clients to process and validate parts of a block in parallel.
The upgrade also changes gas accounting, including how Ethereum charges for state creation and access. That matters to application developers whose contracts or tools rely on fixed assumptions about gas costs. Validators and node operators on Hoodi, meanwhile, will need compatible execution and consensus clients before the activation. A 200-million gas limit on a test network is an important engineering milestone, not a promise that mainnet capacity will instantly quadruple.
The Hoodi exercise will help determine whether the planned changes behave as expected under real operating conditions. Mainnet users have no action to take yet.
Main Event
Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade is scheduled to activate on the Hoodi test network on October 26 at 17:42:48 UTC. The test network's gas limit will rise to 200 million at the same point. The upgrade will introduce two key changes: enshrined proposer-builder separation, or ePBS, and block-level access lists. ePBS will move the relationship between block proposers and builders into Ethereum's protocol instead of relying as heavily on outside arrangements.
Block-level access lists will make it easier for clients to process and validate parts of a block in parallel. This matters to application developers whose contracts or tools rely on fixed assumptions about gas costs. Validators and node operators on Hoodi will need compatible execution and consensus clients before the activation.
Analysis & Market Impact
This follows the upgrade's October 6 activation on Sepolia, giving developers another environment to check software compatibility before choosing a date for the main chain. ePBS and block-level access lists are intended to improve the efficiency and scalability of the Ethereum network. However, the impact of these changes on the network's performance and usability is still uncertain.
Implications & Outlook
The Hoodi exercise will provide valuable insights into the behavior of the planned changes under real operating conditions. The Ethereum Foundation will use this data to refine the upgrade and ensure that it is ready for mainnet activation. Mainnet users can expect the upgrade to introduce changes to block proposer-builder separation, gas accounting, and block-level access lists.
The impact of these changes on the network's performance and usability is still uncertain and will be closely monitored by the Ethereum community. The Hoodi test network's gas limit will rise to 200 million, helping determine whether the planned changes behave as expected under real operating conditions.