Ethereum is moving forward with Glamsterdam, its next major upgrade, which entered public testing on August 17 and is scheduled for mainnet deployment in the fourth quarter of 2026. The upgrade combines changes to Ethereum's execution and consensus layers, focusing on higher Layer 1 capacity, better block production, and more efficient management of the network's growing state.

What Are the Two Core Proposals Behind Glamsterdam?

Glamsterdam centers on two major proposals designed to address Ethereum's scalability challenges. The first, EIP-7732, also known as Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation, moves more of Ethereum's block-building process directly into the protocol itself. This change aims to reduce reliance on external relay infrastructure and gives the network more time to distribute execution payloads, potentially allowing Ethereum to support larger blocks without creating the same pressure on validators.

The second major proposal is EIP-7928, or Block-Level Access Lists. Access lists tell nodes which accounts and storage locations a block will use. Clients can then identify transactions that do not depend on each other and process them more efficiently. This approach allows the network to parallelize transaction execution, speeding up overall throughput.

How to Prepare for Glamsterdam if You Use Ethereum Infrastructure

• Infrastructure Providers: Update your software to compatible versions before the upgrade reaches mainnet; regular ETH holders do not need to convert or migrate their tokens
• Wallet Developers: Test your wallet functionality on the Platåberget public testnet, which launched on August 17 with the Glamsterdam fork scheduled for August 20
• Staking Operators and Indexers: Review changes affecting gas-estimation tools and state-creation pricing rules, including the proposed EIP-8037 which aims to make the cost of creating state better reflect the long-term burden on Ethereum nodes

The Ethereum Foundation announced the Platåberget public testnet specifically to give client teams, wallet developers, staking operators, and infrastructure providers an early environment for testing the upgrade. This temporary network allows developers to identify compatibility issues before the upgrade reaches the main Ethereum network.

What Other Changes Are Coming in Glamsterdam?

Beyond the two core proposals, Glamsterdam includes several additional improvements. Developers are testing a path toward much larger gas limits, which would increase the amount of computation that can fit into each block. The upgrade also introduces new pricing rules for state creation and proposes larger contract limits, new gas-accounting rules, and improvements to validator operations.

These changes reflect a broader shift in how Ethereum approaches development. Rather than waiting for each upgrade to complete before planning the next one, core teams now plan future upgrades while testing the current one. This overlapping approach accelerates the pace of innovation but requires careful coordination across the ecosystem.

What Comes After Glamsterdam?

Ethereum developers are already working on the upgrade that will follow Glamsterdam, known as Hegotá. Its proposal list remains under active review, but one major candidate is Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists, or FOCIL. This proposal aims to make transaction censorship more difficult by giving multiple validators a role in determining which transactions a block should include. Other ideas under discussion involve privacy, scaling, and improvements to Ethereum's execution model.

The staged approach to Ethereum's development reflects a broader trend across blockchain networks in August 2026. Rather than rushing launches, developers are increasingly choosing staged rollouts that allow them to pause or adjust if unexpected issues arise. This cautious strategy prioritizes network stability over speed, a lesson learned from past protocol failures in the crypto industry.

For Ethereum users and infrastructure providers, Glamsterdam represents a significant step toward a faster and more efficient network. The public testing phase on Platåberget provides a critical window for identifying and resolving issues before the upgrade goes live on mainnet later this year.