Ethereum Delays Glamsterdam Testnet Upgrade Over Security Risks

The postponement cancels a planned increase to a 200 million gas limit on Hoodi, a move originally intended to stress-test the network's transaction capacity. The Ethereum Foundation confirmed the decision following the latest All Core Developers Execution meeting, where participants agreed that EIP-8037 requires deeper scrutiny regarding how it interacts with current mainnet contracts. Security firm ChainSecurity warned that the proposal, which alters gas accounting for state creation, could cause unsuccessful operations to proceed incorrectly. This shift might prevent applications from identifying failed transactions, effectively breaking safeguards that rely on gas-balance checks.

Node operators are now required to update their execution and consensus clients to remove the previously scheduled activation. The Foundation specifically pointed to updated releases like Lodestar v1.50.1, Besu 26.10.1, and Nethermind 2.2.1 as necessary to avoid a fork. While the Glamsterdam upgrade successfully reached the Sepolia testnet on October 6, the Hoodi delay leaves the mainnet timeline in limbo. Developers had previously weighed several December dates for a full deployment, but those targets remain unconfirmed as the community focuses on resolving the identified contract compatibility risks.