Ethereum finalizes the launch of "Glamsterdam Upgrade" before the end of the year! ePBS goes on-chain, Gas re-pricing, aiming to rebuild ETH's faith

Ethereum core developers confirm that the "Glamsterdam" upgrade has entered the final development stage, including ePBS, block-level access lists, and comprehensive gas re-pricing, which is called the largest protocol reform since the 2022 Merge, expected to go live in the second half of 2026.
(Background: Ethereum "Community Foundation" established: purpose is to increase ETH price! All project fees will be burned!)
(Additional background: ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin: Within 3 to 5 years, Ethereum will fully implement zero-knowledge proofs)

Table of Contents

Toggle

• The three core reforms: ePBS, access lists, gas re-pricing
• Development roadmap: from devnet to testnet
• Significance for developers

(Source: CoinDesk, Ethereum GitHub Development Log)

Ethereum developers have officially entered the final sprint phase of the "Glamsterdam" upgrade. Parithosh Jayanthi, a core developer of the Ethereum Foundation, confirmed that a complete protocol including all planned EIPs is now being executed on developer testnets (devnets), described as the largest network reform since the 2022 Merge.

The three core reforms: ePBS, access lists, gas re-pricing

The Glamsterdam upgrade covers three main proposals. First is ePBS (Extended Parallel Block Proposal System), which separates block building from block proposing, directly integrating into the Ethereum core protocol. Currently, this process mainly relies on off-chain mechanisms, which involve trust assumptions and centralization risks. Once ePBS is on-chain, developers believe it can reduce the space for maximum extractable value (MEV) operations.

Next is block-level access lists, allowing blocks to declare in advance which accounts and smart contract data they will access before execution. This enables Ethereum clients to preload information, making block execution faster and more predictable.

The third is a comprehensive gas fee re-pricing. Jayanthi states: "This will significantly change operational costs on Ethereum. High-level computations become cheaper, state becomes more expensive." The goal of re-pricing is to make fee structures more accurately reflect the resources consumed by different operations, while also making the network easier to integrate with zero-knowledge proof systems.

Development roadmap: from devnet to testnet

Currently, developers are testing the complete set of EIPs on devnets, which is the final stage of code hardening and deployment to public testnets. Jayanthi said, "There is no fixed timetable, but we have made great progress."

Although the exact launch date has not yet been determined, Glamsterdam is expected to officially go live in the second half of 2026. The next steps include continued testing, finalizing specifications, and educating the Ethereum community about the impact of re-pricing.

Significance for developers

The Ethereum ecosystem has mainly focused on Layer 2 solutions (Base, Arbitrum, Optimism). Gas re-pricing will directly affect the fee structures of these chains. If high-level computations become cheaper, costs for AI applications based on Ethereum (such as on-chain inference and zero-knowledge proof verification) will decrease. However, if state access becomes more expensive, DApps that frequently read on-chain data may need to adjust their strategies.

Although the Glamsterdam upgrade does not change Ethereum’s consensus mechanism, it will reshape the underlying economic model. For developers, now is the best time to start testing the new EIPs.