Ethereum's Glamsterdam Upgrade Faces Uncertainty Ahead of Planned Launch
Ethereum's next major network upgrade, Glamsterdam, is facing its first major test as developers prepare for launch. The upgrade aims to improve scalability and user experience, but a series of bugs and unstable testnets have created uncertainty about its readiness. Developers plan to activate Glamsterdam on the Sepolia public testnet on October 6 at 13:53 UTC, but this date was chosen before successful testing on a stable private devnet.
Recent major tests, including Devnet-9 with 1,000 validators, found several problems and have yet to be finalized. A serious bug in Devnet-8 could cause the entire network to stop if a block is created with the same hash as its parent. Another issue related to EIP-8037 would increase gas costs for creating new blockchain data.
Developers are shifting focus from Devnet-10 to Glam-Devnet-11, and the October 6 date for Sepolia may not be guaranteed. If the next devnet is still unstable or reveals major problems, developers may delay the Sepolia launch instead of moving forward with an untested upgrade.
Ethereum Foundation engineer Stefan Starflinger said that creating a block with the same hash as its parent could cause the entire network to stop. Kim originally expected Devnet-10 to be the next major test but has now shifted focus to Glam-Devnet-11.