Ethereum delays Glamsterdam testnet fork over EIP-8037 gas concerns
Tech & Launches ·
Core developers postponed the October 26 Hoodi testnet activation to study whether EIP-8037's gas accounting changes could break existing mainnet smart contracts.
Ethereum core developers have postponed the Glamsterdam upgrade's rollout on the Hoodi testnet, which had been set for October 26, according to the Ethereum Foundation. The pause is meant to give teams time to investigate how EIP-8037's changes to gas accounting might interact with smart contracts already deployed on mainnet. Alongside the delay, a planned bump to Hoodi's gas limit, to 200 million, has been canceled.
The gas accounting change at the center of the delay governs how transaction costs are calculated under the proposed upgrade. Developers want to confirm that altering this mechanism will not create unexpected costs or failures for contracts that were written and deployed before the change existed. Because Hoodi is a testnet meant to validate upgrades before they reach mainnet, surfacing this kind of compatibility question there, rather than after a live rollout, is the intended purpose of the staging process.
Node operators running Hoodi clients have been told to update their software to stop the fork from activating on its original schedule, since the upgrade logic was already built into existing client releases. No new date has been set for either the Hoodi testnet relaunch or the subsequent mainnet activation of Glamsterdam.
The delay has been corroborated across multiple outlets. CryptoPotato reported the postponement as developers continue testing EIP-8037's effects, while CoinDesk framed the pause around security concerns developers raised about potential risk to live contracts. WuBlockchain separately confirmed the cancellation of the planned gas limit increase. In total, four distinct sources have covered the delay.
What remains unresolved is the scope and resolution timeline for the EIP-8037 compatibility issue itself: no technical fix, revised proposal, or new testing window has been publicly detailed. Until core developers settle on updated dates, both the Hoodi relaunch and the mainnet timeline for Glamsterdam stay open questions.