Ethereum developers have postponed the Glamsterdam upgrade on the Hoodi testnet due to concerns over smart contract compatibility; the originally scheduled activation on October 26 and the plan to raise the gas limit to 200 million have both been canceled.
According to the Ethereum Foundation's announcement on October 22, this decision was made following discussions at the All Core Developers Execution meeting. Developers agreed to first investigate the interactions between EIP-8037 and existing mainnet contracts. The foundation has not yet announced a new testnet activation date.
The Glamsterdam upgrade on Hoodi has been postponed.
This upgrade was originally scheduled to activate on October 26 at 17:42:48 UTC, corresponding to Hoodi's epoch 132,352. Developers have removed the Amsterdam execution layer activation and the Gloas consensus layer activation from the revised configuration.
This delay also cancels the original plan to raise Hoodi’s gas limit to 200 million, which developers had intended to test alongside other protocol changes. However, the foundation clarified that this adjustment affects future network upgrades and will not roll back Hoodi’s existing transaction history.
This decision alters the previously announced Hoodi timeline, which crypto.news reported on October 19. The testnet activation was originally intended to allow developers to test how execution and consensus layer clients handle the Glamsterdam changes before setting the mainnet date.
Ethereum researcher Christine D. Kim has reminded HooDoo node operators that the activation scheduled for October 26 has been canceled. She advises operators to revert to a suitable previous software version or install an updated execution client that has removed this upgrade plan.
ChainSecurity highlights risks associated with Ethereum gas changes.
This delay stems from concerns regarding EIP-8037, which introduces a separate accounting mechanism for the gas consumed when creating blockchain state. Another proposal, EIP-8038, alters the cost of accessing existing state.
In a technical assessment on October 13, blockchain security firm ChainSecurity warned that the proposed changes could affect how deployed smart contracts handle failures of external calls. Some applications rely on the remaining gas balance to determine whether an operation has permanently failed or can still be retried.
Under the proposed rules, a failed operation might leave enough gas for the calling contract to continue executing within the same transaction, whereas previously the transaction would have reverted. ChainSecurity warns that this behavior could cause certain applications to record a failed operation without allowing users to retry.
The security firm subsequently discussed its findings on X, with related reports mentioning 13 verified cases of potentially affected contracts. The researchers have not yet publicly named the affected applications, and responsible disclosure efforts are ongoing.
Meanwhile, these concerns involve batch transactions, withdrawals, and other contract mechanisms that rely on failure handling rules. The technical assessment notes that failures due to insufficient gas could disrupt existing safeguards without requiring modifications to deployed contract code.
Hoodi node operators receive updated client guidelines
Following the delay, the Ethereum Foundation has requested operators to verify their execution and consensus layer software by October 26. If clients still retain the original activation configuration, they must be updated to prevent attempts to execute the previously scheduled fork.
The updated release table lists the consensus layer as Lodestar v1.50.1, with execution layer versions including Besu 26.10.1 and Nethermind 2.2.1. Ethrex v30.0.1-rc.2 appears as a pre-release, and details for other clients are still pending confirmation.
Validator operators must simultaneously check their beacon nodes and validator clients, including any external block-building infrastructure. The foundation warns that the versions listed in the previous Hoodi announcement should not be considered confirmed as supporting this extension.
The Glamsterdam upgrade on Ethereum's Sepolia testnet was completed on October 6, enabling developers to observe the upgrade's performance under higher gas limits. The delay of Hoodi pertains to a different testnet and does not affect the prior activation on Sepolia.
The Ethereum mainnet upgrade date has not yet been determined.
Prior to this delay, developers had discussed December 1, December 8, and December 9 as potential dates for the Glamsterdam mainnet activation. The agenda from the October 22 meeting proposed selecting one of those dates next week if the Hoodi test proceeded successfully.
These dates have not been finalized, and the foundation’s latest announcement did not provide an alternative timeline. Developers must continue addressing these compatibility issues before a new Hoodi activation date can be announced.
Glamsterdam includes embedded proposer-builder separation and block-level access lists, changes designed to enhance Ethereum's transaction processing capacity.
Previously, Curve Finance highlighted the potential benefits of these changes to DeFi, while warning that the revised gas fees could affect certain applications.
The Ethereum Foundation confirms that mainnet users and ETH holders need take no action due to this delay. Developers are asked not to schedule HooDoo tests around the canceled October 26 activation.