- Ethereum Foundation warns Glamsterdam’s gas repricing could cause some smart contracts to fail without developer updates.
- EIP-8037 and EIP-8038 will raise and standardize gas costs for state creation and access across Ethereum.
- Developers can test contracts on Glamsterdam devnets, while wallets and RPC providers must update gas estimation for the new schedule.
Ethereum developers face new gas rules under the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade, with some contracts potentially failing without changes. The Ethereum Foundation said EIP-8037 and EIP-8038 will alter state creation and access costs. Most contracts remain unaffected, while developers using hardcoded gas assumptions may need updates before the repricing reaches mainnet.
Glamsterdam Changes Ethereum Gas Costs
The two EIPs target how Ethereum charges for state operations across the network. EIP-8037 increases and standardizes costs for creating accounts, storage slots, and deployed bytecode.
Meanwhile, EIP-8038 raises costs for accessing existing state, including SLOAD, SSTORE, and cold account access. It also changes costs for EXTCODESIZE and EXTCODECOPY operations.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, these changes reflect the measured workload of operations on Ethereum’s larger state. Gas prices for these operations last changed during the 2021 Berlin upgrade.
Notably, recent gas limit increases have accelerated state growth. The new pricing model uses a performance target supporting roughly three times higher base throughput.
Some Smart Contracts Could Fail
The Ethereum Foundation replayed historical mainnet transactions using the proposed gas schedule. Most transactions produced the same outcome under the new pricing rules. However, a smaller group showed different results after the repricing.
Some transactions still succeeded but used different amounts of gas. Others only failed because their original gas limits became insufficient. Developers can address those cases by raising the supplied gas limit.
A smaller group could remain broken despite substantially higher limits. These contracts often depend on fixed gas assumptions within their code. Examples include Solidity’s 2,300-gas transfer and send stipends.
Hardcoded call values, gasleft() checks, and fixed gas limits can also create problems. The Foundation said teams behind the most affected contracts are already receiving direct outreach.
Developers Can Test Before Mainnet
Developers maintaining Layer 1 contracts can search the affected-contracts database using their contract address. The tool identifies failure types and the repricing responsible for each issue.
The Foundation also advised developers to test fixes on the Platåberget testnet, known as glam-devnet-8. Wallet and RPC developers must update gas estimation to reflect the new schedule.
Cached gas constants could otherwise underestimate transaction costs and cause failures. Regular users require no action because updated wallets and infrastructure will handle the changes.
The repricing is already live on devnets and will move to public testnets before mainnet activation.