Ethereum Tentatively Sets Test Implementation Date for Glamsterdam

Ethereum (ETH) developers have tentatively decided to launch the next upgrade "Glamsterdam" on the public testnet "Sepolia" at 13:53 UTC on October 6, during the All Core Developers Call (ACDC #186) held on the 3rd.

Blockchain analyst Christine D. Kim shared the background and technical reservations regarding this decision in her newsletter "ACD After Hours" (distributed the previous week) on X (formerly Twitter) on September 11.

According to Kim, this decision comes with several reservations, similar to the judgment on the incorporation of frame transactions (SFI) during the previous week's "Hegota" upgrade. The schedule is set at a stage where a stable developer testnet (devnet) has not yet been realized.

Concerns Over Lack of Stable Devnet

Developers set the date for Sepolia without ever successfully implementing Glamsterdam on the private testnet. The most recent devnet, "Glamsterdam-Devnet-9," went live on September 1, deploying a record 1,000 validator nodes, but there has been a shortage of validators capable of proposing and proving blocks correctly, resulting in an inability to finalize.

Stefan Starflinger, who is responsible for developer operations at the Ethereum Foundation, stated during ACDC, "Only by operating such a large network have we realized that there are still many edge cases and challenges to address."

He noted that a critical bug was found in the consensus layer (CL) client during the previous "Devnet-8," which caused the entire network to halt when proposing blocks with the same hash as the parent block.

On the execution layer (EL) side, Ethereum Foundation researcher Maria Silva confirmed a bug in EIP-8037, which set a higher gas cost for state creation, indicating that all EL clients need to implement fixes.

Developers plan to launch a new devnet, "Glamsterdam-Devnet-10," within a few weeks to reflect these fixes. If this stabilizes, it is expected to be the last opportunity to safely test layer 2 and staking protocols before the Sepolia update.

On the other hand, if Devnet-10 remains unstable or significant bugs are found, the implementation on Sepolia may be postponed. Paritosh Jayanti of the Ethereum Foundation, who chaired ACDC #186, mentioned, "If Devnet-10 fails, we will have to make individual judgments, but it seems unlikely that client releases will come out next week.

In the worst-case scenario, if issues that take time to resolve are found, discussions will take place in next week's developer calls, such as ACDT (All Core Devs Testing) and ACDE (All Core Devs Execution), regarding whether to postpone the fork scheduled for October 6."

Schedule for Hoodi and Mainnet is Blank

In light of the situation surrounding Sepolia, developers agreed to postpone the scheduling of the second public testnet, "Hoodi." Enrico Del Fante of Consensys, which develops the consensus layer client "Teku," stated, "Considering the issues that arose in Devnet-9, I think it is wiser to finalize only Sepolia first and wait a few weeks before solidifying Hoodi."

Developers still hold hopes for the implementation of the upgrade on Ethereum's mainnet by the end of the year, but the solidification of Sepolia's schedule has not strengthened their confidence. By setting Sepolia for October 6, there is only a slight chance left for implementation on the mainnet in December, but it cannot be said that the likelihood has increased, as there is currently no evidence that each client's implementation has reached the standard for mainnet compatibility.

Ethereum implemented its last major upgrade, "Fusaka," on the mainnet in December last year, achieving its goal of two upgrades per year. Since continuing an aggressive update pace of once every six months, the development process has shifted to prioritize speed, increasing the uncertainty of schedules. The current Glamsterdam is also part of this trend aiming for similar implementation pace.