Ethereum developers delay Glamsterdam fork on Hoodi testnet over contract risks

The concern centers on EIP-8037 and EIP-8038, two Ethereum Improvement Proposals that change how gas is charged for certain operations. Some existing Ethereum projects rely on assumptions that certain operations would cost a specific amount of gas, and the foundation said those assumptions would be invalidated by the two proposals.

The decision followed an October 13 report from smart contract auditor ChainSecurity, which found the two proposals could break smart contracts that rely on fixed gas-related assumptions when external calls fail. Delaying the Hoodi fork gives developers more time to identify potential smart contract issues and determine whether changes are needed before Glamsterdam progresses toward mainnet deployment, the foundation said. The Hoodi fork will not proceed until the issues are resolved, it added.

Glamsterdam went live on the Sepolia testnet on October 6, one of its final major rehearsals. The upgrade aims to advance Ethereum's layer-1 scaling roadmap with enshrined proposer-builder separation, block-level access lists and changes to gas pricing that better reflect the cost of execution, the Ethereum Foundation said in a September 28 blog post.