The Ethereum Foundation announced on 22 October that activating the Glamsterdam upgrade on the Hoodi test network, set for 26 October, has been postponed. The decision was taken at developer call ACDE #248, after interactions were found between gas accounting changes, mainly EIP-8037, and existing mainnet contracts. The schedule for raising the gas limit to 200 million was also removed. No new date has been set for Hoodi or for mainnet, and mainnet users do not need to do anything.

What it means: Upgrade delays on Ethereum are not unusual and, in practice, show that the testing process is working as intended. Changes to how gas is charged affect the execution cost of every smart contract, and a contract that works today can break if the calculations change. Catching the problem before testnet activation avoids a far more costly fix later. Removing the 200 million gas limit target also means that growth in network capacity, and therefore lower transaction costs, will take longer. For Greek software companies building on Ethereum or layer-2 networks, the practical message is to follow the EIPs on gas accounting and to check whether their own contracts depend on specific costs or limits. Businesses that simply use stablecoins or services on Ethereum face no direct impact. For crypto-asset service providers under MiCA and DORA, network upgrades are events that belong in change management and operational resilience plans, with testing before every mainnet activation. Teams with contracts on mainnet can use the extra time to run their own tests against the proposed gas rules.

Read the original on Ethereum Foundation Blog

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