The upgrade is shaping up to be one of Ethereum’s most ambitious since the network transitioned to proof-of-stake in 2022. Jayanthi described Glamsterdam as “probably the biggest fork we’ve had since the merge,” adding that it “will change a lot of assumptions about Ethereum and prepare us for much bigger evolution in the future.”
Key features include Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), officially tracked as EIP-7732, and Block-Level Access Lists (EIP-7928).
ePBS would bring separation to the core Ethereum protocol between the entities that construct transaction blocks and those that offer them. Today, this process largely relies off-chain, where there are additional trust assumptions and centralization issues. By moving the mechanism on-chain, developers hope to reduce the possibilities of manipulation related to maximum extractable value, or MEV.
Another major proposal, block-level access lists, would allow blocks to declare in advance which accounts and smart contract data they intend to access. This change would allow Ethereum clients to preload information more efficiently, helping to make block execution faster, more predictable, and easier to optimize.
Beyond these flagship proposals, Glamsterdam also includes a broad set of gas repricings that could significantly change the economics of using Ethereum.
“This will significantly change the cost of actions on Ethereum. High-level computing becomes cheaper and government becomes more expensive.”
