Ethereum Developers Pause Glamsterdam Test on Hoodi Over Smart Contract Safety Worries

Ethereum’s core developers have decided not to activate the Glamsterdam upgrade on the Hoodi test network until a set of contract risks is understood. The Ethereum Foundation explained the delay in a Friday blog post.

Why Gas Pricing Changes Could Break Contracts

Two proposals, EIP-8037 and EIP-8038, alter how gas is charged for certain operations. Some live applications were written assuming those operations always cost a fixed amount, and the new pricing would invalidate that assumption. Developers are studying eight such contract invariants. The concern was raised in an Oct. 13 audit report from ChainSecurity, which warned that contracts relying on fixed gas expectations could fail when external calls do not succeed.

What the Delay Means for the Roadmap

The pause gives teams time to find affected contracts and decide whether the proposals need changes before Glamsterdam moves toward mainnet. The Hoodi fork will not go ahead until the problems are settled.

Glamsterdam’s Progress and Goals

The upgrade reached the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6, one of its last big rehearsals. It aims to push forward Ethereum’s layer one scaling plan with built in proposer builder separation, block level access lists and gas pricing that better matches the real cost of execution.