Ethereum core developers have delayed implementing the Glamsterdam upgrade on the Hoodi testnet until security concerns tied to eight smart contract invariants are resolved, the Ethereum Foundation said in a Friday blog post.
The concerns stem from two Ethereum Improvement Proposals included in the upgrade, EIP-8037 and EIP-8038, which change how gas is charged for certain operations. According to the Ethereum Foundation, some existing Ethereum projects rely on assumptions that certain operations would cost a specific amount of gas, and those assumptions would be invalidated by the changes.
Auditor Report Prompted Review
The decision followed an Oct. 13 report from smart contract auditor ChainSecurity, which found that the two proposals could break smart contracts that rely on fixed gas-related assumptions when external calls fail.
Delaying the Hoodi testnet fork gives developers more time to identify potential smart contract issues and determine whether changes are needed before Glamsterdam progresses toward mainnet deployment. The Ethereum Foundation said the Hoodi fork will not proceed until the issues are resolved.
Sepolia Rehearsal Already Completed
Glamsterdam went live on the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6, in 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 announced in a Sept. 28 blog post.
