Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade is running on the Sepolia testnet and has lifted its block gas limit to nearly 200 million, more than triple its previous level, CoinDesk reported.
The upgrade was activated on the public test network on October 6. Gas measures the computational work required to process transactions.
Users compete for space on Ethereum’s live network when too many transactions arrive at once, which pushes fees higher. A higher processing limit allows for more activity before network congestion sets in.
However, because Glamsterdam also modifies the gas cost per task, a threefold budget increase will not simply yield three times the transactions.
Read More: Ethereum Developers Patch Prysm Ahead of Glamsterdam Test
Early Blocks Remain Below Capacity
In a review of over 25 consecutive blocks, CoinDesk finds gas usage of roughly 52 million to 92 million per block. None approached the new limit, meaning the sample did not demonstrate performance under maximum load.
During a six-minute voting period early Thursday, all 32 scheduled blocks were proposed, and 99.7% of eligible testnet voted toward finality, according to testing group ethPandaOp’s explorer data cited by CoinDesk.
Finality means the network considers its transaction history settled.
How Glamsterdam Changes Processing
The Ethereum Foundation says Glamsterdam changes how Ethereum’s computers divide that work. It brings proposer-builder separation into the protocol, which gives validators more time to check transaction execution.
Glamsterdam also introduces block-level access lists, identifying accounts and storage touched by transactions. These lists allow software to fetch data ahead of time and check unrelated transactions simultaneously.
The upgrade adjusts gas charges for storing and accessing data. Developers should retest contracts that rely on fixed gas assumptions.
A larger gas budget does not guarantee a proportional increase in transaction throughput because individual operations also change cost.
Hoodi, the next public test network, is tentatively scheduled for October 27, pending Sepolia results. Ethereum’s mainnet activation date has not been set.
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