Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
-
The Ethereum network will launch the Glamsterdam upgrade in 2026 and is set to fix the MEV fairness issue on the blockchain.
-
The full scope of the upgrade has not yet been finalized.
Glamsterdam Upgrade to Address the MEV Fairness Issue on Ethereum
Ethereum developers are planning the blockchain’s next major upgrade, with the change expected to take place in 2026. The Glmasterdam upgrade is set to address the MEV Fairness issue with the network.
This latest development comes roughly two weeks after Ethereum activated the Fusaka upgrade to help the blockchain handle increasingly large transaction batches from L2 networks.
Glamsterdam is a portmanteau of two simultaneous upgrades taking place on Ethereum’s two core layers. The developers explained that the execution layer, where transaction rules and smart contracts live, will undergo the Amsterdam upgrade, while the consensus layer, which coordinates validators and finalizes blocks, will see an upgrade known as Gloas.
The primary feature of Glamsterdam is Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), formally tracked as EIP-7732. This proposal seeks to separate nodes that build blocks on the Ethereum blockchain from those who propose them. Thus, it prevents any single actor from controlling which transactions are included or how they are ordered.
Currently, the separation relies on off-chain services known as relays. However, with the new upgrade, block builders would assemble blocks and cryptographically seal their contents, while proposers would simply choose the highest-paying block without being able to see or tamper with what’s inside.
The transactions would only be revealed after the block is finalized, reducing opportunities for manipulation and abuse related to MEV, or maximal extractable value.
Another proposal within Glamsterdam is the Block-level Access Lists (EIP-7928). This proposal seeks to allow a block to declare in advance which accounts and smart-contract data it will access.
Instead of discovering this information transaction by transaction, Ethereum software can easily preload and reuse data more efficiently, making block execution faster, more predictable, and easier to optimize. The change could help smooth gas costs and lay important groundwork for future scaling improvements.
Ethereum developers have yet to finalize the full scope of the Glamsterdam upgrade, with additional EIPs expected to be added over the next few weeks. Currently, developers have not set a specific date, but the upgrade is likely to take place in 2026.
Ether, the native coin of the Ethereum blockchain, is up 1.5% and is currently trading at $3,009 per coin.
