Ethereum Developers Postpone Glamsterdam Test Over Smart Contract Risks

Ethereum developers have canceled Monday’s planned Glamsterdam activation on the Hoodi testnet after security researchers identified a potential issue that could affect how existing smart contracts handle failed operations.

The upgrade was scheduled to go live on October 26 at 17:42:48 UTC. Developers postponed the activation during Thursday’s All Core Devs Execution meeting to examine how proposed changes to Ethereum’s gas accounting could interact with contracts already deployed on the network.

No revised activation date has been announced.

EIP-8037 Raises Concerns About Failed Transactions

The issue centers on EIP-8037, a proposal that changes how Ethereum calculates gas costs for creating new database records. The adjustment aims to control state growth as the network expands its transaction-processing capacity.

In an analysis published on October 13, security firm ChainSecurity explained how EIP-8037, combined with EIP-8038, could change contract behavior when a contract it calls runs out of gas — the resource required to execute operations on Ethereum.

Some smart contracts are designed to handle failed calls and continue running. They may log an unsuccessful attempt, prevent further retries or move to another stage of execution. In certain cases, developers rely on insufficient remaining gas to trigger a complete transaction rollback, undoing all the changes.

The proposed Glamsterdam rules could change that outcome.

New Gas Rules Could Make Failed Operations Permanent

Under the proposed changes, gas spent creating certain database records can be refunded when those changes are reverted. As a result, a contract could retain enough gas to complete its failure-handling logic, even when the same operation would previously have caused the entire transaction to roll back.

This could allow a contract to permanently record a failed operation rather than undoing it along with the rest of the transaction.

ChainSecurity also identified a potential problem in the opposite direction. Its analysis found that creating a new storage slot could cost 110,020 gas after a separate allowance is exhausted, compared with 22,100 gas under the previous rules.

That increase could cause contracts operating within an existing gas budget to fail while attempting an operation that would otherwise have succeeded.

The findings highlight potential compatibility issues for software already deployed on Ethereum. Although ChainSecurity demonstrated the underlying mechanisms, it has not publicly established that a major production protocol can be exploited through them.

Hoodi Testing and Gas Limit Increase Put on Hold

Glamsterdam includes several changes to Ethereum, including a new approach to selecting block builders and improvements designed to support larger blocks.

The upgrade was activated on the Sepolia testnet on October 6, making Hoodi the next planned public testing stage. The Hoodi rollout was also expected to accompany a gas limit increase to 200 million, but that change has now been postponed as well.

Developers must investigate the gas-accounting concerns before rescheduling the testnet activation.

Ethereum Mainnet Launch Date Remains Unconfirmed

Ethereum has not set an official mainnet activation date for Glamsterdam. The Hoodi postponement reflects concerns about how proposed protocol changes could affect existing smart contracts, rather than evidence that those contracts are currently being exploited.

The immediate priority is to determine how the new gas rules affect contract execution and ensure the upgrade can proceed safely through further testing.

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