Ethereum’s latest Glamsterdam upgrade rehearsal has continued to process blocks under the new block-building rules, marking another important step toward a proposed Oct. 6 deployment on the Sepolia public test network.
The test network increased its block gas limit toward 200 million as developers prepare for the next stage of testing.
Nethermind, an Ethereum client used by network operators, conducted a performance benchmark Wednesday covering one of Glamsterdam’s major changes.
The client completed all 2,302 tests while processing 570.7 billion gas in 3 minutes and 15 seconds. That works out to an average processing rate of about 2.9 billion gas per second.
The benchmark focused on Nethermind’s execution client rather than measuring the performance of Ethereum’s entire network. It specifically tested block-level access lists, which provide Ethereum computers with information about the accounts and stored data that a block will access before processing begins.
Providing that information in advance allows computers to retrieve data and process unrelated transactions concurrently. Under Ethereum’s current system, much of this work is performed sequentially, which limits the amount of activity that can safely be included in a block.
Ethereum Tests Higher Block Capacity
About an hour after the testnet went live, Glamsterdam increased its block gas limit from 60 million to 200 million.
Gas represents the computational resources required to execute transactions. Raising the limit therefore allows each block to accommodate more activity, including payments, token swaps and other transactions.
A 200 million gas limit could allow Ethereum to handle greater demand before users have to compete aggressively for limited block space. That could help reduce the severity of fee spikes during periods of heavy trading or when a popular token launch generates a surge in activity.
However, larger blocks also require more resources to process and verify. If block sizes become too demanding, smaller network operators could struggle to keep pace. Glamsterdam is designed to increase capacity while attempting to avoid making Ethereum excessively expensive to operate.
Glamsterdam Changes Block Processing
Under Ethereum’s architecture, specialized builders assemble transactions into blocks, while validators verify those blocks and help secure the network.
Glamsterdam would incorporate the block-building handoff and related payments directly into Ethereum’s protocol rules, potentially reducing reliance on external relay infrastructure.
The upgrade also increases the time available for block data to propagate across the network from roughly two seconds to nine seconds. The additional time is intended to help validators receive and verify the larger blocks that Glamsterdam could enable.
The 200 million gas limit remains a testing configuration rather than a confirmed target for Ethereum’s mainnet. Devnet-11 was also structured as a controlled testing environment and did not include deliberate attacks.
Developers are currently targeting Oct. 6 for Glamsterdam’s deployment on Sepolia. The public testnet will allow application developers to test their software against the upgrade before any potential mainnet deployment.
The Oct. 6 date has not yet received formal confirmation.
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