Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade has cleared another stage of testing, with the latest rehearsal successfully processing blocks under new block-building rules ahead of a proposed Oct. 6 testnet deployment on Sepolia.
The test network pushed its block gas limit toward 200 million as developers prepare for the next public testing phase.
Nethermind, one of the software clients used to operate Ethereum nodes, also completed a performance benchmark on Wednesday focused on a major Glamsterdam feature.
The client passed all 2,302 tests while processing 570.7 billion gas in 3 minutes and 15 seconds. Its average throughput during the benchmark was approximately 2.9 billion gas per second.
The test measured Nethermind’s execution performance rather than the capacity of the Ethereum network as a whole. It focused on block-level access lists, which allow Ethereum clients to identify the accounts and stored data a block will need before execution begins.
With that information available in advance, clients can retrieve data and process independent transactions simultaneously. Ethereum currently handles much of this work sequentially, placing a limit on how much activity can safely be included in individual blocks.
Glamsterdam Raises the Gas Ceiling
Roughly an hour after the testnet went live, Glamsterdam increased the block gas limit from 60 million to 200 million.
Gas measures the computational work needed to execute transactions. A higher limit therefore provides additional room for payments, token swaps and other network activity within each block.
The proposed 200 million limit could allow Ethereum to accommodate higher demand before users compete more aggressively for block space. During periods of heavy trading or major token launches, that additional capacity could help reduce extreme increases in transaction fees.
The trade-off is that larger blocks require more computing resources to process and verify. If the requirements become too high, smaller operators could find it harder to remain synchronized with the network. Glamsterdam is intended to increase capacity while keeping the cost of operating Ethereum manageable.
New Rules Target Block Processing
Ethereum relies on specialized builders to assemble transactions into blocks, while validators verify those blocks and maintain network security.
Glamsterdam would bring the builder-to-validator handoff and associated payments under Ethereum’s protocol rules, potentially reducing reliance on external relay services.
The upgrade would also extend the network’s block-data propagation window from roughly two seconds to nine seconds. The longer window gives validators more time to receive and verify the larger blocks enabled by the higher gas limit.
For now, the 200 million gas limit is strictly a test configuration and does not represent a confirmed mainnet setting. Devnet-11 was also operated as a controlled environment without deliberate attacks.
Developers are aiming for Oct. 6 to deploy Glamsterdam on Sepolia, giving application teams an opportunity to test their software before the upgrade potentially reaches Ethereum’s main network.
The proposed Oct. 6 date still needs formal confirmation.
