Ethereum Devs Hold Hoodi Fork Over Glamsterdam Gas Risks

Ethereum core developers will not fork the Hoodi testnet with Glamsterdam until gas-repricing risks in EIP-8037 and EIP-8038 are resolved. The Ethereum Foundation blog post of Nov 6, written by Marius van der Wijden, says All Core Devs (ACD) made the call. It matters because ChainSecurity found a few projects that rely on gas assumptions these EIPs will break.

What the post says

During testnet testing, auditor ChainSecurity found a few projects that would be vulnerable after Glamsterdam. They rely on invariants that the two EIPs will break, according to the post. The EIPs rework how much gas certain operations cost and how gas is charged for state.

Blockonomi describes EIP-8037 as separately metering and raising the cost of creating new state. It says EIP-8038 updates the cost of accessing existing state. It names fixed gas stipends, hardcoded gas limits and remaining-gas checks as the likely trouble spots.

The Foundation is engaging ChainSecurity and Dedaub and running internal audits. It says it cannot cover every Ethereum project, especially on-chain and off-chain code. It asks contract developers and auditors to check whether they rely on any of eight invariants listed in the ethereum/glamsterdam-gas-invariants GitHub repository. Affected teams should email [email protected].

Not a new delay

The Hoodi fork had already been postponed earlier. An Ethereum Foundation notice dated Oct 22 said the upgrade, scheduled for Oct 26, was postponed on ACDE #248. The stated reason was to investigate how EIP-8037 interacts with mainnet smart contracts.

That notice set no replacement date and said mainnet users and ETH holders need take no action. The Nov 6 post also gives no new Hoodi date. It says work on the next upgrade, Hegota, is unaffected and continues in parallel.

CCN reported on Oct 23 that the postponement leaves Glamsterdam's tentative December mainnet launch uncertain. The Oct 22 Foundation notice itself set no mainnet date.

Market context

ETH traded near $2,234 on Nov 8 (14:03 UTC), with a market cap of about $273 billion, per DefiLlama data. Ethereum chain TVL was about $43.38 billion.

Blockonomi also relayed trader Ted Pillows' view of a $2,200–$2,250 support zone, which is one trader's opinion. No source links the price to the testnet delay.

What to watch

No source gives a revised Hoodi date. None says whether EIP-8037 or EIP-8038 will change. Audit findings from ChainSecurity, Dedaub and affected projects are the next signal.

Sources

• Ethereum Foundation Blog: EIP-8037/EIP-8038 Glamsterdam (Nov 6)
• Ethereum Foundation Blog: Glamsterdam on Hoodi Postponed (Oct 22)
• Blockonomi: Ethereum Price Holds $2,200 Support as Glamsterdam Testnet Delays
• CCN: Ethereum Glamsterdam delay and December launch
• KuCoin News: Ethereum delays Glamsterdam Hoodi fork
• The Block: Starknet community backs independent post-quantum L1
• Decrypt: Starknet jumps after saying it wants to become an L1
• DefiLlama via CoinGecko: ETH price and market cap
• DefiLlama: Ethereum chain TVL