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Ethereum’s Glamsterdam test gets last-minute fix before major capacity jump
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- DeepHorus
Ethereum's upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade received an urgent software patch hours before a critical trial that will more than triple the network's block capacity. Prysm, one of the most widely used validator clients, released version 7.2.1 late Monday so validators automatically produce blocks under a 200 million gas limit. Without the update, or an equivalent manual configuration change, some validators would have kept proposing blocks at Sepolia's existing 60 million gas limit, diluting the test.
Glamsterdam will activate on Sepolia, the test network where developers rehearse changes using tokens with no real value, at around 13:53 UTC on Oct. 6. The trial raises Sepolia's gas limit from roughly 60 million to 200 million. Gas is Ethereum's unit for measuring how much computing work fits into a block. A higher limit lets the network process more transactions at once but demands more from the computers running it.
The trial will show whether validators can consistently handle blocks more than three times Sepolia's previous default. Developers will use those results to decide how much capacity suits Ethereum's main network. Ethereum has been raising block capacity in steps, testing how far it can go before running a validator becomes too costly or demanding.
More block space could eventually accommodate more trades, stablecoin transfers and other applications before users compete for space and push fees higher. The 200 million setting applies only to Sepolia. Glamsterdam has not yet activated on Ethereum's main network.
Ethereum developers have separately warned that "any teenager" could disrupt the upcoming Glamsterdam test, underlining the fragility of such rehearsals. The last-minute Prysm release shows how tightly client teams must coordinate before large upgrades. It also highlights the challenge of aligning independent software teams across a decentralized network.
If Tuesday's trial succeeds, developers will weigh throughput gains against validator hardware requirements. A failed or uneven test could delay any permanent capacity increase on mainnet. The outcome will help shape Ethereum's scaling roadmap in the coming months.
