Ethereum News: Developers Postpone Glamsterdam’s Hoodi Test After Researchers Flag Gas-Rule Risk

• Ethereum developers called off Monday’s Glamsterdam upgrade on the Hoodi test network. It was due to activate on Oct. 26 at 17:42:48 UTC.

• Developers postponed it during Thursday’s All Core Devs Execution meeting to investigate how a proposed change to gas accounting interacts with contracts already running on the main network.

• No replacement date has been announced.

• The planned increase of Hoodi’s gas limit to 200 million has also been postponed.

• Ethereum’s mainnet date for Glamsterdam remains unconfirmed.

Ethereum developers have called off Monday’s Glamsterdam upgrade on the Hoodi test network. Security researchers identified a problem that could change how existing smart contracts handle failed transactions, according to CoinDesk.

This Ethereum news follows an October 16 notice that had scheduled the Hoodi test for October 26.

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Ethereum News: The Postponement at a Glance

Key details:

• Original Hoodi activation: Oct. 26 at 17:42:48 UTC

• Decision: postponed at Thursday’s All Core Devs Execution meeting

• Replacement date: none announced

• Hoodi gas limit increase to 200 million: also postponed

• Sepolia activation: completed on Oct. 6

• Mainnet date: unconfirmed

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Main News: Hoodi Activation Called Off

Developers postponed the upgrade to investigate how a proposed change to Ethereum’s gas accounting interacts with contracts already running on the main network. No replacement date has been announced.

The concern centers on EIP-8037, which changes how Ethereum charges for creating new records in its database. The proposal is intended to limit the growth of that database as Ethereum increases the number of transactions its network can process.

What the Researchers Found

Security firm ChainSecurity published an analysis on Oct. 13. It showed that the change, combined with EIP-8038, could alter how contracts respond when another contract they call runs out of gas.

Some contracts are designed to catch a failed operation and continue processing. They may record that an attempt failed, disable further attempts or move to another step. Developers sometimes rely on the remaining gas being too low for those actions to finish, which causes the entire transaction to reverse.

Glamsterdam changes that calculation. Under the proposed rules, gas used to create certain records can be restored when those changes are undone. That can leave enough gas for a contract to complete a failure-handling operation that previously would have reversed.

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The Opposite Risk

ChainSecurity calculated that creating a new storage slot could require 110,020 gas when a separate allowance is exhausted, compared with 22,100 under the old rules. A contract using an existing gas budget might fail while carrying out an otherwise valid operation.

• New storage slot, under the proposed rules (separate allowance exhausted): 110,020 gas

• New storage slot, under the old rules: 22,100 gas

What Is Not Established

The findings concern how existing software would behave under proposed rules. ChainSecurity has demonstrated the mechanisms but has not publicly established that a major production protocol is exploitable.

The findings do not indicate that existing contracts are currently being exploited through these proposed changes.

About Glamsterdam

Glamsterdam brings several changes to Ethereum, including a new system for choosing block builders and improvements intended to let the network handle larger blocks.

• Sepolia testnet: activation completed on Oct. 6

• Hoodi testnet: the next public rehearsal, now postponed, along with a planned gas limit increase to 200 million

• Mainnet: no confirmed activation date

Ethereum Market Snapshot

Prices from the CoinDesk market ticker alongside the report:

• Ethereum (ETH): $2,401.98 (-1.43%)

• Bitcoin (BTC): $81,757.94 (-1.19%)

• XRP: $1.32 (-1.53%)

• Solana (SOL): $104.31 (-0.64%)

• Hyperliquid (HYPE): $78.03 (-0.61%)

Summary: Ethereum News Today

Developers postponed the Glamsterdam test on Hoodi, due Oct. 26, to investigate how EIP-8037 and EIP-8038 interact with existing smart contracts. No new date has been announced.

• Postponed: Hoodi activation and the 200 million gas limit increase

• Concern: gas-accounting changes could alter how contracts handle failed operations

• ChainSecurity’s analysis: published Oct. 13

• Mainnet date: unconfirmed

• Exploits: none established

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