Ethereum Triples Its Block Capacity in a High-Stakes Test
By Damilola Esebame
AI summary of the source article
Ethereum activated the Glamsterdam upgrade on the Sepolia testnet on October 6, enabling validators to lift the block gas limit target from roughly 60 million to 200 million. Consensus client Prysm released version 7.2.1 ahead of the fork, defaulting validators to the higher threshold, while clients like Teku required manual configuration. The upgrade pairs higher throughput with Ethereum Improvement Proposal 8037, which penalizes operations that cause permanent state data growth while making high-level computation cheaper. Following earlier tests on Devnet 11, the Sepolia deployment provides a public stress test, though mainnet and Hoodi rollout dates remain unconfirmed.
Why it matters
The change allows the network to test greater execution throughput for swaps, stablecoin transfers, and smart contracts while economically discouraging unsustainable state growth.
Key facts
- Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade on the Sepolia testnet increased the target block gas limit from about 60 million to 200 million.
- Prysm version 7.2.1 defaulted validators to propose 200 million gas blocks at epoch 353,024, whereas Teku remained at 60 million by default.
- The upgrade incorporates EIP-8037 to tie gas costs more closely to the permanent state data generated by an operation.