Ethereum is getting ready for another big upgrade called Glamsterdam.
It is expected in the first half of 2026, maybe around June if things go smoothly but nothing is ever fully fixed with Ethereum timelines.
What makes this one interesting is the shift in direction.
The last upgrades were more about scaling through Layer 2 and improving staking.
This time, the focus feels like it is going back to the base layer.
Basically, making Ethereum itself feel faster and more usable again.
There are two main ideas people keep talking about:
The first is something called Enshrined Proposer Builder Separation or ePBS (EIP 7732).
Right now Ethereum block building depends a lot on external actors like relays and MEV Boost.
It works but it is not perfect.
There is always this question of centralization and trust in the middle.
The idea with ePBS is to move this closer into the protocol so validators are not so dependent on outside systems.
In theory this should make MEV distribution cleaner and the whole process more reliable.
The second one is Block Level Access Lists (EIP 7928).
This one is a bit more technical.
Today Ethereum processes transactions one by one because it does not know what each transaction will touch ahead of time.
With access lists, a block would basically say in advance what parts of the state it is going to use.
That could open the door to parallel execution and better performance overall.
At least that is the idea!
There is also talk about gas changes under EIP 7904.
The goal is to make gas prices more aligned with real computing costs.
Depending on how it is tuned, some transactions could get cheaper.
On top of that, some developers are floating the idea of increasing the block gas limit from around 60 million to something like 100 or even 200 million.
If that actually happens, throughput could go up a lot.
Of course people are already comparing this to other chains again.
Solana comes up a lot here, especially with its Alpenglow upgrade and its push for speed.
Ethereum is still doing its own thing though.
It is not chasing raw speed first.
It is trying to stay decentralized and secure while slowly improving performance at the base layer.
As of now, Glamsterdam is still aimed for the first half of 2026.
Testnets are coming but nothing is final yet.
Ethereum upgrades always move a bit slowly and sometimes plans change along the way.
Honestly, this upgrade feels more important than a normal one.
Not because it magically fixes everything but because it is clearly trying to push the base layer forward again instead of relying only on Layer 2.
If it works, even partially, it could make Ethereum feel noticeably smoother to use.
But the real question is still open.
Will Ethereum finally feel fast at Layer 1 or are expectations getting a bit ahead of reality?
