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- Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade is running on the Sepolia testnet with block gas limits approaching 200 million.
- The Oct. 6 activation gives developers a public test of substantially larger blocks before deciding mainnet capacity.
- Sepolia is a testing environment, and Ethereum has not yet confirmed a final mainnet activation date or gas limit.
Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade is running on the Sepolia testnet with block gas limits approaching 200 million, more than three times the network’s previous level of about 60 million. The Oct. 6 activation gives developers a public test of substantially larger blocks before deciding how much additional capacity Ethereum mainnet can safely support.
The higher limit does not mean Sepolia blocks are already consuming 200 million gas. Early blocks have generally used well below half of the available capacity.
Sepolia Raises Capacity After Glamsterdam
Glamsterdam activated on Sepolia at epoch 353,024 on Oct. 6, combining Amsterdam changes to Ethereum’s execution layer with Gloas changes to its consensus layer. By Oct. 8, blocks were being proposed with limits near 200 million gas.
A sample of more than 25 consecutive blocks used roughly 52 million to 92 million gas, or about 26% to 46% of available capacity. The sampled blocks therefore show substantially higher available capacity without demonstrating client behavior under consistently full 200-million-gas blocks.
Glamsterdam Targets Higher Layer 1 Throughput
Two major changes are enshrined proposer-builder separation, or ePBS, and block-level access lists, known as BALs. Both are designed to improve block processing as Ethereum increases Layer 1 capacity. BALs identify the accounts and stored data transactions will access, allowing clients to prepare data earlier. That can make it easier to perform more work in parallel as block sizes increase.
Prysm Update Enables 200 Million Default
Prysm v7.2.0 supported Glamsterdam but would have continued using a 60 million gas default unless validators changed the setting manually. Prysm v7.2.1, released Oct. 5, added Sepolia’s scheduled 200 million default.
Validators can still configure another value, so the setting controls proposed block capacity rather than forcing blocks to consume 200 million gas.
Actual gas usage continues to depend on the transactions included in each block.
Mainnet Limit Remains Undecided
Sepolia is a testing environment, so the experiment does not establish a 200 million gas limit for Ethereum mainnet. Developers are using the test to evaluate client performance, validator behavior and hardware demands before making further decisions.
Hoodi is expected to provide another public test before Glamsterdam reaches mainnet. Ethereum has not yet confirmed a final mainnet activation date or the gas limit that would accompany the upgrade.
