Ethereum Delays Glamsterdam Upgrade on Hoodi Testnet Over Smart Contract Security Issues

Security of smart contracts has become the central focus for the upcoming Ethereum update, emphasizing the need to ensure reliable contract operation before proceeding.

Certain Ethereum projects depend on assumptions that specific operations incur a fixed gas cost. However, these assumptions are challenged by the proposed Ethereum improvements EIP-8037 and EIP-8038, which alter the gas charging mechanism for some transactions, the Ethereum Foundation noted in a recent blog update.

This decision was influenced by a report from smart contract auditor ChainSecurity dated October 13, which found that the two Ethereum Improvement Proposals have the potential to break contracts relying on fixed gas cost rules, particularly in cases where external calls fail.

By delaying the fork on the Hoodi testnet, developers obtain valuable time to detect any problematic interactions within smart contracts and decide if modifications are necessary before advancing the Glamsterdam upgrade toward mainnet deployment. The Ethereum Foundation confirmed that the Hoodi fork will remain on hold until these issues are fully resolved.

The Glamsterdam upgrade originally went live on the Sepolia testnet on October 6 as one of its final major test phases before the mainnet launch. The update aims to push forward Ethereum's layer-1 scaling strategy through features such as formal separation between proposers and builders, block-level access lists, and revised gas pricing to better mirror execution costs, as outlined by the Ethereum Foundation in their September 28 blog post.