Yash Kamal Chaturvedi
December 9, 2025
The path toward Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade became clearer after core developers gathered for a high-level scoping session to sort more than 40 EIPs into CFI or DFI status. What had been a broad and somewhat chaotic list of proposals was narrowed into a more manageable set, giving teams a firmer sense of direction.
The meeting was not intended for deep technical debate on every proposal. Instead, it served as a strategic checkpoint to identify which items were mature enough to advance and which required additional design work or external dependencies.
With Ethereum undergoing rapid innovation across MEV research, PBS discussions, state growth initiatives and execution-layer refinements, such scoping has become essential for predictable upgrade cycles.
The call produced a focused list of EIPs that received sufficient consensus to move ahead as Glamsterdam candidates. These proposals are considered technically stable, low-risk, or strategically important for the network’s future.
Together, these decisions give Glamsterdam clearer edges and highlight the network’s focus on simplifying gas mechanics, improving execution flexibility and preparing for future timing or blob-related changes.
Several proposals were deferred due to complexity, incomplete design, lack of cohesive direction, or dependencies on external standardization efforts. These items may re-enter consideration later but are not suitable for Glamsterdam at this stage.
DFI decisions ensure the upgrade remains lean, manageable and aligned with well-understood engineering priorities.
While the CFI/DFI sorting resolved many questions, it also highlighted broader architectural topics that require more research and coordination.
Current gas repricing proposals are considered too monolithic. Developers agreed that the approach must be broken into cleaner, modular components to avoid unnecessary coupling and reduce implementation risk.
Several contributors submitted alternate models for handling long-term state growth. Instead of selecting one prematurely, developers marked the issue for structured comparative study.
Two approaches remain under consideration: a simple increase to contract size limits or a more complex chunk-based mobilization model. Both could significantly impact developer experience and require deeper analysis.
With EIP-7708 advancing, related improvements such as EIP-7745 must be reconsidered. ETH transfer logs change the assumptions underlying indexing and may reduce the need for additional log-level features.
Multiple signature and PQ-related EIPs were deferred, revealing the absence of a cohesive PQ security strategy. Ethereum must align on a single path before incorporating PQ-ready primitives.
Some proposals relate more to ecosystem infrastructure than to the protocol itself. Developers must decide which of these deserve formal signaling.
The scoping session successfully fulfilled its purpose: removing ambiguity and creating a clearer upgrade blueprint. By filtering proposals early, core developers can now focus their resources on areas with the strongest alignment and most immediate value.
This type of structured scoping reflects growing maturity in Ethereum’s upgrade processes. It reduces the risk of proposals lingering in undefined states and helps maintain predictable development cycles, which are essential for client teams, researchers and the broader ecosystem.
While several areas require deeper coordination, the CFI and DFI decisions provide a stable foundation for the next development phase. Glamsterdam remains on course, with a more manageable scope and clearer direction for both execution and consensus layers.