[DigitalToday reporter Hyunwoo Choo] Ethereum will apply its next major upgrade, dubbed "Glamsterdam", to the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6. Cointelegraph reported on Sept. 29 local time that the timing for deployment on the mainnet has not been decided.

The Ethereum Foundation said node operators must update both execution-layer and consensus-layer clients before Sepolia activation.

One of the key changes in Glamsterdam is proposer-builder separation built into the protocol. It moves the handoff process between specialised block builders and validators into the Ethereum protocol, lowering reliance on external middleware.

The upgrade also includes block-level access lists. It records the accounts and storage locations used in each block.

The gas pricing system will also change. The adjustment is intended to better reflect the cost of creating and accessing data on Ethereum. Contracts that rely on fixed gas stipends or hard-coded gas limits may need modification.

Developers have not yet decided the schedule for deployment on Hoodi, a validator-centric testnet, or the schedule for mainnet rollout. The upgrade after Glamsterdam, "Hegota", is targeting 2027.

Vitalik Buterin (비탈릭 부테린) said on Sept. 28 that Hegota could be Ethereum's last "typical" fork. He explained that the focus of development could then shift to recursive STARKs, automated formal verification, optimised consensus and quantum-resistant cryptography.