Ethereum developers have entered the final stages of work on the next major upgrade, dubbed "Glamsterdam".

According to a recent CoinDesk report, development teams are running a devnet test that includes the full set of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) to be included in the upgrade.

Parithosh Jayanthi (파리토시 자얀티), a core developer at the Ethereum Foundation, said, "We are currently working on a devnet that includes all EIPs." He said this is the final stage before testnet stabilisation and deployment. An exact activation schedule has not been set, but Glamsterdam is expected to be released in the second half of this year.

Jayanthi called the upgrade "the biggest fork since the switch to proof-of-stake in 2022" and said it would change various assumptions about Ethereum and enable greater scaling in the future.

There are 2 core features.

The first is "EIP-7732", which provides ePBS (enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation) functionality that separates the party that builds transaction blocks from the party that proposes them.

Currently, this process is handled off-chain, requiring trust in certain parties and carrying a risk of concentration of power. ePBS brings the process on-chain and focuses on reducing the potential for manipulation of MEV (maximal extractable value).

The second is "EIP-7928", a block-level access list that is expected to help speed up block processing and improve predictability.

The upgrade also includes broad repricing of gas costs. Jayanthi said, "High-level computation costs will go down, while state storage costs will go up."