The Glamsterdam Era Begins: Is Ethereum Finally Solving Its Scaling Problem?

So, it finally happened. On May 1st, 2026, Ethereum rolled out the Glamsterdam upgrade. The name might sound like something out of a travel brochure, but for anyone who’s spent years dealing with painful gas fees, this feels more like a long-overdue relief.

Hype aside, though—what actually changed under the hood?
And does it really justify the optimism we’re seeing in the market right now?

The Two Changes That Actually Matter
This wasn’t just another routine upgrade. Glamsterdam introduced a couple of structural changes that could genuinely shift how the network operates:

1. ePBS (EIP-7732)
   Proposer-Builder Separation is now built directly into the protocol. No more reliance on external relays acting as middlemen. In practical terms, this should reduce MEV extraction significantly—early estimates are around 70%. If you’ve ever been caught in a sandwich attack while trading, you’ll understand why this matters.

2. BALs (EIP-7928)
   Block-Level Access Lists are a step toward real parallel execution. Instead of validators trying to figure things out on the fly, transactions now declare dependencies upfront. It sounds subtle, but it changes how efficiently blocks can be processed.

Let’s Talk Numbers
The gas limit jump is probably the boldest move here—60M to 200M. That’s not incremental; that’s a straight 3x increase in capacity.
We’re already seeing the effects. Early data suggests Layer 2 settlement costs have dropped by roughly another 70%. For everyday users, that pushes L2 usage closer to “basically free.”

My Take: The Trade-Off Isn’t Gone
There’s always a catch. Increasing throughput usually comes at some cost, and in this case, critics are pointing at home stakers. A 200M gas limit isn’t trivial to handle.
That said, the storage improvements from the Fusaka upgrade last year seem to be doing their job. So far, hardware requirements haven’t spiraled out of control.
Ethereum is clearly trying to prove it can scale aggressively—possibly up to 10,000 TPS on Layer 1—without sacrificing decentralization. Whether that balance holds is still an open question.

What About Price?
Bitcoin is hovering near $80k again, so the timing is interesting.
Do you think Glamsterdam is already priced in?
Or could the sharp drop in L2 fees trigger another DeFi wave?

For Node Operators
If you’re running a validator, I’m curious—have you noticed any uptick in missed slots since the upgrade went live?
Or has performance stayed relatively stable?

Looking Ahead
Now that Glamsterdam is behind us, attention is shifting to Hegota later this year. Verkle Trees are next on the roadmap, and they’re being framed as a major step toward solving state bloat.

Big question: is that the final piece of the puzzle, or just another milestone?
I’m especially interested in hearing from devs and long-term holders. Does this feel like Ethereum finally maturing into its “World Computer” vision—or are we just making the network more efficient for bots and advanced actors?