Two Ethereum Proposals Aim to Keep Glamsterdam Safe
The proposals are meant to prevent higher gas prices in EIP-8037 and EIP-8038 from breaking existing smart contracts. The Ethereum Foundation is now asking developers and auditors to check vulnerable apps.
Key Takeaways
- Two developers have submitted competing proposals to prevent the Glamsterdam upgrade from breaking existing Ethereum smart contracts.
- The debate centers on higher gas prices in EIP-8037 and EIP-8038, while some apps were built on fixed costs and immutable contract logic.
- The Ethereum Foundation is having affected projects reviewed after a planned test was delayed because of concerns from security researchers.
Ethereum is facing a tricky problem: the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade could break existing smart contracts. Two developers have therefore submitted competing proposals to prevent that from happening. The debate centers on higher gas prices in EIP-8037 and EIP-8038, while some apps were built on fixed costs that cannot simply be changed.
Two Ways to Spare Old Apps
Leo Glisic wants to keep existing apps on the current rate and only let new apps pay according to the new prices. Giulio Rebuffo, on the other hand, is proposing one new rate for everyone, but wants old apps to keep running as if nothing has changed.
Both proposals are trying to address the same risk, but they do it in different ways. In EIP-8488, Glisic describes a split in Ethereum’s instruction set, where existing contracts keep the old rules and new contracts use the V2 opcodes with the higher gas structure. Rebuffo proposes a model with two gas meters per transaction, where the new calculation determines the final fee.
Why This Is Happening Now
The core of the problem is that many Ethereum apps were once written with the assumption that certain gas prices would not change. Some contracts pay a fixed amount when they call another app. If that call gets more expensive, the transaction can fail. Many of those contracts also can no longer be changed once they are live.
That makes the debate around Glamsterdam especially sensitive. The upgrade is already running on one of Ethereum’s testnets, but a second test planned for October 26 was delayed after Ethereum Foundation researchers raised the alarm. According to the Ethereum Foundation, the gas changes could affect a small group of smart contracts that rely on fixed gas assumptions, and developers and auditors have been asked to review affected projects before a decision is made on whether the specs still need to be adjusted. The test on Hoodi was also delayed to further investigate the impact of EIP-8037.
Impact on Developers
The proposals show that the upgrade is not just about higher costs, but also about compatibility. Rebuffo himself notes that no tests have yet been done with an execution client or with consensus tests for his design. That shows how early this discussion still is.
For developers of existing Ethereum apps, the main thing to note is that some current contracts may not be able to move over to the new gas rules without changes. The upcoming decision-making around Glamsterdam could therefore matter for teams that depend on fixed contract logic and for auditors who need to judge which apps face extra risk.