Ethereum Developers Seek Feedback on Proposed Glamsterdam Gas Accounting Changes

Ethereum developers call for project testing on gas changes

Ethereum core developers are asking decentralized application (dApp) teams to test how a proposed network upgrade will change gas costs. Gas refers to the fee required to conduct a transaction or execute a contract on the Ethereum blockchain. The "Glamsterdam" upgrade introduces new rules for how the network calculates these fees, which could disrupt existing billing and security systems.

A recent appeal from the Ethereum Foundation asks developers and auditors to check eight specific assumptions related to gas. While security firms like ChainSecurity and Dedaub are conducting audits, the core developers say they need individual projects to report how the changes might affect their specific services. The goal of the upgrade is to allow the network to handle more data while managing the storage requirements for Ethereum nodes.

Important details regarding the upgrade

• The upgrade introduces EIP-8037, which creates a separate "reservoir" for state gas used when creating persistent data.
• EIP-8038 will change the price of accessing and writing to existing data on the blockchain.
• Testing is required to see if these changes break relayer reimbursements or wallet security authorizations.
• A planned activation of the Hoodi testnet was postponed on October 22 and remains delayed.

New technical rules for gas accounting

Under the proposed EIP-8037, transactions with a gas limit higher than 16,777,216 will fund a separate state-gas reservoir. When an application creates new data, it will draw from this pool first. However, the common programming command used to check remaining fees, called gasleft(), will not include the gas in this reservoir.

This change can cause issues for relayers—services that pay transaction costs on behalf of users and then ask for a refund. Because gasleft() does not see the reservoir, a relayer might calculate a lower cost than what they actually paid. In some cases, the calculation could fail entirely, blocking the transaction from completing.

How the changes affect data costs

The Glamsterdam upgrade significantly changes the cost of storing data. For example, creating a new storage slot will cost a total of 110,020 gas under the new rules, compared to the previous cost of 22,100. This total is split between 12,100 for execution and 97,920 for state gas.

Updating an existing data slot will also see price changes. A first change to an existing slot could cost between 10,100 and 12,100 gas, depending on whether the data was recently accessed, up from previous costs of 2,900 to 5,000 gas.

What remains uncertain for developers

It is currently unclear when these changes will be activated on the Ethereum mainnet. The activation of the Hoodi testnet, which was supposed to happen on October 26, is still on hold while developers resolve these compatibility concerns. Developers are also considering a proposal that would prevent gas readings from increasing, which might solve some calculation errors but would not fix the reservoir billing issue.

Why this matters for the Ethereum ecosystem

These changes are important because they affect how apps charge users and how they stay secure. If the new accounting rules are not handled correctly, service providers could lose money by undercharging for fees. Additionally, certain wallet authorizations could potentially be reused after a transaction failure, creating a security risk. Developers must decide if their projects need to be rewritten or migrated to accommodate the new rules.

Sources

• CryptoSlate