What’s on the Ethereum Roadmap: Glamsterdam, Hegota and Beyond

Briefly

Ethereum has accomplished 5 main upgrades since switching to proof-of-stake in 2022.
Dencun decreased layer-2 charges, whereas Pectra and Fusaka expanded scaling and staking.
Glamsterdam and Hegota are the subsequent main upgrades anticipated in 2026.

Like all blockchain initiatives, Ethereum is below energetic improvement, with upgrades designed to make it sooner, cheaper, and simpler to make use of.

As a substitute of a single “Ethereum 2.0” occasion, the community upgrades via coordinated modifications referred to as hard forks that introduce new options or modify how the protocol operates.

For the reason that Merge in September 2022, builders have targeted on scaling, reducing transaction prices, bettering wallets, and making it simpler to run nodes and validators. The Ethereum group can be aiming for roughly two main upgrades per 12 months when analysis and testing are prepared.

Ethereum’s rollup-focused scaling technique

Ethereum’s scaling plan depends on layer-2 networks. These are separate blockchains constructed on high of Ethereum that course of transactions off-chain and ship outcomes again to Ethereum for safety and settlement.

Many layer-2 programs use rollups, which bundle a number of transactions collectively and publish them to Ethereum as a single batch, permitting Ethereum to help extra exercise with out the bottom chain processing each transaction.

In consequence, a lot of Ethereum’s improvement now focuses on making it cheaper and simpler for rollups to make use of the community.

The six phases of the Ethereum roadmap

In July 2022, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin described the community’s six roadmap phases because the Merge, the Surge, the Scourge, the Verge, the Purge, and the Splurge.

These phases will not be single upgrades however broad objectives, and a number of other progress in parallel.

The Merge: Accomplished. Ethereum moved from mining to staking, reducing vitality use by roughly 99.95%.
The Surge: Ongoing. Targeted on scaling Ethereum so rollups can course of extra transactions at decrease value.
The Scourge: Ongoing. Targeted on decreasing the affect of intermediaries in block manufacturing and addressing maximal extractable value (MEV).
The Verge: Ongoing. Goals to introduce Verkle Timber and associated modifications to cut back useful resource necessities for verifying Ethereum’s state.
The Purge: Ongoing. Targeted on pruning outdated knowledge and simplifying the protocol to make Ethereum simpler to keep up.
The Splurge: A set of smaller enhancements and long-term upgrades that improve usability and effectivity.

Timeline of Ethereum upgrades

Ethereum’s roadmap is applied via a sequence of onerous forks.

Accomplished upgrades

September 2022 — The Merge: Ethereum transitioned from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, decreasing vitality use by about 99.95%. Validators now lock up ETH to safe the community. The improve modified Ethereum’s safety mechanism however didn’t immediately decrease charges or improve transaction velocity.
April 2023 — Shanghai/Shapella: Shapella enabled validator withdrawals. Early validators had locked ETH for years with no withdrawal choice. The improve launched partial withdrawals and full exits.
March 2024 — Dencun: Dencun launched proto-danksharding (EIP-4844). It added momentary “blob” storage, creating cheaper house for rollup knowledge so it not competes with regular transactions for block house. This considerably decreased prices for a lot of layer-2 networks.
Might 2025 — Pectra: Pectra mixed the “Prague” (execution) and “Electra” (consensus) upgrades. Pockets modifications reminiscent of EIP-7702 permit normal wallets to behave like good accounts in some instances, enabling options like batching actions into one transaction or delegating gasoline cost. The improve additionally raised the utmost efficient stake per validator from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, letting giant operators consolidate into fewer validators, which some worry might improve focus. Pectra additionally elevated Ethereum’s capability to deal with rollup knowledge.
December 2025 — Fusaka: Ethereum’s Fusaka onerous fork (brief for Fulu-Osaka) activated on mainnet in early December 2025 and targeted on knowledge availability, together with Peer Information Availability Sampling (PeerDAS), which lets validators confirm small samples of rollup knowledge as an alternative of downloading all of it. This helps extra rollup knowledge per block with out requiring rather more highly effective {hardware} and is paired with greater knowledge capability on the protocol degree.

Deliberate and upcoming upgrades

First half of 2026 — Glamsterdam (focused): Core builders are focusing on a mid-2026 improve referred to as Glamsterdam as a part of Ethereum’s roughly twice-yearly fork cycle, although timing might change. The improve focuses on scaling the bottom layer by enabling extra parallel transaction execution via block-level entry lists and by integrating proposer-builder separation (ePBS) immediately into the protocol to enhance block constructing and throughput. The improve can be anticipated to regulate the price of state storage to mirror {hardware} calls for higher and cut back long-term database progress. Extra proposals embrace validator rule modifications, decrease ETH switch charges, improved transaction logging, and deterministic contract addresses throughout chains. Node operators and stakers might want to replace their shoppers to help the fork.
Second half of 2026 — Hegota: The Hegota improve is slated for the second half of 2026, although the ultimate scope continues to be being outlined. A key purpose is adopting Verkle Trees, which permit nodes to confirm blockchain knowledge with a lot smaller proofs and cut back state storage necessities. This may transfer Ethereum nearer to a extra stateless design, reducing {hardware} calls for and making it simpler to run a node. Builders are additionally engaged on upgrades reminiscent of Fork-choice Enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL), geared toward strengthening censorship resistance, and smart-account–targeted modifications (together with frame-style transactions) that might allow options like gasoline sponsorship and social restoration as soon as the underlying proposals are finalized.

Improve names and scopes can change throughout improvement as proposals are refined earlier than every onerous fork.