EIP-8037/EIP-8038 Glamsterdam
The Ethereum Foundation report examines how EIP‑8037 and EIP‑8038 in the upcoming Glamsterdam hard‑fork will break eight gas‑related invariants, exposing projects to potential failures. It recommends developers audit their contracts and has prompted a hard‑fork delay.
Key points
- Glamsterdam redefines gas costs for several operations, breaking eight known invariants.
- Chainsecurity identified multiple projects that could fail once the changes go live.
- The hard‑fork has been postponed until the identified issues are resolved.
- Developers are urged to audit their contracts against the listed invariants using the provided repo.
- Internal and external audits (Chainsecurity, Dedaub) are ongoing, but coverage cannot be exhaustive.
What the report investigates
The Ethereum Foundation’s latest brief focuses on the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade, specifically EIP‑8037 and EIP‑8038, which overhaul gas pricing for certain opcodes and state accesses. The core question is which existing smart contracts will break when these new gas rules invalidate eight previously‑assumed invariants.
Methodology and data sources
Chainsecurity conducted testnet experiments and flagged a handful of projects that would become vulnerable under the new rules. Their findings are documented in a public blog post and a diagnostic tool. The Foundation is also commissioning audits from Chainsecurity, Dedaub, and its own internal team, though it acknowledges that a full sweep of all on‑ and off‑chain code is infeasible.
Main findings
The report confirms that the gas‑repricing will indeed breach eight specific invariants, and several live contracts already rely on those assumptions. Because of this risk, the All Core Devs (ACD) group has decided to postpone the hard‑fork and hold off on the Hoodi fork until the issues are mitigated. Work on the subsequent Hegota upgrade continues unaffected.
Caveats and limitations
While the identified projects illustrate the problem, the audit scope is limited; many contracts may still be exposed but remain untested. The Foundation’s call for action is therefore a precautionary measure rather than a definitive list of all affected code.
Implications for the community
Contract developers, auditors, and tooling providers are encouraged to review the eight invariants—available in a dedicated GitHub repository—and run the provided prompts against their codebases. Any project found to be impacted should contact the Foundation at [email protected]. This collaborative approach aims to secure the network before the hard‑fork proceeds, preserving Ethereum’s reliability and developer confidence.