Ethereum refactors itself for Glamsterdam hard fork
The Ethereum Foundation’s newly-formed Protocol division — leaner, led by EF veterans — sets the stage for the chain’s next major hard fork
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The Ethereum Foundation has redrawn its engineering playbook just as its next major hard fork, Glamsterdam, takes shape.
Announced Monday, “Protocol” is a reorganized EF R&D division focused on three goals: scaling L1, expanding blobspace and improving UX. Project coordinator Tim Beiko set the tone: “Protocol is now a more united and leaner organization with more focused teams…ensuring the EF’s resources are allocated toward maximal impact.”
Beiko and Ansgar Dietrichs will co-lead L1 scaling, while Francesco D’Amato and Alex Stokes oversee blob expansion and Barnabé Monnot and Josh Rudolf lead UX. Their mandates align directly with early Glamsterdam priorities.
At the latest AllCoreDevs call, developers floated two potential headliner EIPs: 7732 (ePBS), which enables pipelined block validation to reduce node load, and 7805 (FOCIL), which introduces fork-choice inclusion lists for stronger UX and censorship resistance.
“For Glamsterdam…we will have to find some ways to continue the blob scaling,” Dietrichs said on the call, adding that “there might be some EL-side scaling opportunities” too.
This new structure signals a much-needed shift: less sprawl, more delivery. But the renewed focus also required layoffs. The EF hasn’t disclosed numbers, but Beiko acknowledged, “It was a difficult decision…We are deeply thankful for their contributions and are confident they will find other opportunities to impact Ethereum’s trajectory.”
Still, not everyone is reassured. Developer Micah Zoltu questioned why improving censorship resistance, privacy and end-user security weren’t reaffirmed as “strategic goals,” calling the omission “incredibly concerning.” Hasu (of Flashbots and Lido) responded that prioritizing short-term usability — like cheap blobs and UX — may be necessary for Ethereum to scale without implying abandonment of its values. “More specialization [and] division of labor” between teams, he argued, is a feature, not a bug.
Yet Zoltu cautioned that unless values like CR and privacy are embedded into roadmap decisions — such as whether to include FOCIL — they risk becoming second-tier concerns. Whether Ethereum preserves its ethos while scaling depends not just on what it builds, but who decides what gets built.
That ethos sits at the heart of Cyber Fund’s thesis: Ethereum is more than a platform — it’s a global coordination machine for programmable institutions. But that vision only holds if the system can scale without compromising neutrality or sovereignty. The Protocol reorg appears engineered for that balance.
Cyber Fund also contends that Ethereum’s dominance will deepen as rollups adopt Ethereum for data availability, enabling seamless interoperability. Shared DA does simplify trust models and bridges, but it’s not sufficient. Interop also depends on compatible proof systems and message standards, which can work across heterogeneous DA layers like Celestia or EigenDA if paired with robust light clients and proof aggregation.
In practice, shared DA lowers friction, but isn’t mandatory, and may prove most valuable for DeFi and financial apps.
The bottom line is: Expectations are now high. “Ethereum stands at the edge of major breakthroughs,” Beiko said. “This may be our best shot at deploying not only our technology, but our values, at planetary scale.”
Glamsterdam will be the first real test of that model. As scoping progresses, it will show whether the Ethereum Foundation’s streamlined “Protocol” can move from principles to production.
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