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Ethereum Foundation Restructures Protocol Team Ahead of Glamsterdam Scaling Upgrade

After a Svalbard interop meeting, the Ethereum Foundation said Glamsterdam testing showed stable ePBS progress while it named three new Protocol team co-leads and targeted a 200 million gas limit.

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Fact Check
All four key claims are independently corroborated by multiple credible sources. The Block (May 11, 2026) directly confirms the three new Protocol team co-leads (Will Corcoran, Kev Wedderburn, and Fredrik) and references the official EF blog post. PANews and Christine D. Kim's ACDE #236 recap both confirm the Svalbard (Soldøgn Interop) meeting, stable ePBS progress on Glamsterdam devnets, and the 200 million gas limit target. The claim's description of the gas limit as a 'target' is slightly imprecise - sources describe it as a 'floor' or 'lower bound' - but the 200 million figure is accurate. The claim correctly identifies the interop location as Svalbard and correctly characterizes ePBS progress as 'stable.' The restructuring and co-lead appointments are confirmed by The Block with a direct link to the official EF blog post at blog.ethereum.org/2026/05/11/protocol-update-may-26.
Summary

The Ethereum Foundation said work on the Glamsterdam upgrade advanced after an interoperability meeting in Svalbard, with enshrined proposer-builder separation (ePBS) operating stably on a multi-client development network and EIP-8037 finalized using a fixed cost_per_state_byte model. At the same time, it restructured its Protocol team, naming Will Corcoran, Kev Wedderburn, and Fredrik as new co-leads, while Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko plan to leave their roles and Alex Stokes will take leave. The foundation also said Glamsterdam is targeting a 200 million gas limit to expand Ethereum’s network capacity. Looking further ahead, Fusaka remains targeted for December 2025 and is planned to include PeerDAS and higher Ethereum mainnet gas capacity to improve scalability and throughput.

Terms & Concepts
  • ePBS: Enshrined proposer-builder separation, a protocol design that separates block proposing from block building to improve market structure and reduce centralization pressure.
  • EIP-8037: An Ethereum Improvement Proposal that finalizes a fixed cost_per_state_byte model for pricing state growth within the protocol.
  • Gas limit: The maximum amount of computational work allowed in a block. Raising it can increase network capacity by allowing more transactions and smart contract activity.