Ethereum has launched the Platåberget testnet, a temporary testing environment created ahead of the network’s planned Glamsterdam upgrade. The network is expected to operate for several months, giving developers, validators and infrastructure providers time to evaluate changes affecting both Ethereum’s consensus and execution layers.

The testnet is scheduled to transition to the Glamsterdam fork on Aug. 20, 2026. Ethereum developers are encouraging ecosystem participants to use the environment to identify compatibility problems before the upgrade progresses to longer-running public test networks and eventually the mainnet.

Platåberget provides an extended environment for testing Glamsterdam’s major protocol changes before they reach Ethereum’s more established testnets and mainnet. That matters for the broader ecosystem because upgrades at this layer can affect everything from transaction handling to the software used by wallets, indexers and node operators. Glamsterdam introduces several significant changes, including gas repricing, enshrined proposer-builder separation and block-level access lists. These changes could require updates across a wide range of Ethereum infrastructure, including wallets, indexers, gas estimation systems and applications that depend on existing network behavior.

Major Protocol Changes Under Glamsterdam

One of the central changes is enshrined proposer-builder separation under Ethereum Improvement Proposal 7732. The proposal modifies how blocks are constructed and validated, and could require infrastructure providers to adjust systems connected to Ethereum’s block production process.

Another major change comes through EIP-7928, which introduces block-level access lists. The mechanism is intended to track state changes more systematically and improve information exchange between execution-layer peers.

Gas pricing is also being revised through EIP-8007. The proposal targets a gas floor of about 200 million, creating potential compatibility issues for applications and tools that depend on fixed or outdated gas-limit assumptions.

EIP-7954 will increase the maximum sizes permitted for deployed contracts and initialization code. The change could make it easier to develop more complex applications by providing additional capacity for larger contracts.

Meanwhile, EIP-7688 introduces forward-compatible consensus structures intended to make Ethereum better prepared for subsequent protocol upgrades.

Gas Repricing Creates New Developer Requirements

Gas repricing is expected to be one of the most important areas for developers to examine during testing. The changes affect both overall block gas costs and the costs associated with individual operations.

Transactions involving activities such as creating new accounts or deploying contracts will face revised costs based on state-related gas dimensions. This differs from the traditional assumption that a basic ETH transfer consistently requires a flat 21,000 gas.

Developers whose applications rely on hardcoded gas assumptions will therefore need to review and update their systems. Testing on Platåberget could help identify failures before Glamsterdam advances to production-oriented environments.

Testing ePBS and Infrastructure

Platåberget is intended to remain available longer than many earlier short-term Ethereum development networks. That additional time is expected to help developers and validators uncover problems that might not emerge during brief testing periods.

Validators can participate by depositing funds, while testnet ETH is available through a dedicated faucet. Ethereum is placing particular emphasis on testing enshrined proposer-builder separation workflows, with solo stakers, distributed validator technology projects and large-scale infrastructure operators among the participants expected to benefit from early testing.

Feedback and bug reports from Platåberget will help shape Ethereum client updates, technical specifications and subsequent testing stages before Glamsterdam reaches mainnet. Developers can report issues through Ethereum’s research and development community channels and relevant GitHub repositories covering consensus, execution and builder specifications.

Glamsterdam Moves Toward Mainnet

Following the Platåberget testing period, Ethereum plans to establish a non-finality development network designed to examine unusual consensus scenarios and edge cases. Once the upgrade reaches a sufficient level of stability, testing is expected to progress to the Sepolia and Hoodi networks.

The staged approach is intended to reduce the risk of infrastructure failures when Glamsterdam eventually reaches Ethereum’s mainnet. Developers will have an opportunity to test client compatibility, transaction handling, gas estimation and other critical components before the upgrade becomes permanent.

The testing phase gives Ethereum’s developer ecosystem a crucial opportunity to adapt infrastructure to new gas rules, block-building mechanisms and consensus structures ahead of the Glamsterdam mainnet transition. The launch of Platåberget marks another step in Ethereum’s preparation for the upgrade, and the extended testing period should give developers and validators more time to surface issues before the changes reach broader public networks.