Ethereum's Fusaka Upgrade Faces Uncertain Timeline

Tomasz K. Stanczak, co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, has urged core teams to focus on the upcoming 'Fusaka' hard fork, set for late 2023, while putting discussions of the 'Glamsterdam' upgrade, aimed for early 2026, on hold. He cautioned that a lack of coordination could jeopardize deadlines. In a post shared on a FridayX thread, Stanczak remarked that while Glamsterdam has garnered attention, the community should be more vigilant about potential delays affecting Fusaka. He stressed, 'No discussions about our roadmap matter if we can't achieve coordination that allows us to meet our goals on time.' To ensure a successful launch, he recommended reducing future fork discussions and concentrating on the testnets for the current upgrade. Developers recognize that time is of the essence to deploy Fusaka's mainnet by 2025. Concerns have emerged from the All Core Devs Consensus call that consensus-layer client releases may be delayed until late September due to readiness issues, putting the Ethereum mainnet upgrade timeline at risk ahead of the Devconnect conference in November. Currently, Fusaka development networks are undergoing active testing, although public testnets are not yet available. Fusaka and Glamsterdam are the next two planned Ethereum hard forks, following Pectra. Fusaka aims to deliver incremental improvements, with its final details still being devised among core developers. In contrast, Glamsterdam, tentatively expected in early 2026, is intended to incorporate significant features like enshrined proposer-builder separation (ePBS) at the protocol level and EIP-7928 on execution side access lists. Stanczak's counsel is for EF developers to complete Fusaka before diverting resources toward Glamsterdam, given past delays in Ethereum's development. He acknowledged the efforts of talented individuals working to resolve the issues causing proposed timeline changes but emphasized the importance of a unified understanding that meeting deadlines is crucial. Developers are balancing reliability work, performance enhancements, and new features in light of the cascading effects on client teams and infrastructure providers. The Ethereum Foundation has restructured its research and development efforts to enhance core development and funding processes, combining research, client, and security streams while updating financial protocols in preparation for the pivotal 2025-26 cycle. This organizational change aims to streamline decision-making and improve coordination across client teams, which are critical factors now influencing the Fusaka timeline. Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal or financial advice.