Ethereum’s next major upgrade, Glamsterdam, will end the long-standing rule that every basic ether (ETH) transfer costs a flat 21,000 units of gas. Under the change, sending ETH to an existing account will still cost 21,000 gas, but transfers to never-before-used addresses will incur an additional 183,600 units of new “state gas.”
Ethereum developers are warning wallet providers and blockchain services to update any software that assumes 21,000 gas is both the minimum and maximum for ETH transfers before Glamsterdam reaches mainnet.
This change will affect software built around the assumption of 21,000 as a fixed number, as ETH transfers will no longer carry the same network fee.
Glamsterdam switches on Thursday on Platåberget, a practice version of Ethereum, and it will reach two more test networks — Sepolia and Hoodi — after that:
