Ethereum’s 2026 Upgrades Put Privacy, Scaling and Decentralization Back in Focus

• The Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade will expand data blobs to 72+, and raise the Layer-1 gas limit toward 100–200 million.
• Validators will verify zero-knowledge proofs, while Block Access Lists will enable “multi-lane” execution.

The Ethereum blockchain network is preparing for some major upgrades next year, in 2026, with a greater focus on scalability. After the success of the Fusaka upgrade this month, the development team will focus on the Glamsterdam fork, which will bring parallel processing and boost the ETH gas limit to 200 million, up from the existing 60 million, as reported earlier by CNF. In 2026, one major change that Ethereum Layer-1 will introduce is validators moving from re-executing transactions to verifying zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. This will set the stage for the long-term path towards scaling to roughly 10,000 transactions per second. At the same time, the total number of data blobs will jump to 72 or more, and will improve data availability for L2 networks. As a result, several L2 platforms will be able to handle hundreds of thousands of transactions per second. This will help in further offloading activity from the Ethereum base layer. All Eyes on Ethereum Glamsterdam Upgrade Ethereum developers are in the final stages of deciding which Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) will be included in the upcoming “Glamsterdam” hard fork. The developer team has confirmed Block Access Lists and Enshrined Proposer Builder Separation (ePBS). This could significantly improve Ethereum’s performance as the network prepares for a longer-term move toward zero-knowledge (ZK) technology. One of the biggest changes would be the introduction of Block Access Lists. Despite the name, the feature is not related to censorship. Instead, it is designed to unlock efficient parallel transaction processing on Ethereum’s execution layer. Until now, Ethereum has used the “single-lane” execution model to process transactions. Since transactions happen one after the other, it limits throughput and makes scaling more difficult. Block Access Lists will change this by allowing multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously. Under the new system, block producers, who already execute transactions using high-performance hardware, will include a detailed map inside each block. This map tells which accounts, storage slots, and state elements each transaction touches, as well as the next state changes. Execution clients can then use this information to safely divide transactions across multiple CPU cores and process them in parallel without conflicts. The move toward “perfect” parallel processing will allow Ethereum to handle higher transaction throughput and support larger block sizes without increasing the gas limit. That combination could improve scalability while taking care of the network’s existing fee and security model. L1 Gas Increase and Blob Target Ethereum’s base layer throughput is set to increase further in 2026 following recent upgrades that raised the network’s gas limit to 60 million. Developers and ecosystem leaders expect additional increases next year. Gary Schulte, senior staff blockchain protocol engineer working on the Besu execution client, said a move to a 100 million gas limit could happen relatively quickly in 2026. However, he cautioned that projections beyond that level remain speculative. Schulte added that Ethereum’s planned shift toward delayed execution could unlock support for higher gas limits. Tomasz Stańczak, co-director of the Ethereum Foundation, said at the recent Bankless Summit that the gas limit is expected to rise to 100 million in the first half of 2026. He added that, following the implementation of enshrined proposer-builder separation (ePBS), the limit could double to 200 million.