Buterin Reveals 'Glamsterdam' to Address Centralization Risk
On March 3, 2026, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined the 'Glamsterdam' upgrade, a strategic initiative aimed squarely at mitigating a growing systemic risk within the network. The core issue is the potential for builder centralization—where a small number of entities assemble transaction blocks—to corrupt the decentralized nature of network validators. This concentration of power could ultimately lead to transaction censorship, undermining a foundational principle of the Ethereum blockchain. The upgrade directly addresses this vulnerability to preserve the network's long-term security and permissionless nature.
FOCIL Mechanism to Use 16 Attesters for Enforcement
The technical heart of the Glamsterdam upgrade is enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), a protocol change that formally separates the roles of block proposers (validators) and block builders. To enforce this separation and prevent censorship, Buterin introduced a concept called FOCIL (Forced-Order Censorship Inclusion Lists). This system would empower 16 randomly selected attesters to mandate the inclusion of transactions, ensuring that dominant builders cannot exclude them. A more advanced concept, 'Big FOCIL,' was also proposed to further refine the builder's role to MEV ordering and execution. By hardcoding these rules into the protocol, Ethereum aims to strengthen its core value proposition of decentralization, a move that could bolster investor confidence in the platform's viability.
