Ethereum Merges Gloas Deposit-Routing Rule Into Consensus Specification

Ethereum consensus-specification maintainers merged a revised deposit rule Monday, Oct. 26, for the upcoming Gloas fork, addressing a transition scenario in which a validator deposit could be routed to a block builder.

The issue involves a narrow case at the fork: a builder deposit and a validator deposit tied to one public key are both pending as Gloas begins. Researcher avsetsin raised the scenario, in which earlier rules could direct the validator’s funds to the builder rather than create the validator record the staking protocol expected. The issue described a conditional protocol risk, not a confirmed live exploit.

The new specification uses withdrawal credentials to route each pending deposit. Validator deposits remain in the validator queue, while valid builder deposits can register a builder or add funds to one. The routing change is designed to keep the two deposit types separate even when they share a public key.

Consensus-specification maintainer Justin Traglia closed the proposal Oct. 19, saying client support for the change was insufficient at that time. Reviewers reopened it Friday, Oct. 23, after further discussion and requests for added tests. The change was merged Monday with tests covering deposit routing and ordering.

The merge updates the consensus specification, but implementation pull requests for Lodestar and Teku remained under review. The specification change by itself does not show that all Ethereum clients have implemented or tested the revised handling.

The issue concerns the one-time Gloas transition; after the fork, deposits are processed on separate paths. The broader Glamsterdam upgrade combines Gloas, a consensus-layer change, with Amsterdam on Ethereum’s execution layer. Glamsterdam activated on Sepolia on Oct. 6.

The merged rule addresses the previously identified deposit-routing risk. The merged rule is a new specification development, separate from the Ethereum Foundation’s decision on Hoodi testing.

The Ethereum Foundation postponed Hoodi’s planned Oct. 26 Glamsterdam activation while developers investigate EIP-8037’s interactions with existing mainnet smart contracts. The postponement removed the scheduled testnet activation, and no replacement Hoodi date has been announced. No Glamsterdam mainnet activation date has been set.