Ethereum 2.0 is not a separate network or a new coin. It was the old name for a series of upgrades to the existing Ethereum blockchain. The biggest of them, the Merge on 15 September 2022, moved Ethereum from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. The Ethereum Foundation dropped the "Eth2" label on 24 January 2022, and ETH holders never had to do anything. The upgrades are still going. The next one, Glamsterdam, went live on the Sepolia testnet on 6 October 2026. On 22 October 2026 developers postponed its activation on the Hoodi testnet, and no mainnet date has been set.
Latest: Glamsterdam is delayed on testnet (October 2026)
- 6 October 2026: Glamsterdam activated on the Sepolia testnet, according to the Ethereum Foundation's announcement.
- 22 October 2026: Core developers decided on All Core Devs call ACDE #248 to postpone the Hoodi testnet activation, which had been set for 26 October 2026. The official reason is "to allow for further investigation of interactions of EIP-8037 with mainnet smart contracts." The planned increase of Hoodi's gas limit to 200 million was postponed with it. "A new activation date has not been set."
- Mainnet: The activation date is undecided. The Foundation says mainnet users and ETH holders do not need to do anything.
Glamsterdam's headline changes:
- Enshrined proposer-builder separation (ePBS, EIP-7732): splits block proposing from block building inside the consensus protocol, so the two roles rely less on trusted outside middleware.
- Block-level access lists (EIP-7928): each block records the accounts and storage it touches, which lets clients read state and validate transactions in parallel.
- Gas repricing: this includes EIP-8037 (higher state-creation gas cost) and EIP-8038 (updated state-access gas cost). EIP-8037 is the change now under review.
Why the name "Ethereum 2.0" was retired
On 24 January 2022 the Ethereum Foundation replaced "Eth1" with execution layer and "Eth2" with consensus layer. Together the two layers make up Ethereum. The Foundation gave these reasons:
- The old names suggested that Eth1 would be shut down and replaced by Eth2. Neither was true.
- Scammers told users to swap ETH for "ETH2" tokens or to "migrate" before the upgrade.
- Some staking providers showed staked ETH under an "ETH2" ticker, but no such token exists.
The practical point still holds: there is no ETH2 token to buy, swap or claim. Treat any request to migrate ETH as a scam.
What actually shipped: the upgrade timeline
All dates below are mainnet activations, taken from ethereum.org's upgrade history.
| Date | Upgrade | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Dec 2020 | Beacon Chain genesis | Proof-of-stake chain launched alongside mainnet once 16,384 deposits of 32 ETH were made |
| 27 Oct 2021 | Altair | First Beacon Chain upgrade: sync committees for light clients, higher inactivity and slashing penalties |
| 6 Sep 2022 | Bellatrix | Prepared the Beacon Chain for the Merge |
| 15 Sep 2022 | Paris (the Merge) | Switched Ethereum from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake (EIP-3675) |
| 12 Apr 2023 | Shanghai-Capella ("Shapella") | Enabled staking withdrawals (EIP-4895) |
| 13 Mar 2024 | Cancun-Deneb ("Dencun") | Proto-danksharding: cheaper data "blobs" for rollups (EIP-4844) |
| 7 May 2025 | Prague-Electra ("Pectra") | Account, staking and blob-capacity changes (EIP-7702, EIP-7251, EIP-7002, EIP-7691 and others) |
| 3 Dec 2025 | Fulu-Osaka ("Fusaka") | PeerDAS data availability sampling (EIP-7594) |
| Not set | Amsterdam-Gloas ("Glamsterdam") | ePBS, block-level access lists, gas repricing |
ethereum.org lists Bogotá-Heze ("Hegotá") as a later upgrade, also without a date.
Ethereum 2.0: do you need to do anything?
Pick what describes you to see what the upgrades from the Beacon Chain to Glamsterdam mean for you.
Which of these describes you?
- Someone asked me to swap, migrate or claim "ETH2" tokens → Treat it as a scam
- I hold ETH and want to know if the Merge or Glamsterdam needs action → No action needed
- I stake ETH or plan to run a validator → next question
What do you want to do as a staker?
- Activate a new validator → You still need at least 32 ETH
- Stake an amount that is not a multiple of 32 ETH, or merge several validators → Use compounding (0x02) withdrawal credentials
- Exit a validator without using its signing key → Trigger the exit from the execution layer
- Withdraw staked ETH → Withdrawals have worked since Shapella
There is no ETH2 token to buy, swap or claim. On 24 January 2022 the Ethereum Foundation renamed Eth2 to the consensus layer, partly because scammers told users to swap ETH for "ETH2" tokens or to "migrate" before the upgrade.
ETH balances, contracts and transaction history carried over unchanged through the Merge on 15 September 2022. No upgrade so far, including the Glamsterdam delay, has required holders to act, and the Foundation says mainnet users and ETH holders do not need to do anything.
A validator needs at least 32 ETH to activate. Since Pectra on 7 May 2025, EIP-7251 lets one validator hold up to 2,048 ETH.
Since Pectra, EIP-7251 lets one validator hold up to 2,048 ETH. With compounding (0x02) withdrawal credentials, stakers can stake amounts that are not multiples of 32 and can merge several validators into one.
Since Pectra, EIP-7002 lets stakers trigger an exit using their execution-layer withdrawal credentials, without the validator signing key.
Staked ETH could not be withdrawn after the Merge until Shanghai-Capella ("Shapella") activated on 12 April 2023 and enabled staking withdrawals (EIP-4895).
This covers only the Ethereum upgrades named in the article as of 25 October 2026: it does not walk through validator setup, client software or tax, and the Glamsterdam schedule may change again.
The Merge: what changed and what didn't
What changed:
- New blocks are now proposed and attested by validators who stake ETH, not by miners using computing power.
- ethereum.org estimates that Ethereum's energy use fell by about 99.95%.
- Every node now runs two pieces of software: an execution client that handles transactions and state, and a consensus client that handles proof-of-stake. They talk to each other through the Engine API.
What didn't change:
- Fees: ethereum.org says the Merge did not lower gas fees, because it changed how blocks are agreed on, not how many transactions fit in them.
- Withdrawals: staked ETH could not be withdrawn until Shapella in April 2023.
- Balances: ETH balances, contracts and transaction history carried over unchanged. "No action is required to upgrade on your part."
What happened to shard chains
The original Eth2 plan split Ethereum into many parallel "shard chains." ethereum.org now says plainly: "Shard chains are no longer part of the roadmap." Layer 2 rollups took over most of the scaling work, and Ethereum's job became publishing their data cheaply.
- Proto-danksharding (Dencun, March 2024): added blobs, a data type that rollups attach to blocks. The EVM cannot read blobs, and they are deleted after 4,096 epochs, about 18 days. Cheaper data posting can lower fees on rollups.
- Pectra (May 2025): EIP-7691 raised the blob target to 6 and the maximum to 9 per block.
- Fusaka (December 2025): with PeerDAS, each node stores only part of the blob data, and the full data can be rebuilt from any 50% of the pieces. Blob-parameter-only (BPO) forks can now raise blob limits between major upgrades. ethereum.org gives a theoretical blob scale-up of up to 8x.
- Full danksharding (future): ethereum.org describes raising blobs per block to 64 and scaling Ethereum to more than 100,000 transactions per second. That stage depends on proposer-builder separation and data availability sampling, and ePBS is the piece Glamsterdam would add.
What this means for ETH holders and stakers
- Holders: no upgrade so far, including the Glamsterdam delay, has required holders to act. Your ETH stays on the same chain.
- Staking minimum: a validator still needs at least 32 ETH to activate.
- Since Pectra: EIP-7251 lets one validator hold up to 2,048 ETH. With compounding (0x02) withdrawal credentials, stakers can stake amounts that are not multiples of 32 and can merge several validators into one. EIP-7002 lets stakers trigger an exit using their execution-layer withdrawal credentials, without the validator signing key.
- Wallets: EIP-7702 lets a regular address sign an authorization so it can act like a chosen smart contract. That enables features such as bundled transactions and gasless transactions.
Limitations: the dates and technical details come from Ethereum Foundation and ethereum.org pages as of 25 October 2026, and the Glamsterdam schedule may change again.
