Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade entered its final devnet stage before public testnet deployment. The 241st ACDE meeting confirmed devnet8 will likely be the last devnet phase, targeting mainnet activation in the second half of this year. Base founder Jesse Pollack admitted in an Unchained interview that the social strategy failed, transferring Base app to Coby while x402-based agent payments now account for approximately 90% of Base transactions. Unichain's Total Value Secured dropped 72% to $77 million after Spark withdrew $204 million to reduce chain risk exposure. Ethereum maintains the world's largest ecosystem measured by developer count and Total Value Locked.
Glamsterdam Upgrade Enters Final Devnet8 Stage Before Public Testnet
Ethereum's next major upgrade Glamsterdam entered its final devnet stage. The 241st ACDE meeting confirmed devnet8 will likely be the last devnet phase before public testnet deployment. ACDE refers to the All Core Developers Execution meeting where Ethereum execution layer core developers discuss protocol upgrade matters.
Devnet is a development network where developers test new features before deploying them to actual networks. Multiple client teams test new features in the same environment to identify unexpected bugs and compatibility issues.
Glamsterdam will include 10 EIP bundles including ePBS and BAL. ePBS is a proposal to separate the roles of block proposer and block builder within the Ethereum protocol. While block proposers and builders often operate separately in practice, much of this structure relies on external infrastructure. ePBS attempts to bring this structure more directly into Ethereum's own rules.
BAL stands for Block Access List. It organizes in advance which accounts and storage spaces a specific block read and modified, helping nodes verify and synchronize blocks more efficiently. In simple terms, if ePBS changes the structure of "who creates and proposes blocks," BAL provides "the map needed to verify blocks faster and more efficiently."
Glamsterdam targets mainnet activation in the second half of this year. Before mainnet deployment, the upgrade must pass through devnet and public testnet stages to confirm stability. App developers are advised to begin preparations now. When Glamsterdam is applied, multiple parts of Ethereum infrastructure may change including block creation structure, network data processing, and node synchronization methods.
Glamsterdam represents a foundational upgrade for Ethereum to achieve greater throughput, better censorship resistance, and more stable block production structure rather than an immediately user-facing app feature upgrade. The entry into devnet8 marks Glamsterdam's transition from discussion phase to actual testing and deployment preparation stage.
Base Transfers App to Coby After Social Strategy Admission
Base founder Jesse Pollack admitted in an Unchained interview that Base app's social strategy was wrong. Base app conducted experiments for some time attempting to expand as an on-chain social and content-focused app. Jesse Pollack explained the direction betting on social features did not work as expected.
Base app will be transferred to Coby and realigned as an on-chain trading app, while Jesse Pollack himself will focus on the Base chain itself. Coby is known as the person who sold Echo to Coinbase. This change shows Base is adjusting strategy to place more weight on on-chain finance and trading infrastructure rather than consumer social apps.
Technically, Base is also pursuing a transition to its own stack while reducing dependence on the existing Optimism stack. The Optimism stack is a development framework for creating Layer 2 chains. Base started based on this framework, but recently has been strengthening its independent direction through proprietary upgrades such as Azul, B20 token standard, and Cobalt.
Azul is an upgrade that advances Base's proof system and execution structure. B20 is an ERC-20 variant token standard specialized for payments. ERC-20 is the most widely used standard when creating tokens on Ethereum. Cobalt can be viewed as a subsequent technical flow Base is pursuing in its transition to a proprietary stack.
Jesse Pollack also revealed that x402-based agent payments currently account for approximately 90% of Base transactions. x402 is a payment standard attempting to handle payment requests and responses like internet protocols. It can be utilized for AI agents or automated programs to automatically pay API usage fees, data access fees, and service usage fees.
Agent payments refer to a structure where AI agents or software automatically make payments while performing specific tasks, rather than a person directly pressing a payment button. In simple terms, Base is turning toward focusing more on "chain infrastructure where agent payments and on-chain trading operate" rather than "on-chain social apps."
This change is significant in that Base is re-establishing its identity as Layer 2 infrastructure for payment, trading, and agent economy, moving away from simple consumer app experiments.
Unichain TVS Drops 72% Following Spark $204 Million Withdrawal
Unichain's Total Value Secured scale decreased sharply. Spark withdrew $204 million from Unichain to reduce chain risk exposure. As a result, Unichain's TVS dropped 72% to the $77 million level.
TVS stands for Total Value Secured, meaning the scale of assets a specific chain or protocol protects through its security and verification structure. Unichain's TVS previously rose to $1.57 billion. After this decrease, it has declined approximately 95% from its peak.
Spark's fund withdrawal is not a simple liquidity movement but connects to how Layer 2 chain risk should be evaluated. Layer 2 provides lower fees and faster transactions than Ethereum, but each chain has different risks in sequencer, bridge, upgrade authority, and verification structure.
When a large liquidity provider decides to reduce risk on a specific chain, it can directly impact that chain's TVS and ecosystem credibility. L2Beat researcher donno also raised questions about Unichain's core value proposition.
Unichain has received expectations that liquidity could flow to Unichain when Optimism Superchain interoperability launches. Interoperability is a feature that allows multiple chains to exchange assets and messages with each other more easily. However, donno viewed it as uncertain whether such flow would actually work favorably for Unichain.
In simple terms, Unichain received expectations that "liquidity will flow when Superchain connects," but as large funds exit, that value proposition itself has come under test. This case shows that technical interoperability alone is not sufficient in Layer 2 competition. For large liquidity to actually stay, chain security, risk management, profit opportunities, and app ecosystem must be supported together.
Vitalik Buterin Releases Anonymous Forum Demo on Aztec Network
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin released an anonymous forum demo on Aztec. This demo is an experiment implementing the "moderated anonymous forum" concept Vitalik presented in a 2022 blog post into actual code. Vitalik explained he created it using vibe coding methods.
Vibe coding refers to a development method where developers rapidly implement ideas by conversing with AI tools rather than directly writing detailed code line by line. This anonymous forum has a structure where users can deposit ETH, post content in a state not directly connected to their address, and withdraw again.
In other words, even when writing posts on the forum, it is difficult for outsiders to easily connect which wallet address the post came from. Aztec is an Ethereum Layer 2 focused on privacy. It uses zero-knowledge proofs to hide transaction or state information while still allowing verification that rules were properly followed.
The interesting part of this demo is that it addresses both privacy and moderation together. Generally, complete anonymity can increase problems with spam, illegal content, and malicious posts. Conversely, strong moderation can lead to tracking more user identity or behavioral records.
Vitalik's demo is an experiment attempting to satisfy both. The forum has on-chain moderation policies, and a local large language model reads these policies to automatically flag violating posts. A local large language model is an AI model running on a user device or specific local environment. It can perform content review without sending all post data to a central server.
In simple terms, users can write posts anonymously, but the forum can filter problem posts according to publicly disclosed rules. The code was released on GitHub. This experiment shows that complete privacy and content moderation do not necessarily conflict with each other.
It can be viewed as a small case showing how Ethereum and zero-knowledge proof-based apps can design anonymity, accountability, and community operation rules together in the future.
Ethereum Korea Consortium Opens Grants Program for Researchers and Builders
The Ethereum Korea Consortium is conducting a grants program targeting domestic researchers and contributors. The Ethereum Korea Consortium is a domestic Ethereum ecosystem organization launched this year. This program has the purpose of discovering and supporting Korean Ethereum researchers, developers, builders, and community contributors.
Selected teams or individuals will receive multiple forms of support. First, expenses for participating in Devcon in November will be supported. Devcon is one of the most important global developer conferences in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Opportunities to connect with global builders will also be provided. This is a mechanism to help domestic contributors directly interact with overseas researchers, projects, and protocol teams rather than limiting activities within Korea. Presentation opportunities at the EK1 conference in September are also included.
Selectees can introduce their research or projects in front of the domestic Ethereum community and receive feedback. In simple terms, this grants program is a growth support program helping domestic Ethereum contributors connect with the global ecosystem.
Applications will be accepted from August 1 to 23. This program is significant in that the Korean Ethereum ecosystem is expanding beyond a simple information consumer or investor community toward a direction actually contributing to research and development. Detailed information can be viewed here.
Weekly Ethereum Metrics: Inflation Rate, Staking Ratio, ETF Inflows
Annual inflation rate: 0.857%. Staking ratio: 32.99%. Stablecoin market cap: $149.127 billion. US Ethereum spot ETF net inflow last week: $103.8 million. Sources: Ultrasound Money, DeFiLlama, Dune, Farside Investors.
FAQ
What is the Glamsterdam upgrade entering its final testing stage?
Glamsterdam is Ethereum's next major upgrade entering devnet8, confirmed at the 241st ACDE meeting as likely the final devnet phase before public testnet deployment. The upgrade includes 10 EIP bundles including ePBS and BAL, targeting mainnet activation in the second half of this year.
Why did Base transfer its app to Coby?
Base founder Jesse Pollack admitted in an Unchained interview that Base app's social strategy was wrong. The app will be transferred to Coby and realigned as an on-chain trading app, while Jesse Pollack focuses on the Base chain itself where x402-based agent payments now account for approximately 90% of transactions.
How much did Unichain's TVS drop after Spark's withdrawal?
Unichain's Total Value Secured dropped 72% to $77 million after Spark withdrew $204 million to reduce chain risk exposure. Unichain's TVS previously peaked at $1.57 billion, representing approximately a 95% decline from its peak.
