Ethereum’s upcoming major upgrade, Fusaka, has gone live on the network’s final testnet, Hoodi, marking the last step before its Dec. 3 mainnet launch. The update is expected to deliver significant improvements to scalability and security across the ecosystem.
“Another smooth upgrade, another key milestone on the road to Fusaka,” Nethermind wrote on X Tuesday, after its popular validator client successfully executed the fork.
The Fusaka upgrade introduces multiple Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), including EIP-7594, which implements Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS). This feature allows validators to read smaller data fragments from layer 2 networks instead of entire blobs, enhancing node efficiency.
Other additions, such as EIP-7825 and EIP-7935, aim to raise the gas limit and optimize network performance as Ethereum moves closer to enabling parallel execution—the simultaneous processing of multiple smart contracts. Additional proposals in Fusaka will also strengthen support for zero-knowledge rollups, further advancing Ethereum’s scalability roadmap.
The Fusaka milestone comes amid a period of transition at the Ethereum Foundation, following the departure of several key contributors who have voiced concerns over the organization’s strategic direction for the network.
At the same time, Ether (ETH) has reached a new all-time high this year, buoyed by strong inflows into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and growing corporate treasury adoption of the asset.
A three-part rollout
The Fusaka upgrade will unfold in three stages: the initial mainnet activation, followed by the implementation of the EIP that expands blob capacity, and finally, a second hard fork to further increase that capacity.
Once Fusaka is complete, developer focus will shift to Glamsterdam, the next planned upgrade in Ethereum’s “Surge” phase — the part of its roadmap dedicated to scaling the network for higher throughput and lower costs.
Fusaka targets a key weakness in the blockchain trilemma
The Fusaka upgrade seeks to strengthen Ethereum’s scalability, addressing one leg of the well-known “blockchain trilemma”—a concept introduced by co-founder Vitalik Buterin that balances decentralization, security, and scalability.
Historically, Ethereum has prioritized decentralization and security, often at the expense of transaction throughput. In contrast, competing layer-1 blockchains such as Solana and Sui have leaned heavily toward scalability, offering faster transactions to challenge Ethereum’s dominance.
The Fusaka hard fork arrives roughly six months after Ethereum’s previous major upgrade, Pectra, which enhanced staking efficiency and introduced new wallet features aimed at improving overall user experience.
