Vitalik Pivots Ethereum to ‘Distributed Building’ as Glamsterdam Fork Targets 200M Gas
Vitalik Buterin targets ‘builder oligopolies’ with distributed block building as the network prepares for a 200M gas limit in the 2026 Glamsterdam fork.
The Trilemma is Dead. The Builder War Begins.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has officially declared the blockchain scalability trilemma “solved” following December’s Fusaka upgrade. But the victory lap came with a sharp pivot: the protocol must now dismantle the “builder oligopolies” threatening mainnet neutrality before the massive Glamsterdam fork in mid-2026.
Writing in a new post, Buterin argued that while Fusaka’s PeerDAS integration successfully scaled data availability, it left transaction inclusion centralized. Currently, two entities control over 80% of block construction, a centralization vector the Ethereum Foundation has flagged as a critical failure point. The proposed fix is Distributed Block Building.
ETH held steady at $3,216 (+8% 7d), absorbing the technical roadmap shift as the market digested the implications of breaking the builder cartel.
The Weapon: FOCIL & ePBS
The pivot places Fork-Choice Inclusion Lists (FOCIL) at the center of the 2026 roadmap. Unlike the current regime where builders have absolute authority over transaction ordering, FOCIL empowers validators to force-include transactions, effectively stripping builders of their censorship power.
Distributed building means no single party sees the full transaction set before finalization. It complicates MEV extraction, but it ensures neutrality.
This mechanism complements Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), a protocol-level upgrade designed to cut reliance on trusted relays. The goal is to fragment the builder role so completely that no single entity can gatekeep the chain.
Glamsterdam: The 200M Gas Monster
While FOCIL secures the base, the upcoming Glamsterdam hard fork is poised to brute-force capacity. Developers confirmed the fork will target a 200 million gas limit, a more than 3x jump from the current ~60 million ceiling established post-Fusaka.
This expansion relies on Block Access Lists (EIP-7928), which introduce “perfect parallel processing.” By allowing the network to execute non-conflicting transactions simultaneously, Ethereum aims to service high-frequency order books without clogging the main lane.
Institutional interest appears priced in. The Fusaka upgrade already reduced L2 data costs by nearly 90%, and the promise of a 200M gas limit signals to heavy compute users, specifically on-chain clearinghouses, that L1 is reopening for business.
