Ethereum is about to fundamentally change how blocks are executed. The upcoming Glamsterdam hard fork introduces EIP-7928: Block-level Access Lists, a proposal that unlocks parallel execution for the EVM. Let me break down what this is, how it works, and why it matters for scaling. At its core, EIP-7928 adds a Block Access List (BAL) to every Ethereum block. This list contains the accounts and storage slots the block touches, plus something crucial: post-transaction state diffs. These diffs tell you exactly what the state looks like after each transaction. Simple example: User A swaps 1 ETH for DAI on DEX B. The BAL shows User A's ETH balance drops by 1 ETH plus fees, their nonce increases by 1, DEX B's ETH balance rises by 1 ETH, and within the DAI contract, User A's DAI balance goes up while DEX B's goes down. All this information becomes statically available, something that previously required tracing transactions. Client software like Geth, Nethermind, and Reth can now do incredibly powerful things: 1. Parallel transaction execution. Knowing the state after each transaction resolves dependencies between them. No more waiting in line, perfect parallelization. 2. Batch preloading. Nodes can now load all required state into cache simultaneously, eliminating the bottleneck of discovering storage locations during execution. 3. Parallel post-state root computation. This expensive tree traversal work can now run concurrently with execution and preloading. 4. Snap sync v2. Nodes can catch up to the chain tip and skip the recovery phase entirely, making high-throughput sync stable and reliable. Performance improvements are already real. On a 6-core machine, EL clients validate blocks up to 5x faster, making a 300M gas limit very realistic. The hard fork will likely launch with a 200M gas limit for safety, but we should push to 300M and beyond quickly. Thats a 10x scaling increase since we started taking this seriously, without changing hardware requirements...