Ethereum Development Services - Smart Contract Specialists

Glamsterdam activated May 1, 2026 and tripled Ethereum's block processing capacity by raising the gas limit from 60M to 200M. For developers, this means lower competition for blockspace, reduced base fees during typical usage, and cheaper Layer 2 transactions (which periodically post data to Ethereum mainnet). It also introduced enshrined proposer-builder separation (ePBS) to reduce MEV centralization risks. Existing contracts required no changes — the upgrade is fully backwards compatible.

Rule of thumb: deploy on L2 unless you have a specific reason to be on mainnet. Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism provide Ethereum security with sub-$0.01 transaction costs — your Solidity contracts deploy identically. Deploy on mainnet when: you need direct composability with mainnet-only protocols (some high-TVL DeFi hasn't fully bridged to L2), you're deploying a canonical contract others will reference, or when regulatory requirements specifically reference Ethereum mainnet. For most consumer dApps, NFT collections, and token launches, an L2 provides better user experience.

ERC-4337 enables smart contract wallets without protocol changes — users get wallets with passkey login (no seed phrases), social recovery, session keys (sign multiple transactions with one approval), and gas sponsorship (pay gas in ERC-20 or sponsor user fees entirely). Implement ERC-4337 when your application targets users who won't manage seed phrases (mainstream consumers), when you need batch transaction UX, or when gas sponsorship is core to your business model. Biconomy, Pimlico, and Alchemy provide AA infrastructure that simplifies implementation.

Our security process: (1) Use OpenZeppelin's audited contract libraries as the foundation — don't reimplement ERC-20, ERC-721, or access control from scratch. (2) Write Foundry unit tests (95%+ coverage) and invariant tests simulating adversarial conditions. (3) Run Slither and Aderyn static analysis, addressing all high/medium severity findings. (4) Conduct internal review against the OWASP Smart Contract Top 10 and DeFi-specific attack patterns. (5) Recommend independent audit from Trail of Bits, OpenZeppelin, or Spearbit before mainnet deployment for contracts holding significant value.

Foundry is a Rust-based Ethereum development toolkit (forge for testing, cast for RPC interactions, anvil for local chain). It's the primary framework for 57% of Solidity developers in 2025, up from 51% in 2024. Foundry advantages over Hardhat: tests written in Solidity (not JavaScript) catching type mismatches, 10-100× faster test execution, built-in fuzzing with property-based testing, and cheatcodes for manipulating EVM state. Hardhat (33% usage) remains valid — it has more plugin ecosystem maturity and better debugging tools. Most 2026 projects use Foundry for testing and Hardhat for deployment scripts.

Key optimizations: use uint256 over smaller uint types (packing in structs is the exception), pack multiple variables into one storage slot when possible, prefer calldata over memory for function inputs, use events instead of storage for data only needed off-chain, minimize external contract calls in loops, use unchecked blocks for arithmetic that can't overflow, and use immutable/constant for values set at deployment. For hot paths, custom errors (revert CustomError()) consume less gas than string error messages. We profile gas usage with Foundry's gas snapshots before deployment.

Ethereum mainnet (chain ID 1) holds real ETH and real value — transactions are permanent and irreversible. Testnets use worthless test ETH: Sepolia is the primary test network for contract development and deployment testing. Holesky is the staking testnet for validator testing. All development follows: local Anvil/Hardhat node → Sepolia testnet → mainnet production. We deploy to Sepolia for client demos and integration testing before any mainnet transaction.

Upgradeable contracts use a Proxy pattern: a Proxy contract holds all state and delegates logic calls to an Implementation contract. Upgrading changes the Implementation address in the Proxy without changing the Proxy address users interact with. OpenZeppelin's UUPS (Universal Upgradeable Proxy Standard) and Transparent Proxy are the standard implementations. Key tradeoffs: upgradeable contracts require more complex storage layout discipline, introduce admin key custody risk (who can upgrade), and may reduce trustlessness — in DeFi, many teams add timelocks and DAO governance to upgrade paths to address this.

Optimistic rollups (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base) batch transactions, post state to Ethereum mainnet, and use a 7-day challenge window for dispute resolution — providing Ethereum security at 1/100th the cost. ZK rollups (zkSync, Starknet, Polygon zkEVM) use cryptographic validity proofs instead of challenge windows — proving correctness without 7-day delays. For most dApps, the L2 user experience is near-identical to Ethereum — users bridge once via the official bridge or cross-chain aggregators like Across Protocol.

We offer support covering: smart contract monitoring for unusual activity (Tenderly alerts, on-chain analytics), gas optimization reviews as Ethereum upgrades change cost dynamics, security patch implementation if vulnerabilities are discovered post-deployment, contract upgrade coordination through governance processes, and frontend maintenance as wallet providers update their APIs. We also provide incident response support if a security issue is discovered — having pre-planned incident response procedures significantly reduces risk.