Ethereum prepares to overhaul its state structure with a Partitioned Binary Tree

EIP-8297 has cleared a mainnet shadowfork test, with full deployment slated for Q4 2026 and no firm date yet Ethereum is getting ready to reorganize the data underneath it. The plan is EIP-8297, known as the Partitioned Binary Tree, or PBT. The goals are smaller state proofs and a path to state expiry without taking the network offline. The proposal recently passed a meaningful test. On October 29, 2026, PBT went live on a mainnet shadowfork called glamsterdam-pbt-1, run by ethPandaOps.