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. To understand the upgrade, start with Ethereum’s “state.” That is the full record of every account balance, every smart contract’s code, and every piece of data those contracts store. Today, Ethereum organizes that record using a hexary Merkle Patricia Trie, or MPT. EIP-8297 swaps that for a binary tree.

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