Ethereum launches Pectra, marking its biggest upgrade to date

Ethereum has completed the first phase of a major software upgrade called Pectra, marking a significant change in how the network handles accounts, points and data processing.

After a previous major update of Ethereum (called Dencun), it was launched for more than a year and continues to move towards improving the scale of blockchain and operating in the face of increased demand. Pectra introduces a series of Ethereum Improvement Recommendations (EIPS), including changes in how wallets operate, how validators manage and how data is processed through the network.

While the upgrade is largely technical, it is expected to impact a wide range of users and developers, especially those working on layer 2 networks and decentralized applications.

What is Pectra?

Pectra is the name of Ethereum’s latest hard fork – a coordinated protocol update that modifies network rules. The upgrade was activated on Wednesday at 06:05 ET, and the network finality was confirmed shortly after 06:18 ET.

It follows the March 2024 Dencun upgrade, representing Ethereum’s next step in improving user and developer infrastructure.

The name combines “Prague” and “Electra” to refer to future roadmap goals, involving the consensus and execution layers of the network.

What new features are there in this upgrade?

Pectra includes several key changes:

• Account Features: The update introduces EIP-7702, which allows standard user accounts to behave temporarily like smart contracts. This provides greater flexibility for the account without the need for users to switch to the new address format. It is considered an early step towards a full “account abstraction” which is a long-term goal that will allow for more programmable and user-friendly wallets.
• Verifier possession: EIP-7251 increases the maximum stake in each validator from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH. This aims to reduce operational overhead for large validators and allows them to merge multiple locations into larger, larger locations. It may also improve fixed efficiency.
• Data Availability: EIP-7691 increases the number of “spots”, i.e. a type of non-chain packets introduced in Dencun – from 3 to 6 per block. Spots mainly reduce transaction fees through a 2-layer scaling solution. This change effectively increases the network data capabilities of Ethereum.
• Other improvements: The upgrade also includes optimizations for validating deposit processing, historical data access, encryption operations and execution layer exports.

Each of these features has been reviewed, tested and reviewed before the upgrade.

What’s next for Ethereum?

Now, developers turn their attention to the next planned upgrade, Fusaka. One of its goals is to further expand data availability, including support for a feature called Peerdas, a protocol designed to improve the way data is accessed and distributed.

Although Pectra adds the ability to blemish, developers say additional extension improvements will be needed to keep the second layer growing. Some believe that Ethereum’s data layer will require greater capacity to avoid traffic congestion over time.

Meanwhile, Ethereum validators may need to manage higher bandwidth and storage requirements, which is part of the trade-off. According to the researchers, ensuring that the network remains dispersed, while performance improvements will continue to be the main area of ​​focus.

Although no official deployment timeline was announced, Fusaka is expected to address some of these issues.