- Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade is expected by Q1 2025 amid complex feature integration.
- The Pectra upgrade will raise the staking cap for Ethereum validators from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH.
- Vitalik Buterin’s EIP-7702 is included in the Pectra upgrade.
Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade, set for Q1 2025, promises significant advancements including increased staking caps and enhanced scalability.
Ethereum’s Pectra Upgrade: A Major Leap Forward
Ethereum core developers are targeting the launch of the Pectra upgrade by the end of the first quarter of 2025. This upgrade encompasses the EVM Object Format (EOF), a suite of approximately 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), which will introduce an optional container for EVM code.
Raising the Staking Cap
The Pectra upgrade is poised to raise the staking cap for Ethereum validators from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, as proposed in EIP 7251. This 64-fold increase would benefit major staking services like Coinbase and Lido by allowing them to consolidate their validators. This change would streamline operations by reducing the need to create new validators for every additional 32 ETH staked, thus saving resources and effort in the staking and validation processes.
PeerDAS: Enhancing Scalability
Another notable feature of the Pectra upgrade is PeerDAS, a data availability sampling solution that leverages the existing peer-to-peer components within the Ethereum ecosystem. This is expected to enhance the network’s scalability and efficiency.
Account Abstraction and EIP-7702
Moreover, Ethereum developers have agreed to replace the account abstraction proposal EIP-3074 with the newly introduced EIP-7702, authored by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. EIP-7702 is designed to allow externally owned accounts (EOAs) to operate as smart contract wallets within a transaction, potentially enhancing flexibility and security for users.
Conclusion
Following the Dencun update, Pectra merges the “Prague” and “Electra” upgrades for execution and consensus layers, respectively. While the final details of the upgrade are still being debated, there is a possibility of deferring certain features, such as the Verkle tree implementation, to a later hard fork, namely the Osaka hard fork.
