Ethereum
Unboxing Pectra: Ethereum’s Next Upgrade
Ethereum is still moving forward.
In March 2024, the network rolled out its Dencun upgrade. A portmanteau of two specifications, “Deneb” and “Cancun,” Dencun aimed to significantly reduce Layer 2 (L2) transaction costs.
What is the next step ? Pectra is Ethereum’s next major upgrade, and it’s expected to be even bigger than Dencun.
Scheduled for Q4 2024 or Q1 2025, Pectra combines two previously planned upgrades: Prague (for the execution layer) and Electra (for the consensus layer). By merging these specifications, Pectra aims to make several ambitious improvements to Ethereum, making it more flexible and optimized than ever.
Dencun will make Ethereum Cypherpunk on Bankless again
Unboxing Dencun, EIP-4844 and Blobs.
What is Pectra? We have what you need 👇
What is included in Pectra?
Pectra is more than a small upgrade; it’s full of updates.
Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) are proposed changes to Ethereum. They ensure that network changes are discussed and agreed upon in a transparent manner, involving the community and key developers.
For the Pectra upgrade, nine standard EIPs and one Meta EIP consisting of 11 other constituent EIPs are currently planned to be included.
These EIPs include improvements to account abstraction, validator operations, and overall network performance. Some of the most notable additions are as follows.
- 📝 EIP-2537 — Introduces precompilation for BLS12-381 curve operations, making BLS signing operations significantly faster and cheaper, improving the accessibility and performance of Ethereum validators and reducing gas costs.
- 🧮 EIP-2935 — Implements saving hashes of previous blocks in special storage locations to improve the efficiency and reliability of Ethereum data verification before stateless execution.
- 🚪 EIP-7002 — Allows validators to trigger exits and partial withdrawals via their execution layer withdrawal credentials, enabling more flexible options when it comes to re-staking and staking pools.
- ⏫ EIP-7251 — Increases the maximum effective balance for Ethereum validators from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH, thereby reducing the total number of validators needed and simplifying the computational load on the network.
- 📊 EIP-7594 — Introduces Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) to further optimize L2s, improving transaction processing and scalability.
- 🤖 EIP-7702 — Adds a new transaction type that sets the code for an EOA (externally held account) during a transaction, allowing regular wallets to temporarily transform into smart contract wallets for improved UX.
- 💨 EIP-7692 — A Meta EIP consisting of 11 constituent EIPs aimed at improving the EVM Object Format (EOF) to improve the efficiency of deployment and contract execution.
A new and improved Ethereum
After Pectra, Ethereum will serve a wider range of use cases and user needs.
Classic Ethereum accounts will be more programmable, L2s will be more affordable, smart contracts will be more efficient and validators will be more flexible to manage!
With these improvements, Ethereum will be better equipped to handle increased adoption, integrate with other networks, and introduce new features that will keep the platform at the forefront of on-chain innovation.
What happens after Pectra?
Even if nothing is set in stone for the moment, the Ethereum community is considering the implementation of Verkle Trees in the Osaka upgrade that will follow Pectra.
“I’m looking forward to the Verkle trees,” Vitalik said earlier this year. “They will enable stateless validation clients, which will allow staking nodes to operate with near-zero hard drive space and sync almost instantly – a much better solo staking UX.”
That said, Ethereum’s next two upgrades are expected to significantly improve the usability of the chain for users and developers. Ethereum cannot be built in a day, but slowly and steadily it is winning the race when it comes to building the scalable network that Ethereum is coming to fruition.