Author: Jason Nelson; Translator: Vernacular Blockchain
Ethereum's Pectra upgrade is scheduled to launch in March 2025, merging the Prague and Electra upgrades that were originally planned to be carried out separately to achieve better integration and enhance scalability, efficiency, and usability. The following is the text:
The Ethereum Pectra upgrade enhances the scalability, efficiency, and pledge flexibility of the network. Pectra expands the storage capacity of second-layer (Layer-2) solutions while reducing fees.
One of the most user-friendly improvements of Pectra is flexible Gas payments. In Ethereum, "Gas" refers to the transaction fees used to compensate validators for maintaining network security. Through account abstraction, Pectra allows users to pay these fees with ERC-20 tokens (such as USDC), rather than being limited to ETH. Account abstraction simplifies Ethereum transactions by making wallets function more like smart contracts, giving users more control over transaction execution.
The Pectra upgrade also introduces PeerData Availability Sampling (PeerDAS). PeerDAS improves Ethereum's scalability and makes the network more efficient by allowing nodes to verify data without fully storing transaction data.
Another improvement is Verkle Trees, a new data structure that combines Vector Commitments and Merkle Trees to provide Ethereum with a more efficient data storage upgrade. Verkle Trees optimizes information storage and verification, significantly reducing the amount of data that validators need to save while allowing fast and secure access to network information.
The Ethereum Pectra upgrade is expected to take place in mid-March 2025 and will be implemented in two phases. The first phase will introduce key improvements, such as increasing the second-layer Blob capacity from 3 to 6 to reduce congestion and fees, while enabling account abstraction, allowing the use of stablecoins such as DAI and USDC to pay for Gas fees.
The second phase is expected to be implemented in late 2025 or early 2026, and will implement advanced optimizations, including PeerDAS and VerkleTrees, to improve data storage and network efficiency.
The last major Ethereum upgrade, Dencun, took place on March 13, 2024. It introduced Proto-Danksharding, which reduces the transaction costs of second-layer blockchains by using temporary data called "binary large objects" (Blobs). These Blobs do not need to rely on permanent on-chain storage, reducing network congestion, improving scalability, and laying the foundation for upgrades such as Pectra.
The key features of Pectra include:
Account abstraction: This feature supports the use of multiple tokens (such as USDC, DAI) to pay gas fees and allows third-party fee sponsorship.
Smart Contract Optimization (EIP-7692): Improve the efficiency of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
Validator Upgrade: EIP-7002: Enable flexible staking withdrawals.
EIP-7251: Increase validator staking limit from 32ETH to 2048ETH.
Data Storage Enhancements: VerkleTrees: Reduce storage requirements and improve transaction processing.
PeerDAS: Enhance second-layer scalability and reduce network congestion.
The Pectra upgrade introduces multiple Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) to enhance wallet usability, staking, and scalability.
EIP-7702: Enable externally owned accounts (EOAs) to temporarily run as smart contracts, simplifying transactions and replacing the now-abandoned EIP-3074.
EIP-7251: Increase the maximum stake per validator from 32ETH to 2048ETH to reduce network congestion.
EIP-7002: Improve the validator exit process and increase efficiency for staking service providers.
EIP-7742: Enhance second-layer scalability by doubling transaction throughput, increasing blob capacity, and reducing fees.
EIP-2537: Introducing cryptographic efficiency improvements.
EIP-2935: Provide a mechanism for storing historical block hashes on-chain.
EIP-6110: Simplify the validator deposit process.
How does the Pectra upgrade affect users?
The Pectra upgrade is expected to benefit Ethereum users in a number of ways, including transaction batching, new recovery options, and new wallet types.
Once the Pectra upgrade goes live, Ethereum users may see lower or even zero gas fees, as third-party services and decentralized applications (dApps) will have the option to sponsor transaction fees, which in some cases may be eliminated entirely.
Pectra also introduces new wallet features to improve Ethereum’s usability and accessibility, including:
Transaction batching: allows multiple transactions to be bundled into one, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
Social recovery: provides a safety net for lost private keys, helping to restore wallet access through trusted contacts.
Native multi-signature wallet: enhances security by requiring multiple approvals to execute transactions, protecting funds from unauthorized access.
Potential Challenges of the Pectra Upgrade
Ethereum developers expect Pectra to launch smoothly, but key risks remain. According to a report published by Obol and Liquid Collective in June 2024, client diversity is a problem because bugs in mainstream clients could destabilize the network. Operator centralization could also increase the risk of penalties due to the concentration of staking in a few entities. Reliance on cloud services such as AWS and Hetzner also poses risks of downtime and security vulnerabilities, affecting validator online time and network resilience.
Another challenge is that the wallet verification changes of the Pectra upgrade may expose old protocols that have not been updated in time to vulnerabilities. At the same time, raising the staking limit may encourage centralization, concentrate power in the hands of larger players, and attract regulatory scrutiny. Slow adoption of distributed validator technology (which mitigates single points of failure and reduces the risk of centralized control) may weaken network resilience.
Teething Problems on Testnets
These challenges became apparent in February 2025, when the Pectra upgrade activated on ethereum’s Holesky testnet but failed to achieve finality, the state in which transactions are confirmed and permanently recorded on the blockchain. While it was a setback, testnets “exist to find problems,” said Georgios Konstantopoulos, general partner and CTO at crypto investment firm Paradigm.
Ethereum developers chose to delay the Pectra launch to test the upgrade on a “shadow fork” of the Holesky testnet, a temporary copy that enabled testing to continue while waiting for the Holesky testnet to regain finality — which it eventually achieved on March 10, more than two weeks after initial activation.
This isn’t the first time an Ethereum upgrade has failed to achieve finality on a testnet; the Dencun upgrade encountered similar issues when it went live on the Goerli testnet in March 2024.
The next phase of preparation will see the launch of a testnet designed specifically for the Pectra upgrade, codenamed Hoodi, on March 17. If all goes well, developers expect Pectra to go live on the mainnet on April 25.
The Pectra upgrade is an important step in Ethereum’s roadmap, aligned with its long-term vision for scalability, security, and decentralization. As part of Ethereum’s transition to a more efficient network, Pectra lays the foundation for future updates.
In January 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin responded to concerns about the price of ETH and the impact of second-layer expansion solutions on the network's economy. Buterin emphasized that the second-layer network needs to support the value of ETH by burning part of the fees or staking them as community benefits.
"We should think clearly about the economics of ETH," Buterin wrote. "We need to ensure that ETH continues to increase in value even in a second-layer-dominated world, and it is best to solve the problem of multiple modes of value accumulation."
Buterin also called for standardization of cross-chain functions, enhanced interoperability, and prioritized security to prevent censorship on the second-layer chain. He likened the importance of this moment to "wartime mode", emphasizing his determination to face these challenges and promote the development of Ethereum.
The Pectra upgrade is another major update of Ethereum since the "merge" in 2022, and is scheduled to go online in March 2025. It greatly improves network performance and user experience through technologies such as account abstraction and Verkle Trees, while introducing flexible Gas payments and higher staking limits. However, the upgrade also faces challenges such as client diversity and centralization risks. This article will deeply analyze the technical highlights and potential problems of the Pectra upgrade, and take you to explore a key step in the future development of Ethereum.
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