In the latest Ethereum Core Developers Meeting (ACDE #188), the development team announced that the Pectra upgrade may be launched in the first quarter of 2025. Additionally, the account abstraction proposal EIP-7702, proposed by Vitalik Buterin this month, will replace EIP-3074 in the latest Pectra Devnet 1.
Summary:
During the 188th All Core Developers Execution (ACDE) conference call held by the Ethereum core development team yesterday (24th), the upcoming key upgrade “Pectra” after the Dencun upgrade was discussed. It is expected that the Pectra upgrade will be launched in the first quarter of 2025, according to the meeting highlights compiled by Christine Kim, Vice President of Galaxy Research.
The term “Pectra” is a combination of two upgrades: Prague upgrade for the Ethereum execution layer and Electra upgrade for the consensus layer. Currently, the possibility of delivering the Pectra upgrade by the end of 2024 is low, and the development team should focus on upgrading in early 2025. The operations team suggests splitting Pectra into two hard forks, one to be conducted within this year, and the other including the upgrades of EIP-7251 (maxeb, increasing the maximum effective balance for validators from 32 to 2,048 ETH to incentivize validator consolidation into super validators), EOF (a new Ethereum object format aimed at improving the efficiency and performance of the Ethereum network), and the potential peerDAS (aimed at enhancing data availability guarantees to ensure data can still be accessed and verified by nodes, thus improving network security, scalability, and efficiency) to be completed in early next year.
Currently, there is still no consensus among all developers on the timing and scope of the Pectra upgrade, which is expected to be the focus of the next ACDE meeting. In addition, the meeting summary pointed out that the first development network, Pectra Devnet 0, has been successfully launched, including all execution layer (EL) and consensus layer (CL) clients. However, the intensive testing of EIP-3074, which is a crucial step towards achieving account abstraction, is yet to be conducted due to an error that needs to be fixed. The client team is ready to launch the second development network, Pectra Devnet 1, which will include changes to EIP-2935 (storing historical block hashes in the state).
The developers also agreed to remove EIP-3074 from Pectra Devnet 0 and replace it with the latest proposal EIP-7702 by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. EIP-7702 proposes modifications to EIP-3074 to make it more streamlined and compatible with EIP-4337, thus avoiding ending up with two independent account abstraction ecosystems. EIP-5003 is considered the next step for permanent migration. EIP-7702 also introduces a new transaction type to enhance the functionality of account abstraction. Through this method, an externally owned account (EOA) can be transformed into a smart contract wallet during a single transaction execution and then revert back to its normal state after the transaction is completed. This proposal is seen as one of the most significant changes in Ethereum’s history and could completely transform how people interact with Web3 applications.
Further reading:
Exploring the EIP-7702 Proposal: Vitalik’s Ultimate Solution to Account Abstraction Challenges
Related Reports
Latest Progress of Ethereum Cancun Upgrade: Devnet 12 Launch, Project Processes, Network Specifications
Understanding EIP-3074, Included in the Ethereum Prague Upgrade: Impact on Wallets and DApps
Latest ACDE Meeting of Ethereum: Smooth Dencun Upgrade! What Improvements Will the Next Pectra Upgrade Bring?