What is Pectra? An article explaining Ethereum's next upgrade, Pectra

What is Pectra? An article explaining Ethereum’s timesupgrade to Pectra! Ethereum is always moving forward. In March 2024, the network launched the Duncun upgrade. Duncun is a fusion of "Deneb" and "Cancun", aiming to significantly reduce L2 transaction costs. What happens next? Pectra is the next big upgrade to Ethereum and it will be even more important than Duncun. Scheduled to launch in Q4 2024 or Q1 2025, Pectra combines two previously planned upgrades: Prague (for the execution layer) and Electra (for the consensus layer). With the merger, Pectra aims to bring several ambitious improvements to Ethereum, making it more flexible and optimized than ever before.

What is the Ethereum Pectra upgrade? Ethereum’s Pectraupgrade combines two separate upgrades: the Pragueupgrade and the Electraupgrade. The Prague upgrade focuses on changes to the network execution layer, while the Electra upgrade affects the consensus layer. When combined together, these upgrades are collectively referred to as the "Pectra" upgrade. The Pectra upgrade will follow the "Dencun", which is the merger of the Deneb and Cancun upgrades, taking place in March 2024. Technically, Dencun is an Ethereum hard fork designed to reduce transaction fees for Layer 2 solutions. Pectra is a new milestone on the Ethereum development roadmap, scheduled to go live in the first quarter of 2025. This timeline allows for the inclusion of additional features to improve the Ethereum user experience (UX).

Pectra may contain Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 3074, a set of code changes designed to improve Ethereum wallets by allowing users to batch transactions and sign them in a single step. EIP-3074 was approved in April 2024 to incorporate the Pectra upgrade and will be accessible to ordinary crypto wallets. The Pectra upgrade will also implement EIP-7251, which will increase validator staking limits from the current 32 Ethereum (ETH) to 2,048 ETH. This increase enables validators to hold balances between 32 and 2,048 ETH, expanding from the previous limit of 32 ETH and is intended to reduce the speed at which new validators can join the Ethereum network, meaning staking providers. The upgrade may also include Peer Data Availability Sampling, or PeerDAS, to extend Rollup and the EVM Object Format (EOF) to improve smart contract security and developer experience on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). However, Ethereum developers are discussing whether to replace EIP-3074 with EIP-7702, a new transaction type proposed by developers including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to enhance account abstraction compatibility. sex. Additionally, they are considering implementing a patch for EIP-2935, which addresses the handling of historical block hashes. The developers are also considering incorporating other EIPs into the Pectra upgrade, such as allowing validators to withdraw from smart contracts and removing the deposit window. Pectra Upgrade Features and Benefits The Pectra upgrade focuses on small-scale improvements to the consensus layer and execution layer updates. EIP-7251: Increased staking limit As of June 2024, the maximum valid balance for Ethereum validators is 32ETH. Therefore, to stake more than 32ETH, the staking provider must launch multiple validators, each of which must stake 32ETH. Since each validator must keep pace with the rest of the network, a proliferation of validators can put a strain on the network’s communication layer. The Pectra upgrade will allow staking providers to consolidate their staking onto fewer validators by increasing the maximum effective balance to 2,048 ETH. This will reduce the number of messages that need to be passed around the network, taking pressure off the validator network layer and potentially improving the efficiency and performance of the network. PeerDAS/rollup improvements PeerDAS extends the "blobs" introduced in EIP-4844. Blobs are a new way to optimize transaction data storage in the Ethereum Layer 2 network, increasing block space and reducing transaction fees. They are launched as part of the Dencun upgrade in March 2024. Transactions carrying blobs are similar to normal Ethereum transactions but include additional data for off-chain storage, reducing the burden on the Ethereum main chain. The EVM Improvement Program makes improvements to EVM, such as EOF, to innovate and improve UX, developer experience (DevEx), and Layer1 and Layer2 performance. What does Pectra contain?

Pectra is more than just a minor upgrade, it's packed with updates. An Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) is a proposed modification to Ethereum. They ensure that network changes are discussed and agreed upon transparently, and involve the community and core developers. For the Pectra upgrade, there are currently plans to incorporate 9 standard EIPs and a meta-EIP consisting of an additional 11 component EIPs.

These EIPs include enhancements to account abstraction, validator operations, and overall network performance. Some of the most noteworthy additions are as follows:

• EIP-2537 — Introduces precompilation of BLS12-381 curve operations, making BLS signature operations faster and cheaper, improving accessibility for Ethereum validators and performance, and reduces gas costs.
• EIP-2935 — Implement saving hashes of previous blocks in special storage slots to improve efficiency and reliability of verifying Ethereum data before stateless execution.
• EIP-7002 — Allows validators to trigger exits and partial withdrawals via their execution layer withdrawal credentials, providing more flexible options for restaking and staking pools.
• EIP-7251 — Increases the maximum valid balance for Ethereum validators from 32ETH to 2048ETH, reducing the total number of validators required and simplifying the network’s computational load.
• EIP-7594—Introducing Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) to further optimize L2 and enhance transaction processing and scalability.
• EIP-7702 — Adds a new transaction type that sets the code for an EOA (Externally Owned Account) during a transaction, allowing a normal wallet to be temporarily converted into a smart contract wallet to improve user experience.
• EIP-7692 — A meta-EIP consisting of 11 component EIPs designed to enhance the EVM Object Format (EOF) to improve contract deployment and execution efficiency.

New and improved Ethereum in the post-Pectra era, Ethereum will meet a wider range of use cases and user needs. Regular Ethereum accounts will be more programmable, L2 will be more affordable, smart contracts will be more efficient, and validators will be more flexibly managed! With these enhancements, Ethereum will be better able to handle growing adoption, integrate with other networks, and introduce new features to keep the platform at the forefront of on-chain innovation.

What happens after Pectra?

While nothing is final yet, the Ethereum community is focusing on implementing litetrees in the Osaka upgrade after Pectra. "I'm really looking forward to the litetree," Vitalik said earlier this year. “They will enable stateless validator clients, which will allow staking nodes to run with almost zero hard drive space and sync almost instantly – a better solo staking user experience.” With that said, Ethereum’s next upgrade All will significantly improve the usability of the chain for users and developers. Ethereum can't be built in a day, but when it comes to building the future-proof network of everything Ethereum is enabling, slow and steady is the way to go.

The above is the detailed content of What is Pectra? An article explaining Ethereum's next upgrade, Pectra. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!