Pectra Upgrade: The Largest Technological Transformation in Ethereum's History

The Pectra upgrade is another significant event for Ethereum following the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, and it may become the largest technical upgrade in Ethereum's history. Pectra integrates two independent upgrades, Prague and Electra, with Prague focusing on changes to the network execution layer and Electra affecting the consensus layer.

The Pectra upgrade, expected to officially launch in the first quarter of 2025, will integrate multiple key Ethereum Improvement Proposals ( EIPs ), collectively addressing issues such as scalability, security, and user experience.

Key EIPs Analysis

EIP-7702: Account Abstraction Wallet Innovation Technology

EIP-7702 allows existing externally owned accounts (EOA) to temporarily possess the ability to execute smart contract code in transactions, greatly enhancing the functionality and flexibility of EOA. Key features include:

• Temporarily allocate smart contract code for EOA in a single transaction
• Achieve batch processing and complex transaction instructions
• Introduce a new permission management mechanism that supports sub-key allocation of specific permissions.
• Has the feature of transaction sponsorship, allowing one account to pay transaction fees for another account.

This revolution may drive the emergence of new, complex applications that are user-friendly for Web2 users, which is worth paying attention to.

EIP-7623: Optimize calldata cost structure

EIP-7623 aims to reassess calldata pricing to address the issue of underutilization of resources caused by the existing fee model and block size limitations. Key impacts include:

• Improve the overall cost-performance ratio of Ethereum, optimize transaction processing speed and resource usage efficiency.
• Beneficial for Layer 2 solutions to utilize Layer 1 resources more effectively.
• Reduce the cost of publishing data for the sorter, which is beneficial for decentralized sorter projects.

EIP-7594(PeerDAS): Introduce data availability sampling

PeerDAS aims to ensure data distribution and availability by leveraging existing peer-to-peer (P2P) components, thereby addressing the scalability issues of Ethereum. Key features and benefits:

• Enhance network scalability and efficiency
• Improve data availability
• Enhance the network's ability to resist attacks and interruptions
• Promote the development of DeFi, support emerging applications and innovations.

The introduction of PeerDAS will benefit the ZK Prover network and may give rise to a number of projects with considerable valuations in the ZK Prover network.

EIP-7251: Increase validator staking cap

EIP-7251 proposes to increase the validator staking limit from 32 Ether to 2048 Ether. The main objectives include:

• Reduce the number of validators, lighten the network burden and improve efficiency
• Enhance the economic security of the network
• Reduce the operational costs of large node operators

Summary

The Pectra upgrade involves several important technological improvements that will significantly enhance the performance, security, and user experience of Ethereum. These changes may drive the emergence of a new wave of innovative applications and bring new development opportunities to the Ethereum ecosystem.