Ethereum activates pectra-upgrade: all important information
Ethereum has reached an important milestone with the PECTRA upgrade. This comprehensive update combines the “Prague hardfork” of the execution level with the “electra-upgrade” of the consensus layer and integrates a total of 11 Ethereum improvement proposals (EIPS).
The Ethereum PECTRA-upgrade aims to improve user-friendliness, increase scalability and make staking more efficient. Yesterday the network update was successfully completed, as can be seen from a tweet of the Ethereum Foundation.
Smart wallets, staking changes and user-friendliness
A central element of PECTRA is the EIP-7702, which introduces the so-called account abstraction. This enables external accounts (EOAS) to act temporarily like smart contracts, which makes functions such as gas sponsorship, delegation and custom validation logic available directly in regular wallets. This facilitates the use of Ethereum and paves the way for more advanced wallet applications.
Pectra also brings significant changes for validators. EIP-7251 increases the maximum effective balance per validator from 32 ETH to 2'048 ETH. This enables institutions to stake higher amounts more efficiently without having to operate several validators. In addition, new mechanisms enable deposits and withdrawals directly via the execution level, which Staking-Cropess simplified.
Cheaper Layer 2 transactions
EIP-6110, also part of the PECTRA upgrade, allows the direct integration of new validators via the resolution layer, which should simplify onboarding. EIP -7002, in turn, enables validators to change withdrawal addresses – a function that is particularly important in cases of security risks or change of organization. These features not only strengthen the trust of institutional users, but also promote innovations in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Another focus is on improving the Layer 2 integration. By increasing the blob storage space from three to six blob per block, the data capacity for rollups such as arbitrum and base is doubled. This leads to a reduction in transaction fees on Layer-2 networks by up to 40%.
An often overlooked but significant part of the PECTRA upgrade is improved developer friendliness. With the integration of several EIPs, including EIP-6110 and EIP-7002, developers receive more flexibility in the design of applications and Smart Contracts.
