What improvements will Ethereum's next upgrade "Pectra" bring?

Author: Margaux Nijkerk; Translator: Plain Language Blockchain

Ethereum developers are planning the next round of improvements to the blockchain after successfully implementing the Dencun upgrade, an important change that will reduce transaction costs on the Layer 2 blockchain. While the specifics of the next upgrade, "Pectra," have not yet been finalized, developers have previously stated that their goal is to roll it out while working on the next round of upgrades to the chain.

"The idea with Pectra is to try to find a series of small wins that can be achieved relatively quickly while we are prototyping larger changes," Tim Beiko, head of protocol support at the Ethereum Foundation, told "The Protocol" podcast in an interview with CoinDesk.

Attendees at Thursday’s ethereum all-core developer call — a biweekly gathering of the blockchain’s main developers — said “Pectra” could include Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 3074, a set of proposed code changes designed to improve the user experience (UX) of ethereum wallets.Specifically, the proposal would allow users to batch transactions and sign them all at once.

Another major change that could happen in “Pectra” would be raising the cap on what validators can stake from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH — a 64-fold increase. The proposal, called EIP-7251, would allow large staking providers like Coinbase or Lido to consolidate their validators operating on the ethereum blockchain — while enabling them to avoid the constant creation of new validators every time they stake another 32 ETH.

According to Dune Analytics, there are currently more than a million validators operating on the ethereum network, sparking concerns about excessive latency. Developers have been looking for ways to slow down the rate at which new validators enter the system, which can overburden the system. EIP 2751 is seen as a way to reduce the operational burden on large stakers, consolidate the number of validators on the blockchain, and allow stakers to reduce the resources deployed to staking and validating. The name “Pectra” is a portmanteau of two upgrades being done simultaneously on different layers of the blockchain. The execution layer, where the protocol rules are enforced, will be doing the “Prague” upgrade, while the consensus layer, which ensures blocks are validated, will be doing the “Electra” upgrade. Ethereum developers are known for their way of merging upgrades, calling the simultaneous Deneb and Cancun upgrades “Dencun” (and previously “Shapella”), as they did with the previous “Dencun” upgrade. Ethereum’s naming convention follows the different cities where Devcon was held for the execution layer, and alphabetically by the names of stars for the consensus layer.

Other EIPs worth considering include triggering validator withdrawals through smart contracts, adding a code change called BLS precompile, and removing the deposit window. These are relatively small network changes for developers. The upgrades following "Pectra" will include the much-anticipated "Verkle tree" - a new type of data system designed to help ethereum nodes store large amounts of data.

Related information indicates that developers are aiming to launch "Pectra" in late 2024 or early 2025. "It will be a relatively small upgrade. The reason for this is that this allows us to handle two forks at the same time. We are working on Verkle trees and transitions." The developer said: "We are working on this, but it will take more than a year. So in the meantime, we have the energy to deal with other small victories."