Pectra's first step in upgrading, what updates will Ethereum welcome?

Original author: Francesco

Original compilation: Luffy, Foresight News

Ethereum's next upgrade, Pectra, has already taken its first steps.

! [The first step of the Pectra upgrade, what updates will Ethereum usher in?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-06996f94052fe210016095b84f14618e)

On February 24, the Pectra upgrade went live on the Holesky testnet; On March 5, Pectra will go live on the Sepolia testnet.

Once these upgrades are successfully implemented on the testnet, the mainnet upgrade date will be determined, and it is expected to take place 3 to 9 months after the testnet implementation.

Pectra is a fairly significant upgrade that introduces multiple Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) at once:

! [The first step of the Pectra upgrade, what updates will Ethereum usher in?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-bcc5326c1c7d1044628475e9fef7b74a)

We can divide these upgrades into three key areas:

• Improvements to Ethereum accounts
• Enhance the user experience for Ethereum validators
• Expand the processing power of "Data Blob".

Let's delve into some upcoming Ethereum Improvement Proposals and how they will benefit the Ethereum protocol and users.

Improve Ethereum Account: EIP-7702

! [The first step of the Pectra upgrade, what updates will Ethereum usher in?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-427e4ca1067b180fdcdd24353ee1ffdb)EIP-7702 brings Ethereum closer to the experience of account abstraction at the protocol level. It does this by extending smart contract functionality for Ethereum's externally owned accounts (EOAs), including:

• Transaction batching: Perform multiple operations in a single transaction
• Gas Fee Sponsorship: Accounts without ETH are allowed to be sponsored by others to pay gas fees
• More authentication and recovery mechanisms

Improved Ethereum validator experience: EIP-7251, EIp-7002, EIP-6110

! [The first step of the Pectra upgrade, what updates will Ethereum usher in?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-cf126cce72c93d149859cb37c5434899)

• EIP-7251: Increase the maximum balance of validators to 2048 ETH and allow automatic compounding of rewards for larger valid stakes. Previously, rewards were only calculated based on a balance of 32 ETH. In addition, larger-scale validators can now merge multiple 32 ETH validators into one.
• EIP-7002: As long as the execution layer address is set to "Withdrawable Credential", it is allowed to trigger withdrawal operations, thus reducing the reliance on trust. Previously, only the validator could trigger the exit action.
• EIP-6110: Removed the delay between a validator's deposit and being added to the queue for up to 2048 blocks. The wait time is expected to be reduced from 9 hours to 13 minutes.

Expand the processing capability of 'Data Blob': EIP-7691

As the cost of "blobs" increases, so does the need to expand their processing power. With EIP-7691, the capacity of "data blobs" will be increased by 50%: currently, each Ethereum block can hold an average of about 3 "data blobs" (up to 6 during peak demand periods). With EIP-7691, the average number of "data blobs" that can fit in each block will increase to 6, and to 9 during peak demand periods.

The next step in further scaling the processing power of Data Blobs is to reduce the need to store all Data Blobs and migrate to a subnet that can still be used to validate Data Blob data.

Additional EIPs included in the Pectra upgrade

EIP-2537: Increase the number of security bits for operations from the current 80 to more than 120.

EIP-2935: In order to welcome the arrival of stateless clients, this proposal suggests storing historical block hash values as part of the block processing logic in the state. By using contract storage to achieve this, EIP-2935 allows for a smooth transition without affecting the block hash logic. Layer 2 networks will be able to utilize longer historical data and directly query storage contracts.

EIP-7549: This proposal is intended to improve the efficiency of the Casper client. It achieves this by reducing the number of pairs required to validate consensus. Specifically, it removes one of three elements in the Casper client attestation message: the committee index. By removing this element from the proof message, consensus votes can now be aggregated into blocks more efficiently, increasing the number of votes in a block from 2 to 8 epochs.

EIP-7623: The proposal to increase the cost of calling data, as proposed by EIP-7623, is one of the most influential upgrades (especially for Layer 2 networks). The proposal aims to adjust the cost of calling data to address the gap between the average block size (100 kb) and the maximum block size (7.15 MB). This will not affect ordinary users, only those transactions mainly used for publishing data. The increase in cost will be achieved through a base fee, which depends on the proportion of Gas fees spent on calling data operations: it can be achieved by reducing block size to accommodate more 'data blobs', or by increasing the Gas limit.

EIP-7685: Introduces a framework for storing requests triggered by smart contracts. This allows validators controlled by smart contracts to delegate management operations to smart contracts, reducing the need for a middleman.

EIP-7840: Introduces a way to dynamically adjust the target and maximum number of data blobs per chunk via the blobSchedule object, instead of passing all values through the API.

This upgrade sends a clear signal for Ethereum. We know that these upgrades were on the agenda a long time ago and are not a response to recent criticism. Nonetheless, the upgrade focuses on making the Ethereum network more secure, improving Ethereum accounts, and expanding the processing power of "data blobs", which is in line with some of the most important development needs.