Exploring the Pectra Upgrade: The Largest Update in Ethereum's History

The focal topic recently discussed in the Ethereum community is the Pectra upgrade. This upgrade integrates the two independent upgrades, Prague and Electra, which respectively make changes to the network execution layer and the consensus layer. Pectra is seen as another major event following the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, and it is expected to become the largest upgrade in Ethereum's history.

According to official Ethereum information, the Pectra upgrade will integrate multiple key Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), collectively addressing issues related to scalability, security, and user experience. This upgrade is expected to be officially launched in the first quarter of 2025.

Core EIPs Analysis

EIP-7702: Account Abstraction Wallet Innovation Technology

EIP-7702 allows externally owned accounts ( EOAs ) to temporarily act as smart contract wallets in transactions, enabling EOAs to perform complex operations that were previously only possible for smart contracts, greatly enhancing the functionality and flexibility of EOAs. This proposal is implemented at the protocol layer, but temporarily applying smart contract code in transactions does not require a permanent change to the EVM, thus offering high compatibility.

Main features:

• Temporarily allocate smart contract code to EOA in a single transaction.
• Introduce new transaction types, while accepting contract_code and signature fields.
• Set the contract code for the signer account at the start of the transaction, and reset it to empty at the end.

Potential impact:

• Simplify complex interactions and reduce transaction costs
• Introduce a new permission management mechanism to enhance account security.
• Supports trading sponsorships to improve user experience
• May promote the emergence of new Web2-friendly wallets and applications.

EIP-3074: Extension of externally owned account functionalities

The core idea of EIP-3074 is to delegate the control of externally owned accounts ( EOAs ) to smart contracts, allowing any EOA to act as a smart contract wallet without the need to deploy a contract.

Main Features:

• Introduce AUTH and AUTHCALL opcodes
• Allow smart contracts to send transactions on behalf of EOA
• Achieve functional expansion through the Invoker contract as an intermediary.

Potential Impact:

• Implement complex features such as multi-signature, batch transactions, and sponsored transactions.
• Set Invoker logic contract extension functions for each EOA address
• Deeply related to the "intent-centric" track, enabling refined trading services.

EIP-7623: Optimize Calldata Cost Structure

EIP-7623 aims to optimize block space utilization and improve network efficiency by adjusting calldata pricing.

Main content:

• Introduce a base price dependent on calldata primarily used for transaction data availability.
• Reduce the maximum block size to free up space for blobs.
• In conjunction with EIP-7706, create a separate fee market for calldata.

Potential impact:

• Improve Ethereum cost performance, optimize transaction processing speed and resource usage efficiency
• Facilitates the more efficient use of Layer 1 resources by Layer 2 solutions
• Reduce the cost of data publishing for decentralized oracles.

EOF related upgrades

Ethereum object format ( EOF ) introduced as part of the Pectra hard fork, aims to improve the creation and execution of smart contracts.

Main features:

• Introduce a new format for smart contracts to improve readability and manageability.
• Improve the Ethereum Virtual Machine ( EVM ), enhance processing efficiency.
• Simplify the development and maintenance process of smart contracts

Potential Impact:

• Enhance the security and efficiency of smart contracts
• Improve developer experience, reduce errors and vulnerabilities
• Support more reliable and secure decentralized applications
• Enhance overall user experience and accelerate transaction processing speed

EIP-7594(PeerDAS): Data Availability Sampling

PeerDAS is an implementation of data availability sampling on Ethereum, aimed at enhancing the network's ability to support rollups and their data availability requirements.

Main Features:

• Utilize existing P2P components to ensure data distribution and availability
• Verify overall availability by sampling a small subset of random data.
• It is expected to increase the number of blob transactions that can be attached per block from 3 to 64 or more.

Potential impact:

• Improve network scalability and efficiency
• Enhance data availability and network resilience
• Promote the development of DeFi, support emerging applications and innovations
• Beneficial for the development of the ZK Prover network

EIP-7251: Increase Maximum Effective Balance

EIP-7251 proposes to increase the validator staking cap from 32 Ether to 2048 Ether in order to reduce the instability risk when staked Ether approaches or exceeds 50% of the network.

Main content:

• Allow multiple validators to merge into a "super validator"
• Individual stakers can accumulate rewards exceeding 32 ETH.
• Consider limiting the staking ratio to 1/4

Potential impact:

• Reduce the number of validators to lighten the network burden.
• Enhance economic security and avoid instability caused by high decentralization.
• Reduce the operational costs of large node operators

Conclusion

The Pectra upgrade is an important milestone in the development of Ethereum, and it will optimize network performance, security, and user experience through a series of core improvement proposals. These changes will not only profoundly impact the Ethereum ecosystem but may also bring new opportunities and challenges to the entire blockchain industry. As the upgrade progresses, we look forward to seeing the emergence of more innovative applications and solutions, driving blockchain technology toward a broader future.