Pectra Upgrade Live Now: What Changes Does It Bring to Ethereum Network?

The much-awaited Ethereum Pectra upgrade is now live, bringing major enhancements for the network, including higher staking limits and improved scalability. Experts have been calling it the biggest upgrade since the merge and anticipating significant improvement for the blockchain, especially as the rising L2 blockchain competition and Bitcoin’s increasing dominance are affecting the Ethereum price performance in the crypto market.

Ethereum Network Launched The Pectra Upgrade

According to the Ethereum network’s X post, the Ethereum Pectra upgrade is now live, carrying 11 major code changes. These code changes are regarded as the Ethereum Improvement Proposal or EIPs. It is the latest event after Dencun, becoming the third biggest since the merge in 2022 and the 19th since 2015, bringing smart accounts, staking updates, and improved stability.

Pectra is now live on the Ethereum mainnet on the 364032 epoch and bringing three main EIPs, i.e., EIP-7702, EIP-7251, and EIP-7691, which would affect the blockchain significantly. Decrypt pointed out that the upgrade will optimise the validators’ deposit processing, improve access to historical data, modify cryptographic operations, and much more

Understanding Ethereum Pectra Upgrade and What it Changes for the Network

As is clear with the name, the Ethereum Improvement Proposal brings significant upgrades to the network. With three main EIPs, each would bring a significant milestone, focusing on account abstraction, validator user experience improvements, and blob scaling.

Making Wallets Smarter (EIP-7702)

The EIP-7702 is designed to make crypto wallets smarter. According to Pectra’s official announcement, the regulator’s accounts/ wallet can now act as a smart contract, allowing users to pay transaction fees with crypto tokens other than ETH.

More importantly, it can provide accessibility to using other apps without first approving transactions manually. As the third-party apps will pay in place of the user paying manually, it would make the transaction free.

Easier and Bigger Staking for Investors (EIP-7251)

The EIP-7251 makes staking easier for investors, especially for large-scale ones. The earlier staking limit was 32 ETH, but it is now up to 2,048 ETH per validator. Higher staking could extend the chances of higher rewards. More importantly, it would reduce the requirement for high nodes (computers), making the ETH investment simpler.

Before Pectra, stakers had to wait hours to exit the stakes and involved the participation of the staking services providers. However, that has not decreased to 13 minutes.

Faster and Cheaper Transactions (EIP-7691)

The Ethereum Network was in much need of faster and cheaper translation as L2 blockchain’s demand increases, which is now possible with EIP-7691. This increases the capability of the Ethereum blockchain to process data.

As a result, the transaction fees will be reduced, and the apps relying on Ethereum can process additional transactions. Additional Ethereum Pectra upgrade features include safer and faster validator management (EIP-7002 and EIP-6110), Blob Scaling (EIP-7691), better Security (EIP-7702), and much more.

Final Thoughts

The Ethereum Pectra upgrade will supposedly make life easier for network users. It is now introducing a smarter wallet to eliminate the need for transaction approval, cheaper transactions, stronger security, and much more. The crypto community is optimistic about the upgrades, fueling the Ethereum price surge.

However, it is important to note that the validator and non-staking node needs to update their software to support these changes. The rest of the common users do not need any changes. Notably, the Ethereum team is monitoring the upgrade for 24 hours to eradicate any potential issues.