Ethereum's Pectra Upgrade Scheduled for Q4 2024, Bringing Smart Contract Features and Improved UX to Wallets

ethereum's upcoming Pectra upgrade, expected to roll out in late 2024 or early 2025, will introduce significant improvements to cryptocurrency wallets, including adding smart contract capabilities to standard externally owned accounts (EOAs).

The inclusion of ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-3074″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 3074 The Pectra update will bring a range of new features and improvements to the user experience.

The Pectra upgrade follows the recent Dencun upgrade, which focused on reducing transaction fees on layer 2 solutions. The name “Pectra” is derived from the combination of two simultaneous upgrades that occur at different layers of the chain of blocks. The execution layer, responsible for enforcing the protocol rules, will undergo the “Prague” update, while the consensus layer, which ensures the validation of blocks, will undergo the “Electra” update. This naming convention follows ethereum developers' tradition of combining update names, as seen in previous cases like “Dencun” and “Shapella.”

One of the key benefits of EIP-3074 is the ability for regular wallets, such as those created with MetaMask, to function similarly to smart contracts. This update will enable features such as transaction pooling, which will allow users to sign multiple transactions at once, and sponsored transactions, where one wallet can delegate funds to be used by another entity. These functionalities are reminiscent of the account abstraction introduced in ERC-4337.

EIP-3074 introduces two new operating instructions: AUTH and AUTHCALL. As explained by anonymous Web3 advisor Cygaar, AUTH verifies signatures and actions, while AUTHCALL calls the target contracts with the author's address as the caller instead of the sender of the message. These instructions work together to enable the smart contract-like behavior of EOAs.

In addition to the features mentioned above, EIP-3074 also includes a social recovery feature that eliminates the need for the traditional 12-24 word seed phrase, further simplifying the user experience and potentially reducing the risk of lost or stolen funds. .

Another significant change expected to be included in Pectra is an increase in the stake limit for validators, from the current 32 eth to 2,048 eth, a substantial 64x increase. This proposal, known as EIP 7251, would allow large staking providers, such as Coinbase or Lido, to consolidate their validators that operate the ethereum blockchain. By doing so, these providers can avoid the need to constantly create new validators every time they have an additional 32 eth to stake, thereby reducing the operational burden and resources required to stake and validate.

The need for this change has become evident as the number of validators on the ethereum network has surpassed one million, raising concerns about excessive latency. EIP 2751 is seen as a potential solution to reduce the rate at which new validators enter the system, avoiding performance issues and ensuring the smooth functioning of the blockchain.

Other EIPs under consideration for Pectra include allowing smart contract validator withdrawals, incorporating a code change known as BLS precompile, and eliminating the deposit window. These relatively minor changes will allow developers to work on smaller improvements while focusing on more significant updates in the future.

Beyond Pectra, the subsequent update will introduce the highly anticipated “verkle trees,” a novel data system designed to help ethereum nodes efficiently store large amounts of data. Tim Beiko mentioned that the Pectra update is expected to be released in late 2024 or early 2025, allowing developers to work on two forks in parallel and make small gains while preparing for the more complex transition of verkle trees. .

As ethereum continues to evolve and improve, the Pectra upgrade represents another step forward in improving network performance, user experience, and overall functionality. By addressing key issues such as wallet user experience and staking limits, the developers aim to ensure ethereum remains at the forefront of blockchain technology, providing a solid foundation for the growing ecosystem of decentralized applications and services.