Ethereum is gearing up for the Pectra upgradeācombining "Prague" (Execution Layer) and "Electra" (Consensus Layer) improvements into one major milestone.
Here's a quick, easy-to-understand breakdown of the key EIPs going live! š§µ
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What's the goal of Pectra?
To make life easier for validators, supercharge user accounts, and boost Layer-2 scaling across the network.
Meta-EIP tracking Pectra: eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7600
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EIP-2537: Precompile for BLS12-381 curve operations
This enables more advanced cryptography on Ethereum, making zk-SNARKs and other zero-knowledge proofs faster and cheaper. This matters because it powers privacy solutions and scaling tech that many L2s rely on.
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EIP-2935: Save historical block hashes in state
Currently, smart contracts can only access ~256 recent block hashes. This EIP extends this to ~8192 blocks, enabling new use cases for rollups, cross-chain bridges, and light clients.
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EIP-6110: Supply validator deposits on chain
Currently, validator deposits happen on the beacon chain, with delays of ~12 hours. This EIP moves deposits directly into the execution layer, reducing delays to ~13 minutes, streamlining the validator onboarding process.
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EIP-7002: Execution layer triggerable exits
This allows validators to exit through smart contract calls using their withdrawal keys, rather than only through beacon chain mechanisms. This creates more flexibility for staking services and liquid staking protocols.
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EIP-7251: Increase the MAX_EFFECTIVE_BALANCE
Currently, validators need 32 ETH minimum and can't stake more per validator. This dramatically increases the effective balance limit from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH per validator, improving capital efficiency in staking.
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EIP-7549: Move committee index outside Attestation
A technical change that improves how validators attest to blocks, making the network more efficient by reducing redundant data in attestations.
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EIP-7623: Increase calldata cost
As L2s grow, they're using more calldata. Following Dencun's introduction of blob storage, this EIP increases calldata pricing to better reflect actual network costs and encourage L2s to shift from calldata to blobs.
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EIP-7685: General purpose execution layer requests
Creates a standardized way for the consensus layer to make requests to the execution layer. This enables more sophisticated validator operations and better coordination between the two layers.
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EIP-7691: Blob throughput increase
This EIP doubles the blob throughput by increasing the target number of blobs per block from 3 to 6 and the maximum from 6 to 9, allowing more rollup data to be efficiently stored and processed.
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EIP-7702: Set EOA account code
A massive upgrade for account abstraction! This lets regular user accounts set code temporarily for a single transaction, enabling advanced features like social recovery, batching transactions, and more without deploying smart contracts.
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EIP-7840: Add blob schedule to EL config files
Makes it easier to configure blob parameters in clients. A technical improvement that helps coordinate network blob settings across forks with simplified client implementation.
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Pectra's improvements for validators, user accounts, and L2 scaling show Ethereum's evolution toward greater scalability, security, and flexibility. These technical changes create a stronger foundation for the entire ecosystem.
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