Ethereum developers have pushed the Ethereum Pectra upgrade to the end of Q1 2025. EIP changes are coming too—here’s what to know.
Ethereum processes trillions every year. The platform is the first, and while not very fast like competitors, it is the most active in terms of transaction count and developer activity.
Maybe developers are attached to Ethereum because of the first-mover advantage, the thrill of launching decentralized protocols that operate every day of the week, or something else.
Without developers, however, Ethereum is nothing.
Ethereum Pectra Upgrade Pushed To End Of Q1 2025
Last week, Ethereum developers proposed activating the Pectra upgrade by the end of Q1 2025, roughly nine months from now.
In an update, Ethereum developers said the hard fork could have been activated as early as November 2024. However, in light of the circumstances, the goal is security and including impactful features, which won’t be achieved if the hard fork is down before Devcon, a developer conference set for November in Bangkok, Thailand.
When the Pectra testnet is done, the primary objective will be to make changes and enhance the Ethereum consensus and execution layers. It is worth noting that the hard fork will involve the addition of PeerDAS. With this, developers will improve the network’s data availability, especially as they prepare to activate Osaka by the end of 2025.
Once Osaka goes live, Ethereum will have interesting features such as Verkle Trees, which is a new data structure that will drastically improve decentralization and scalability.
Pectra sets the foundation.
Considering what’s at stake, Ethereum developers are pushing Pectra to Q1 2025, allowing the team to conduct thorough tests. This is crucial.
But, there have been hitches before. For example, in January, challenges around consensus delayed the deployment of Dencun on the Goerli testnet.
Allowing for more fine-tuning enables a smoother transition, considering Pectra will be a hard fork that requires validators to update.
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Of Ethereum EOF And EIP Replacements
Beyond setting the Pectra implementation data, developers also considered including the Ethereum Virtual Machine Object Format (EOF).
This change promises to improve the developer experience by simplifying development and smart contract security by permitting more advanced code analysis. Moreover, EOF sets the base for account abstraction. Analysts note that EOF creates a clear distinction between “validation code” and “execution code” within a smart contract.
Moreover, there were changes to the EIP landscape.
For example, developers want to replace EIP-3074 with EIP-7702, a new proposal from Vitalik Buterin. EIP-7702 offers similar benefits while also addressing risks associated with the original proposal. It allows for more flexibility and better security without introducing new opcodes.
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Disclaimer: Crypto is a high-risk asset class. This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice. You could lose all of your capital.
