Understanding the Ethereum Pectra Upgrade: A Comprehensive Analysis of Each EIP

This article is from an article by Tanay Ved, Coin Metrics, curated, compiled and written by GaryMa wublockchain. (Synopsis: Ethereum Pectra upgrade finalizes 4/30 mainnet, can it be a shot in the arm for ETH rebound? (Background addendum: ETH hardens up!) Pectra, Fusaka, Glamsterdam upgrade trio, core developers tell you where Ethereum lies in the future Pectra is the next major upgrade of Ethereum, involving changes to the execution layer (Prague) and consensus layer (Electra). After a twist and turn in the testnet Pectra upgrade, it was finally decided to enable the Pectra mainnet upgrade around 10:05 UTC on May 7. This upgrade will introduce key improvements to staking, Layer 2 scalable suite and user experience (UX), and lay the foundation for future changes. Key changes include increased staking limits for validators, flexible staking withdrawals, enhancements to account abstraction, and increased blob throughput to improve network efficiency and security. With 31 months since The Merge, 24 months since the Shapella upgrade, and 13 months since the Dencun upgrade, Ethereum is about to usher in its next major upgrade, the Pectra hard fork. The testnet upgrade before the Pectra mainnet upgrade can be described as a twist and turn. The Pectra upgrade for the Holesky testnet was enabled on February 24 at 21:55 UTC, but was interrupted due to a misconfiguration of the client software (the wrong deposit contract addresses for Geth, Nethermind, and Besu), causing the chain to fork. Developers discussed plans to restore the network through a massive penalty event, aimed at accelerating the exit of false validators and achieving network finality, which will not be finalized until March 11. The Sepolia testnet's Pectra upgrade was scheduled on March 5 due to a custom deposit contract configuration issue that caused some Execution Layer (EL) clients to have an exception when including transactions in blocks, but the issue was quickly fixed and the network was finalized. On March 19, a new testnet, Hoodi, was launched to test validators and a Pectra network upgrade was successfully enabled on March 26. The upgrade of the Ethereum Pectra testnet paved the way for mainnet deployment after two months of twists and turns, and it was finally decided to enable the Pectra mainnet upgrade around 10:05 UTC on May 7. Similar to previous Ethereum upgrades, Pectra involves both the execution layer (EL) and the consensus layer (CL). Its name reflects this dual focus: Prague stands for Executive Level Upgrade, commemorating the location of Devcon 4; Electra (Electra star) symbolizes the consensus layer upgrade. Pectra is one of the largest number of hard forks (11 EIPs) involving EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals) in Ethereum history. It builds on last year's Dencun upgrade to improve the user experience (UX), optimize validator operations, and drive the Layer 2 expansion suite, which is expected to have a profound impact on the Ethereum ecosystem. In this article, we will break down each EIP according to its domain. Improvements to validators and staking mechanisms Pectra optimizes the validator experience in Ethereum's PoS system through three main EIPs: EIP-7251: Increased Maximum Effective Balance (MaxEB) Currently, Ethereum's staking mechanism limits the effective staking limit of a single validator to 32 ETH, which means that independent stakers must stake in units of 32 ETH, and rewards that exceed this limit do not count towards active staking. EIP-7251 proposes to increase the maximum effective balance (MaxEB) to 2048 ETH, allowing a single validator to expand the staking range of the suite to 32 to 2048 ETH, with implications including: Increased staking flexibility: Stakers can reinvest all proceeds into the active staking balance without being limited to multiples of 32 ETH. For example, a validator who holds 33 ETH can now receive staking rewards for all 33 ETH, increasing capital efficiency and flexibility. Reduce the number of validators: There are currently 1.05 million active validators in Ethereum, and the EIP allows large operators to merge their validators, reducing the total number and reducing the burden on the network. Reduced network load: While more validators contribute to decentralization, it also increases bandwidth and computational burden. Increasing MaxEB optimizes the validator set and reduces the overhead of peer-to-peer communication. EIP-7002: Execution Layer Triggers Withdrawals EIP-7002 further enhances validator functionality, allowing them to directly trigger exits and partial withdrawals through execution layer (0x01) withdrawal vouchers. Currently, validators have two keys: an active key, which is used to perform verification duties; Withdrawal keys to access and manage staked funds. Previously, only active keys could trigger exits, while withdrawal keys could not operate autonomously. EIP-7002 allows withdrawal keys to also trigger withdrawals, which brings: Greater control of funds: Validators can manage funds directly without relying on node operators. Supports fully trustless staking pools for increased security and decentralization. EIP-6110: On-chain storage validator deposit Currently, when a new validator makes a deposit in the execution layer, it needs to wait for the consensus layer to identify and process it, resulting in a delay in enablement. EIP-6110 allows the execution layer to pass deposit information directly to the consensus layer, reducing additional verification steps and reducing validator activity time from about 9 hours to about 13 minutes. Improving Layer 2 Expansion Suite Capabilities: Increasing Blob Throughput EIP-7691: Increasing Blob Throughput Last year, the Dencun upgrade introduced blobs as an efficient way for Layer 2 rollups to store data. Currently, about 21,000 blobs are submitted on Ethereum every day, but the capacity is approaching the upper limit, causing fees to rise and limiting throughput. Currently, Ethereum's target blobs per block are 3 and the maximum is 6. EIP-7691 proposes to increase its target value to 6 and the maximum value to 9 to increase data storage capacity, increased throughput, and scalable suite. This will reduce data storage costs and thus L2 transaction fees. EIP-7623: Raising the cost of calldata Before the introduction of the blob mechanism, L2 mainly used calldata to store data, and in some cases still used because it could be more cost-effective. EIP-7623 Raises calldata fees to incentivize L2 to primarily use blobs to store data...