Ethernet's second ‘Pectra’ test is flawed, mainnet release may face delays

EtherNet developers tested the Pectra upgrade on the Sepolia test network, which initially appeared to be successful, but after a few hours the Sepolia network began to experience errors that caused empty blocks to be added to the chain. The Ethernet Foundation attributed the problem to a ‘misconfiguration of Sepolia's licence deposit contracts’, which prevented many execution layer clients from including transactions in blocks. The foundation said developers ‘determined the root cause’ and deployed a fix within minutes, restoring normal network functionality. This is the second time the Pectra upgrade has encountered problems in testing. Previous tests on the Holesky test network also failed due to a misconfiguration of the verifier. Christine Kim, vice president of research at Galaxy Digital, said, ‘The issues on the Holesky and Sepolia test networks really warranted a delay in Pectra main network activation.’ She noted that while developers may be ready, the broader ethereum ecosystem, which includes major smart contract apps and wallet providers, still needs time to adapt. Kim suggested that ethereum developers should ‘take the time to build additional testing infrastructure’ before releasing the upgrade. A meeting of core ethereum developers is scheduled for 7 March to set an official release date for Pectra.