Ethereum Pectra Live Update Brings Staking, UX, and Layer 2 Scalability Improvements

• Pectra Update Improves Staking and Validation on Ethereum
• Ethereum improves Layer 2 scalability with more blobs
• Ethereum wallets gain functionality with EIP-7702

The Ethereum network has completed the activation of the Pectra upgrade, considered the largest since the 2022 Merge, marking a new cycle of technical advancements on the blockchain. The activation occurred at block 364032 at around 6:05 am ET, with a focus on optimizing the user experience, simplifying validation operations, and expanding Layer 2 scalability.

The update includes 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) and follows Dencun from March 2024, which introduced proto-danksharding via EIP-4844. Previous testing was conducted on the Holesky, Sepolia, and Hoodi networks, the latter essential to ensure stability before final implementation.

EIP-7702, developed with the participation of Vitalik Buterin, allows wallets to temporarily take on smart contract functionality, enabling experiences such as freemium transactions and social recovery. The measure reduces transaction costs and makes interactions more accessible, including for new users.

In EIP-7251, the staking limit per validator has been increased from 32 ETH to 2.048 ETH. The proposal allows for the consolidation of multiple validators, reducing operational complexity and infrastructure costs, although experts warn about a possible increase in centralization.

EIP-7691 increases the blob rate per block, doubling its capacity for rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism. This change should reduce Layer 2 fees and make decentralized applications more scalable and cost-effective.

EIP-7002 improves the security of validators by allowing withdrawals to be made from the execution layer, reducing exposure to active key attacks. This improves staking management for large operators and institutional services.

EIP-2935 adds storage of historical block hashes directly at the execution layer, enabling trusted queries by smart contracts, oracles, and verification engines.

With EIP-6110, the onboarding of new validators becomes almost immediate, reducing the onboarding time from 12 hours to around 13 minutes, speeding up operations for staking companies.

Other EIPs in the package include improvements to data storage (EIP-7623), optimizations to cryptographic computations (EIP-2537), operational simplifications (EIP-7549), request structure (EIP-7685), and fee schedules for blobs (EIP-7840), all with a focus on stability and efficiency for the Ethereum ecosystem.