- Ethereum’s pectra upgrade increases scalability through higher validator limits and lower L2 costs due to expanded blob capacity.
- The new EIPS make wallets and the validator operation more flexible and safer and thus lay the foundation for the next phase of Ethereum, “Fulu-Osaka”.
Ethereum officially started his long-awaited pectra upgrade and thus took an important step to improve the scalability of the network, the staking mechanisms and the usability of accounts. The PECTRA upgrade, which was activated on May 7, 2025 in epoch 364032, integrates a series of 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPS) and serves as a combined implementation of the Prague and Electra updates. The rollout introduces far-reaching changes that aim to improve the operation of Ethereum on both the validator and the user level.
Pectra is live on Ethereum mainnet!
– Smart account wallet UX features now active
– L2 scaling data storage blobs increased by 2x
– Validator UX improvements liveCommunity members will continue to monitor for any issues over the next 24 hours.
— Ethereum.org (@ethereum) May 7, 2025
One of the most remarkable upgrades is EIP-7251, which raises the operating limit for validators from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH. This step is intended to reduce the number of validators required, reduce resource requirements and improve synchronization and efficiency. EIP-6110 deals with the deposit speed by ensuring that the deposit data of the beacon chain are included directly in the blocks, which enables faster onboarding of the validators.
At the same time, a mechanism controlled by the execution level is introduced to leave the validator. This change offers an additional security and control level for validists who want to withdraw from their tasks and reduces the dependence on the instructions of the consensus level.
Low L2 costs due to increased blob capacity
Pectra introduces extensions that focus on the scalability of layer 2. EIP-7691 increases the data blob capacity and thus doubles throughput. This enables cheaper roll-up transaction costs and reduces the dependence on expensive calldata. EIP-7623 promotes the use of blob data by adapting the cost structures, which means that blob data becomes a more efficient option for developers and dapps.
The changes come at a time when Ethereum’s Layer-2 Ecosystem continues to expand, whereby rollup solutions and application-specific chains depend on the foreseeable and inexpensive availability of data. These suggestions offer improved infrastructure support without changing the rules of consensus or demanding changes to L2 developers.
Wallet flexibility and smart contract functions for EOAS
Another important improvement concerns the user accounts and wallet functions. EIP-7702 introduces temporary innovative contract functions for external accounts (EOAS), which enable functions such as bundled transactions and sponsored gas fees. This function improves the interoperability between wallets and decentralized applications and paves the way for more flexible on-chain interactions.
The developers expect these changes to appear in the user -sided applications as soon as the wallets implement support for the new functions. It is expected that the update also makes it easier for new users to interact with Dapps for the first time.
Several suggestions improve network security and the skills of the developers. EIP-2537 reduces gas consumption for cryptographic operations such as BLS signatures, an important function for future Ethereum scaling plans. In the meantime, EIP-2935 improves access to historical block-hashes, which supports cross-chain communication and light client functions. EIP-7685 simplifies the communication between different ethershifts and thus reduces friction in development.
While there were interruptions in some test networks during preparation, the upgrade of the Ethereum inner set was carried out immediately. The developers will continue to observe the effects on the validator memory and the client synchronization in the coming weeks. PECTRA forms the basis for the next major upgrade from Ethereum, Fulu-Osaka, with which Cleet trees are introduced to support decentralization and reducing the state size.
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