Author: @francescoweb3, co-founder of castle labs; compiled by: zhouzhou, BlockBeats

Editor's note: This article introduces the Pectra upgrade, which is a major improvement in Ethereum, divided into three main areas: improving Ethereum accounts, improving validator experience and expanding data blocks. The article introduces in detail several EIP (Ethereum improvement proposals), including EIP-7702, EIP-7251, etc., to improve account functions, reduce the complexity of validator operations, and improve network efficiency. In addition, it also explores how to expand the network by increasing the capacity of data blocks and gradually achieve the goal of stateless clients to promote the security and scalability of the Ethereum network.

The following is the original content (the original content has been compiled for easier reading comprehension):

Ethereum is improving account functions, simplifying network verification, and improving the efficiency of data blocks. This article will introduce Pectra, a highly anticipated upgrade that has brought many new Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), and the first phase has been launched.

Online on Holesky on February 24

Online on March 5

Online update date will be determined once the implementation is successful. We can expect mainnet updates between 3 and 9 months after the testnet implementation. Pectra is a very important upgrade that brings several EIP improvements:

We can divide these improvements into three key areas:

·Improve the Ethereum account

·Improve the user experience of Ethereum validators

·The ability to expand data blocks

Let's take a deeper look at some of the upcoming EIPs, and how they improve the Ethereum protocol and user experience.

Improved Ethereum account: EIP-7702

EIP-7702 Push Ethereum's protocol layer to account abstraction. It adds smart contract capabilities by extending Ethereum’s externally owned account (EOA) functionality, including:

·Transaction batch processing: perform multiple operations in a single transaction

·Gas sponsorship: Allows accounts without ETH to pay transaction fees by others

·More authentication and recovery mechanisms

Improve the user experience of Ethereum verifiers: EIP-7251/7002/6110

·EIP-7251: Increase the maximum balance of the verifier to 2048 ETH and allow them to automatically compound the reward on larger active stakes. Previously, the reward only considered the balance of 32 ETH. Additionally, larger validators can now combine multiple validators of 32 ETH into one.

·️ EIP-7002: Reduces the trust assumption by allowing the execution layer address to trigger withdrawals (as long as it is set to "withdrawable voucher"). Previously, only the validator could trigger the exit.

· EIP-6110: Verifier deposits were cancelled and the 2048 block delay they were added to the queue. This time is expected to be reduced from 9 hours to 13 minutes.

Extended data block: EIP-7691

As the cost of data blocks increases, the demand for extended data blocks also emerges.

With EIP-7691, the capacity of data blocks will increase by 50%: Currently, each Ethereum block can accommodate approximately 3 data blocks (up to 6 during peak demand periods). After implementing EIP-7691, an average of 6 data blocks will be supported, up to 9 at high demand.

Into furtherThe next step in extending the data block is to reduce the need to store all data blocks and turn to the subnet, which can still be used to verify the data block data.

Other EIPs in Pectra include:

·EIP-2537: Increase the number of safe digits of the operation to more than 120 digits, and currently above 80 digits.

·EIP-2935: Preparing for stateless clients, this EIP recommends storing the historical block hash in state as part of the block processing logic. Implemented through contract storage, EIP allows smooth transitions without affecting the block hashing logic. Rollup will be able to benefit from a longer history and query storage contracts directly.

·EIP-7549: This AIP focuses on improving the efficiency of Casper clients. Implemented by reducing the number of pairs required to verify consensus, especially removing one of three elements in the Casper client authentication message: the committee index. By moving it out of the authentication message, consensus votes can now be aggregated more efficiently into blocks, increasing the number of votes per block from 2 slots to 8.

·EIP-7623: EIP-7623 proposes to increase calldata costs, which is one of the developments with a greater impact on L2. The proposal aims to adjust the call data cost to deal with the difference between the average (100KB) and the maximum block size (7.15 MB). This will not affect ordinary users, but only involve transactions that are mainly used to publish data.

This increase will be introduced through a basic fee that depends on the gas ratio consumed on the call data operation: reducing the block size to accommodate more data blocks, or increasing gas limits.

·EIP-7685: Introduce a framework to store requests triggered by smart contracts. This allows validators controlled by smart contracts to delegate management operations to the latter, thereby reducing the need for intermediaries.

·EIP-2935: Preparing for stateless clients, this EIP recommends storing the historical block hash in state as part of the block processing logic. Through contract storage implementation, EIP allows smooth transitions without affecting the block hashing logic. Rollup will be able to benefit from a longer history and query storage contracts directly.

The focus of this upgrade is an important signal for Ethereum; we know that these improvements have begun long ago and are not a response to recent criticism. However, the ability to focus on simplifying network security, improving Ethereum account functionality and expanding data blocks is one of the key development directions needed to achieve Ethereum.