Ethereum Pectra Upgrade Complete Guide

Author: Ethereum Foundation Protocol Support Team; Translator: Golden Finance Xiaozou

The Ethereum Pectra upgrade is scheduled to activate on May 7, 2025, at epoch 364032 on the Ethereum mainnet (UTC time 10:05:11).

1. Introduction to Pectra

Pectra is a significant update following last year's Dencun upgrade. It enhances the Ethereum account system, improves the validator experience, supports L2 scalability, and more by introducing new features!

This article will detail these three major improvements. For a comprehensive understanding of the upgrade content, please refer to the upgrade guide on ethereum.org.

(1) From External Account (EOA) to Smart Account

EIP-7702 marks an important step in the process of account abstraction, allowing users to add smart contract functionality to External Owned Accounts (EOA).

This hybrid solution combines the simplicity of EOA with the programmability of contract accounts. Specifically, it enables the wallet to support the following functions:

• Transaction Batch Processing: Multiple operations can be executed atomically in a single transaction. No need to initiate separate transactions for "authorization" and "exchange" anymore!

• Gas Payment by Proxy: Allows a third party to pay transaction fees. This is especially useful for initiating transactions from accounts without ETH.

• Alternative Verification: means that many hardware security modules (HSM) in the current phone can authorize account operations through technologies such as access keys.

• Expenditure Control: Allows limiting the number of tokens that specific applications can consume, or setting a daily transfer limit for the wallet to enhance security.

• Recovery Mechanism: Provides users with multiple asset protection options without the need to migrate to a new account.

When using EIP-7702, the EOA must sign an authorization pointing to a specific delegated address (which contains the code to be executed). Once set up, the account gains new code functionalities (such as batch processing, payment delegation, validation logic, etc.). Since choosing a delegation target means transferring a significant amount of control, EIP-7702 enforces multiple security checks:

• Specific Chain Delegation: By default, delegation is only valid for specific chain IDs to prevent the same authorization from being used across networks.

• Nonce Binding Delegation: Authorization can be bound to the current nonce of the account and will automatically become invalid when the nonce increases. • Revocability: The EOA owner can always create a new EIP-7702 authorization to revoke or replace the existing delegated code, avoiding permanent locking due to erroneous operations.

(2) Validator Experience Optimization

Pectra includes three EIPs that improve the validator experience: 7251, 7002, and 6110.

First, EIP-7251 increases the maximum balance that validators can earn rewards from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH by voluntarily updating the withdrawal credential type.

For stakers, this achieves yield compounding. Previously, the portion of validators staking more than 32 ETH was not counted towards the active staking amount. Users wishing to stake more than 32 ETH can only operate in increments of 32 ETH, and the intermediate values rely on the staking pool. EIP-7251 enables both new and old validators to be configured to receive rewards based on the actual staking amount (with a cap of 2048 ETH).

This EIP also allows large operators to merge multiple 32 ETH validators, thereby reducing the overall bandwidth requirements of the network.

EIP-7002 expands the capabilities of validators by introducing withdraws that can be triggered at the execution layer. Previously, only the active signing keys of validators could trigger exits. Now, if an Ethereum address is set as a withdrawal credential, that address can also force an exit. This reduces the trust assumptions in delegation setups, as the fund owners (whether individuals controlling EOAs or smart contracts managed by DAOs) can always initiate exits without needing to trust anyone.

Finally, EIP-6110 eliminates the legacy issue of Ethereum before the merge: the delay between validator deposits and joining the deposit queue. Before the Ethereum merge, the beacon chain had to wait for 2048 blocks to process validator deposits to cope with potential proof-of-work reorganizations. This is no longer necessary!

EIP-6110 reduces the deposit processing delay from approximately 9 hours to 13 minutes.

(3) Blob extension

The last significant change to Pectra is EIP-7691, which doubles the blob throughput of Ethereum!

The blob introduced by the Dencun upgrade is a temporary storage solution for L2 to submit compressed transaction data and proofs to Ethereum L1. Once enabled, it reduces L1 fees for L2 by 10 to 100 times, greatly lowering transaction costs for L2 users.

Currently, the Ethereum mainnet supports an average of 3 blobs per block, with a peak capacity of 6. EIP-7691 will increase this to an average of 6 and a peak of 9.

Unlike CALLDATA, which is permanently stored with nodes, blobs will be cleared after 4096 epochs (approximately 18 days). This limits their space usage. The actual constraint on blobs comes from bandwidth, as they need to propagate on the Ethereum peer-to-peer layer. To offset the bandwidth increase brought by EIP-7691, Pectra also introduces EIP-7623 to limit the block size cap.

To continuously expand the Ethereum data throughput without increasing bandwidth requirements, we must shift from the "every node stores all blobs" model to "nodes only store a subset and verify the rest of the data through network sampling." The good news is: relevant work is already underway! Francesco from the Ethereum Foundation research team roughly outlined this expansion roadmap in his Devcon keynote speech.

2. Pectra Specification

For specific updates on Pectra, please refer to EIP-7600. This includes:

• EIP-2537: Precompiled operations for BLS12-381 curve

• EIP-2935: Store historical block hashes in the state

• EIP-6110: On-chain supply validator deposits

• EIP-7002: Withdrawal triggered by the execution layer

• EIP-7251: Increase the MAX_EFFECTIVE_BALANCE limit

• EIP-7549: Move the committee index field out of Attestation

• EIP-7623: Increase calldata costs

• EIP-7685: General Execution Layer Request

• EIP-7691: Blob throughput improvement

• EIP-7702: Set EOA account code

• EIP-7840: Adding blob schedule to EL configuration file

The complete Python version of the execution layer and consensus layer specifications can be found in the following version:

• Execution Layer: v1.17.0rc6

• Consensus Layer: v1.5.0-beta.5

In addition, Pectra has updated the Engine API used for communication between consensus layer and execution layer nodes.

3. Pectra Activation

The Pectra network upgrade will be activated on the Ethereum mainnet on May 7, 2025, at 10:05:11 UTC (epoch starting at 364032).

Activation has previously been completed on the Hoodi, Holesky, and Sepolia testnets.

4. Client Version

The following client versions are suitable for the Ethereum mainnet's Pectra upgrade.

consensus layer version

When running a validator, both the consensus layer beacon node and the validator client need to be updated.

execution layer version

5. Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How does the Ethereum network upgrade work?

Answer: Ethereum network upgrades require node operators to explicitly choose to participate. Although client developers reach a consensus on the EIPs included in the upgrade, they are not the final decision-makers.

To make the upgrade effective, validators and non-staking nodes must manually update their software to support the new protocol.

If the Ethereum client in use is not updated to the latest version (see above), it will disconnect from the upgraded nodes when forking blocks, leading to a network split. In this case, each subset of nodes will only remain connected to nodes that maintain the same (non) upgraded status.

Although most Ethereum upgrades are uncontroversial and forks are rare, the autonomous decision of node operators to support upgrades is a core feature of Ethereum governance.

Q: As a user of the Ethereum mainnet or an ETH holder, what do I need to do?

Answer: In one sentence: No need.

If you are using an exchange, digital wallet, or hardware wallet, no action is required unless the service provider specifically notifies you.

Q: What do I need to do as a non-staking node operator?

Answer: To ensure compatibility, please update the execution layer and consensus layer clients to the versions listed in the table above.

Question: As a staker, what do I need to do?

Answer: To ensure compatibility, please update the execution layer and consensus layer clients to the versions listed in the table above. Please also update the beacon node and validator clients.

Q: As an application or tool developer, what should I do?

Answer: Review the EIPs included in Pectra and assess their impact on the project - this upgrade introduces many exciting new features at both the execution layer and the consensus layer!

Q: Why is it named "Pectra"?

Answer: The execution layer upgrade uses the city name from Devcon, while the consensus layer upgrade adopts star names. "Pectra" is a combination of the location of Devcon IV, Prague, and the blue-white giant star Electra in the Taurus constellation.