What is Pectra?

The Ethereum network is one of the most valuable and mature general-purpose blockchains. Each year, the Ethereum developer conference, Devcon, drives the advancement of the Ethereum protocol. After discussing the scope of the Prague/Electra network upgrade, the Ethereum Foundation ultimately merged them into “Pectra.” Pectra is a significant upgrade to the Ethereum network, designed to introduce a series of optimizations and enhancements to Ethereum’s Consensus Layer.

Since its inception, Ethereum has continuously improved its technology. The Ethereum Merge in 2022 and the “Cancun” upgrade in 2024 have brought significant advancements to the network. The Pectra upgrade addresses Ethereum’s high fees, transaction speed, and scalability issues. In the final AllCoreDevs meeting of 2024, with the in

What is Mekong?

Mekong is a testnet based on the Pectra Devnet 4 rules, launched last November. It allows testing of user experience (UX) improvements and modifications related to the upcoming Pectra upgrade while helping stakers become familiar with these changes. The name Mekong comes from the Mekong River in Southeast Asia, aligning with the location of Devcon 7. The Mekong testnet provides an environment for testing new staking deposit and withdrawal mechanisms without affecting the Ethereum mainnet or other testnets. Testing on Mekong will be a reference for deploying the Pectra upgrade on other Ethereum networks.

Ethereum Foundation protocol lead Tim Beiko tweeted (Source: x.com/TimBeiko)

The Mekong testnet is short-term but fully functional, containing all expected EIPs for Pectra. Developers may see minor specification changes or smaller EIPs, but the features included here will make their way into existing public testnets and the final Ethereum mainnet. Pectra introduces changes to staking deposits and withdrawals, and the Mekong testnet is the first place to experiment with these modifications. The Ethereum Foundation encourages developers to test on this network and provide feedback to help refine these upgrades, ensuring their stability and user experience before the official deployment.

New Technology Proposal (EIP)

The Mekong testnet integrates all the EIP proposals that will be applied in the Ethereum Pectra fork, covering various technical improvements. Below are the key changes included in the Mekong testnet:

Pectra Devnet 4 EIP List: https://notes.ethereum.org

1. EIP-7702: Allowing EOA Account Code

EIP-7702 aims to allow externally owned accounts (EOAs) to set a code in specific transactions. This proposal addresses limitations and differences between EOAs and contract accounts, providing more flexibility. In certain scenarios, by setting a contract code, EOAs can function similarly to contract accounts and execute specific operations through these codes.

2. EIP-7251: Staking Mechanism Changes

EIP-7251 optimizes Ethereum 2.0’s staking mechanism, allowing validators to have a higher effective balance while maintaining the 32 ETH minimum. This increases the staking limit from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH, enhancing staking flexibility and security. Users can stake and unstake more efficiently, reducing lock-up periods and improving liquidity. The proposal also strengthens security, minimizing risks from malicious attacks or mismanagement of staked funds. Additionally, it improves the reward distribution mechanism, making staking incentives fairer and more transparent to encourage broader participation.

3. EIP-6110 / EIP-7002: Deposit and Withdrawal Mechanism Improvements

EIP-6110 and EIP-7002 collectively optimize Ethereum’s deposit and withdrawal mechanisms, enabling near-instant deposit processing. EIP-6110 ensures that deposits are recognized by the chain more quickly and securely without affecting validator activation speed. EIP-7002 improves the withdrawal process, reducing the waiting time for exiting stakes and increasing fund liquidity, allowing participants to withdraw staked assets more efficiently. These enhancements improve transparency, enabling users to track deposit and withdrawal status, thereby increasing Ethereum’s staking participation and lowering operational barriers.

4. EIP-7685: General Execution Layer Requests

EIP-7685 provides a general mechanism for sharing execution-layer-triggered requests between Ethereum’s Execution Layer (EL) and Consensus Layer (CL). This proposal does not impose strict validation requirements on request sources or mandate when or how requests should be validated, offering developers flexibility in designing request generation and verification processes. For example, contract calls can directly trigger requests or use event mechanisms to pass them to the system, giving protocol designers maximum adaptability.

5. EIP-2537: Support for BLS Signatures

EIP-2537 introduces a precompile for BLS12-381 curve operations. BLS12-381 is an elliptic curve used for efficient zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs), cryptographic signatures, and other cryptographic protocols. It enhances the accessibility and performance of Ethereum validators. BLS signatures allow multiple signatures to be aggregated, improving efficiency, simplifying validation, and reducing gas costs.

6. EIP-2935: Storing Historical Block Hashes in State

EIP-2935 enables storing historical block hashes in system contract storage, making block hash queries and verification more efficient without requiring additional computation or external data sources. This supports stateless client models by bundling block hashes as proofs (witnesses), allowing smart contracts to access them directly from state storage instead of recalculating them block by block, reducing computational complexity.

7. EIP-7549: Removing Committee Index from Proof Scope

EIP-7549 removes committee indices from the proof structure to optimize consensus voting efficiency. Currently, committee member indices (identifiers or positions within a committee) are stored inside proof structures, which presents efficiency challenges. By moving committee indices out of the proof structure and storing them separately, this proposal simplifies data access and management, improving vote aggregation efficiency while reducing verification costs and network load.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Pectra is a significant upgrade that will greatly enhance Ethereum’s scalability and user experience. It is set to transition to the mainnet over the coming months. Additionally, developers are preparing for the next Pectra devnet, Pectra Devnet 5, though Pectra Devnet 4 remains stable and is planned to continue running. Future devnets will implement further specification changes, indicating that the upgrade is still evolving.