Ethereum plans to launch Pectra upgrade in the first quarter of 2025

PANews reported on May 27 that according to The Block, Ethereum core developers decided at an executive level meeting to plan to launch the Pectra upgrade in the first quarter of 2025. Pectra represents the next major update for Ethereum, succeeding the Dencun upgrade that was effectively implemented in March 2023. This upgrade will incorporate the Ethereum Virtual Machine Object Format (EOF) and contains approximately 11 improvement proposals to enhance the EVM code on Layer1 and Layer2.

Additionally, the developers will include EIP-7251, "Increase Maximum Effective Balance" in Pectra. This change will allow individual validators to stake more than 32 ETH, up to a maximum of 2,048 ETH. Increasing the maximum valid validator balance would allow such operators to manage fewer validators with higher stakes, potentially reducing complexity. The developers also decided to replace the account abstraction EIP-3074 with the new proposal EIP-7702 by Vitalik Buterin. EIP-7702 will bring a novel transaction type that enables an Ethereum account address to temporarily act as a smart contract wallet during the transaction and then restore its original state.