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Ethereum Prague Upgrade (Pectra)
EIP-2935 and EIP-3074
Other Improvement Proposals
Expected Deployment by the end of 2024
Following the completion of the Cancun upgrade (Dencun), Ethereum developers have begun preparing for the next network upgrade, codenamed “Prague Upgrade (Pectra)”. In line with tradition, the upgrade codename for the execution layer (typically named after a city) is “Prague”, while the codename for the consensus layer (typically named after a galaxy) is “Electra”.
According to meeting minutes compiled by Ethereum core developer Timbeiko, during the 185th Ethereum All Core Developers bi-weekly meeting held on Thursday, the following decisions were made:
EIP-2935 and EIP-3074 have been confirmed to be included in the Prague Upgrade.
EOF and EIP-7623 have entered the Consideration for Inclusion (CFI) list.
EIP-7667 will be included in the next Osaka upgrade.
EIP-3074 is a set of code changes aimed at improving the user experience (UX) of Ethereum wallets. Specifically, the proposal grants smart contract functionality to Externally Owned Accounts (EOA), enabling capabilities such as single transaction approvals, batch transactions, wallet asset recovery, and sponsored transactions. Developer cygaar has written a detailed introduction to the principles and functionalities of EIP-3074 in a tweet.
Additionally, the purpose of EIP-2935 is to store historical block hashes in contracts and modify the existing ‘BLOCKHASH’ opcode to retrieve data from this contract. This change allows Ethereum to more efficiently maintain block hash history, reducing the need for clients to store large amounts of blockchain history and saving disk space.
The improvement proposals included in the Prague Upgrade also include EIP-7251, which aims to increase the staking limit for validators from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH—a 64-fold increase. Once implemented, large staking service providers such as Coinbase or Lido will be able to integrate Ethereum blockchain validators they operate, while avoiding the need to create new validators every time an additional 32 ETH is staked. This will help alleviate the operational burden for large stakers, consolidate the number of validators on the blockchain, and allow staking providers to deploy fewer resources for staking and validation.
Following Pectra, the anticipated upgrade will include the long-awaited “Verkle tree”, a new data system designed to help Ethereum nodes store large amounts of data. Developer Timbeiko, in an interview with CoinDesk, stated that developers will strive to release Pectra by the end of 2024 or early 2025.
