Ethereum Developers Activate 11 Pectra Upgrades to Enhance UX and Layer 2 Scalability

By Jeet Adhvaryu On May 8, 2025

Summary

Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade, its largest by EIP count since the Merge, has been activated, bringing 11 changes to enhance user experience, validator operations, and Layer 2 scaling.
Major improvements include EIP-7702 for account abstraction (enabling features like sponsored transactions and social recovery), EIP-7251 raising validator stake limits to simplify operations, and EIP-7691 to boost Layer 2 data “blob” throughput for lower fees.
Other significant changes involve EIP-7002 for more secure validator withdrawals, EIP-2935 for on-chain access to recent block hashes, and EIP-6110 for dramatically faster validator activation times.

Developers within the Ethereum ecosystem have successfully launched the Pectra upgrade on the main network, marking it as the most substantial network enhancement since the “Merge” event in 2022.

Ethereum Implements Landmark Pectra Upgrade, Enhancing Network Capabilities

This activation, which occurred at epoch 364032 around 6:05 a.m. ET represents Ethereum’s largest update to date based on the number of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) incorporated.

Pectra introduces a suite of code modifications aimed at refining staking efficiency, improving the user experience, optimizing validator operations, and boosting the scalability of Layer 2 solutions.

The deployment followed a period of extensive testing across several test networks, including Holesky, Sepolia, and Hoodi, which did encounter some initial setup issues.

Despite these preliminary challenges, such as validator configuration errors on Holesky, the successful implementation on the Hoodi testnet in March 2025 ultimately cleared the path for the mainnet launch.

Pectra advances the work of the Dencun upgrade from March 2024, notable for introducing proto-danksharding via EIP-4844.

By integrating 11 EIPs, Pectra targets significant existing network limitations.

EIP-7702: Advancing Account Abstraction for Enhanced User Experience

Co-developed with insights from Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin, EIP-7702 empowers user wallets to temporarily operate with smart contract functionalities, a significant movement towards comprehensive account abstraction.

This proposal permits wallets to integrate features like sponsored transactions, where third parties such as decentralized applications (dApps) can cover users’ gas fees.

This could foster “freemium” models, allowing interaction with dApps without requiring users to hold ETH initially.

Furthermore, users will gain the ability to consolidate multiple operations, like token approvals and swaps, into a single transaction.

RELEATED POSTS

$16 billion FTX repayment is scheduled to commence in…

Dec 30, 2024

Pump.fun DEX PumpSwap Shares Token Creator Revenue

May 13, 2025

This is anticipated to lower gas expenditures and reduce friction in user interactions.

Account abstraction is also expected to lay the groundwork for features such as social recovery mechanisms, which would enable users to regain access to lost private keys through designated trusted contacts.

EIP-7251: Elevating Staking Capacity with Increased Validator Limits

Through EIP-7251, the maximum effective balance for a single validator has been raised substantially, from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH.

This change facilitates the compounding of staking rewards and allows for the consolidation of validator entities.

Previously, individuals or entities staking more than 32 ETH were compelled to distribute their stake across numerous validators, adding operational burdens.

Large-scale operators can now combine multiple 32 ETH validators into a single entity, which will lessen the demand on network bandwidth.

This also means that both individual stakers and institutional validators will have fewer nodes to oversee, thereby reducing costs associated with hardware and maintenance.

Nevertheless, some critics express concerns that EIP-7251 might inadvertently contribute to increased network centralization, as stakers with greater wealth or larger staking pools could potentially exert more influence.

EIP-7691: Augmenting Layer 2 Scalability via Doubled Blob Throughput

Expanding upon the proto-danksharding feature introduced in the Dencun upgrade, EIP-7691 enhances blob throughput.

The target per block increases from 3 to 6, and the maximum from 6 to 9.

Blobs, which function as temporary data storage for Layer 2 rollups, have already significantly reduced L1 transaction fees for rollup solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism by factors of 10 to 100.

This EIP is expected to further improve rollup efficiency, allowing for more blobs, which translates to potentially lower transaction costs and quicker processing times for users on Layer 2.