On May 7, Ethereum successfully completed the Pectra upgrade. As an extremely important mainnet upgrade this year, Pectra focuses on staking , L2 expansion and account abstraction , laying a new foundation for the future development of Ethereum. Next, we will sort out the core highlights of this upgrade.
1. Staking mechanism optimization: from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH
In this upgrade, EIP-7251 increases the upper limit of the stake of a single verification node from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH. This change has two important implications:
1. Improve the speed of Staking deposit and withdrawal
In order to maintain decentralization, Ethereum has set the upper limit of a single node’s stake at 32 ETH. However, this also brings about the problem of long queue times for deposits and withdrawals during network peak periods, especially since each Epoch only allows 8 nodes to exit or withdraw.
This upgrade will increase the upper limit of a single node to 2048 ETH. After the nodes are merged in the future, the efficiency of capital flow will be greatly improved, especially during peak periods such as bull markets, which can effectively alleviate queuing pressure.
Although it is currently a low period and deposits and withdrawals can generally be completed within 10 minutes, this change will lay a good foundation for future network congestion and optimize the overall user experience.
2. Reserve space for L1 expansion
Ethereum currently has more than one million verification nodes. Under the mechanism of ensuring that each node participates in consensus fairly, the peak performance of L1 has been limited for a long time and is currently maintained at about 60 TPS.
After raising the upper limit of single-node staking to 2048 ETH, it is expected that a more flexible hierarchical consensus mechanism will be gradually introduced in the future, such as a combination of full voting by large nodes + random voting by small nodes.
This solution is expected to significantly release on-chain performance while slightly lowering the security threshold, laying the foundation for the scalability of L1.
As shown in the figure, adopting the Orbit mode may be the idea for ETH L1 expansion.
For this reason, pushing the 2048 ETH cap in the Pectra upgrade becomes a key step in the expansion path.
3. Benefits of LST Protocol
The EIP-6110 and EIP-7002 introduced by the Pectra upgrade bring breakthrough support for the underlying mechanisms of LST protocols including Lido and EtherFi:
EIP-6110 allows deposit operations to be completed directly at the consensus layer
EIP-7002 gives smart contracts control over the withdrawal process
These two changes enable some aspects that originally relied on centralized components and manual processes to achieve a higher degree of decentralization and automation.
Although the discussion surrounding LST is still controversial, the Pectra upgrade has undoubtedly freed up more room for development in this ecosystem.
2. L2 Optimization: Blob Expansion Brings Lower Costs
In this upgrade, the implementation of EIP-7742 and EIP-7691 will directly double the Blob capacity and support dynamic adjustment.
Blob, as the core area of L2 data storage and backup, is directly related to the cost structure of L2. After this upgrade, L2 fees will be further reduced, from very cheap to extremely cheap, which is undoubtedly good for the L2 ecosystem.
Of course, this also means that the burning rate of ETH may slow down further. However, from the perspective of the overall health of the ecosystem, L2 activity and low cost undoubtedly have longer-term strategic value.
3. Account abstraction takes a key step forward
The introduction of EIP-7702 opens a new chapter for Ethereum account abstraction, significantly improving the flexibility and user experience of wallets:
Support batch transactions, more efficient operation
Allows the use of any token (such as USDT) to pay for Gas, lowering the threshold
Introduce social retrieval and other mechanisms to enhance account security and ease of use
In the past, wallet functions were relatively rigid, and ETH had to be prepared in advance to initiate transactions. In the future, account abstraction wallets based on EIP-7702 will be more free and intelligent. New users can even register and use wallets directly through their mobile phone numbers without having to worry about tedious steps such as address management and Gas pre-setting, completely opening up the last mile of the Ethereum experience.
Conclusion
The Pectra upgrade is not just a regular feature iteration. It has drawn a clearer path for the future of Ethereum in key areas such as staking mechanism optimization, L2 expansion and account abstraction. Ebunker has completed all Pectra upgrade adaptation work. Next, we will continue to focus on providing efficient and stable verification services for the Ethereum ecosystem. Changes will continue to occur in the future. Thank you for your attention, participation, and construction of the Ethereum ecosystem with us.
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