Ethereum’s long-awaited upgrade upgrade has taken a major step forward early Wednesday with its successful expansion on the Sepolia Test Network.
The largest upgrade to Ethereum since 2024, Pectra is made up of 11 main featuresor “Ethereum improvement measures” (EIP), which can be sent at the same time. Together, the features aim to enhance the staking, purse, and overall network efficiency.
Sepolia’s PECTRA upgrade, completed at 07:29:36 UtcFollowed a failed test at Ethereum’s holesky testnet last week. A false configuration with validators resulted in a split splitRendering holesky temporarily unavailable.
Testnets mimic a major blockchain and are used by developers to test code changes in a low environmental environment. Holesky, with a validator structure Closer to the Mainnet of Ethereum Rather than Sepolia, has been seen as a critical proven soil for Pectra. (The developers are still working to restore holesky and to set up an alternative Developer Network as a temporary trial test for validators.)
Ethereum developers are scheduled to meet on March 6 to discuss the basic Pectra release timeline. Only with a fully successful test, developers can choose to delay Mainnet deployment to ensure stability.
A major PECTRA proposal to benefit from Ethereum validators is EIP-7251, which increases the maximum amount of ETH that can stake from 32 to 2,048. The change is meant to meet the clunky staking system today, where validators more than their 32 ETH should split their stake into multiple nodes.
Another expected proposal, the EIP-7702, will allow crypto wallets to work temporarily as smart contracts. The change moves to Ethereum closer to account abstraction, enabling wallets to offer more friendly users. For example, users may pay transaction fees to stablecoins instead of ETH, set up automatic payments for subscriptions, or recover access to their purse without relying on complex seed phrases.
The decaying Pectra test cycle comes as Ethereum developers are under pressure so that upgrades are upgraded faster. Some Ethereum fans are afraid that the network is missing its side in newer chains such as Solana, which has gained mindshare in recent months due to its popularity among meme coin users.
The price of ETH has recently been unchanged by relative to other major coins, and the Ethereum Foundation-the non-profit steward of network development-has been damaged by leadership drama.
Read more: Ethereum’s PECTRA upgrade is live on ‘Holesky’ Testnet, but failed to finish
