Pectra Hard Fork: Ethereum Upgrades

Vitalik Buterin recently responded with a call to accelerate Ethereum’s scaling efforts. He proposed increasing data availability blobs from three to 128 as quickly as possible. Layer 2 (L2) networks need more blobs to store data affordably. Meanwhile, major L2 projects like Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism are working on unifying the ecosystem.

With Pectra scheduled for March, many are asking: How much will it help with scaling? And what other benefits will it bring?

Pectra Hard Fork: What’s Included?

Initially, Pectra was supposed to be Ethereum’s biggest upgrade ever, with up to 20 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). However, it was later split into two phases. The first phase will only provide a temporary fix for scaling by doubling the number of data blobs from three to six.

Mallesh Pai, a researcher at Consensys, notes that this wasn’t even planned six months ago. However, it won’t be enough to meet the demand from L2s.

“The current estimates based on L2 growth suggest this upgrade will only last until the end of summer,” Pai explains.

A more impactful scaling upgrade, called Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS), is expected in the Fusaka fork later in the year or early next year.

PeerDAS: Like Torrents for Blockchain Data

PeerDAS is the next step in Ethereum’s scaling efforts. It builds on “proto-danksharding,” which allows L2s to store data in blobs rather than compete with transactions for block space. However, the current system requires full nodes to download all blobs, which is inefficient.

PeerDAS changes this by splitting the data into smaller pieces. Think of it like peer-to-peer torrenting, where different computers store and verify portions of a file. This will immediately increase the number of blobs by 2x to 4x, and potentially up to 8x over time.

Vitalik Buterin estimates that PeerDAS could enable 48 blobs per slot as early as next year.

Other Key Features of Pectra

Pectra introduces more than just scaling improvements. Some of the biggest changes include:

1. Smart Accounts for Everyone (EIP-7702)

One of the biggest usability upgrades is EIP-7702. This allows existing Ethereum accounts to upgrade to smart accounts (also known as account abstraction) with a single click.

This will eliminate the need to sign two separate transactions for approvals and swaps. It also introduces features like social recovery, multi-signature wallets, and the ability for merchants to pay gas fees on behalf of users.

A previous attempt at smart accounts, ERC-4337, required users to create new wallets. Pectra simplifies this by upgrading existing wallets instead.

2. Higher Staking Limits (EIP-7251)

Currently, Ethereum validators are limited to staking 32 ETH per node. If someone wants to stake 2048 ETH, they must run 64 separate validators. This adds unnecessary strain to the network.

Pectra raises the maximum validator stake to 2048 ETH. This will reduce network congestion and improve efficiency. It also lays the groundwork for single-slot finality, which will reduce transaction confirmation times from 15 minutes to 12 seconds.

3. Doubling the Blob Target

The number of blobs per block will increase from three to six, with a maximum of nine. L2s rely on blobs for data storage, so this change will help keep transaction costs low.

However, increasing blobs too quickly could raise hardware requirements for Ethereum solo stakers. Finding the right balance between scalability and decentralization will be an ongoing challenge.

Pectra Hard Fork: Summary of Key Upgrades

Feature	Description	Impact
Smart Accounts (EIP-7702)	Upgrades existing accounts to smart accounts with one click	Improves user experience and enables new features
Higher Staking Limits (EIP-7251)	Increases max validator stake from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH	Reduces network strain and improves staking efficiency
Blob Target Increase	Increases blobs per block from 3 to 6 (max 9)	Helps L2s scale and reduces fees
PeerDAS (Coming Later)	Uses a peer-to-peer system to store and verify blob data	Significantly boosts scaling potential

What’s Next?

Ethereum developers are still discussing whether to include EIP-7623 in Pectra. This proposal could increase the number of blobs per block to 18. However, the trade-off would be increased block size, which may push solo stakers out of the network.

Meanwhile, Ethereum validators are pushing to raise the gas target to 36 million per block. This change wouldn’t require a hard fork and could happen as soon as a majority of validators approve it.

Pectra is an important step forward, but it won’t be enough to fully solve Ethereum’s scaling challenges. The real game-changer will be PeerDAS, which is expected in the next upgrade.

For now, Ethereum users can look forward to better usability with smart accounts, improved staking efficiency, and lower L2 fees. The next year will be crucial in determining how quickly Ethereum can scale while maintaining decentralization.