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Author: Sam Kessler, CoinDesk; Compilation: Baishui, Bitchain Vision
summary
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Ethereum’s Pectra upgraded Sepolia test encountered an empty block problem.
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This is the second time that the testnet problem occurred after the last Holesky test failed.
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Both of these problems are caused by test configuration errors, not Pectra itself.
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Some people in the Ethereum community believe that the upgraded version should be tested more before it is officially launched.
On Wednesday, Ethereum developers initially celebrated a seemingly successful test of Pectra on the Sepolia test network, the most important upgrade to blockchain since 2024.However, after a few hours of testing, Sepolia began to encounter an error.
This is the second bug test of the highly anticipated Pectra upgrade, designed to improve Ethereum’s efficiency, user experience and validator systems.These issues have led some developers to call for delays in the upgrade.
Wednesday’s Sepolia test is expected to be Pectra’s last step before the Ethereum mainnet goes online.Initially, the test seemed to succeed, but later, the developer noticed that empty blocks were added to the chain.
The Ethereum Foundation blames the problem on “the issue with Sepolia licensed deposit contracts”, which “prevents many execution layer clients from including transactions in the block.”In other words, the problem stems from misconfigurations specific to Sepolia tests, not flaws in Pectra itself.
The Ethereum Foundation developers said they “determine the root cause in a few minutes” and deployed a fix to restore normal functionality of the network.
Nevertheless, the test raises concerns about whether Pectra is fully tested.Previous tests on the Ethereum Holesky testnet also encountered configuration problems, which were caused by a misconfigured validator.
“I do think the events on Holesky and Sepolia testnet deserve to be postponed Pectra mainnet activation,” noted Christine Kim, vice president of research at Galaxy Digital, noting that while developers may feel ready, the broader Ethereum ecosystem — including major smart contract applications and wallet providers — needs to be prepared.
Kim advises Ethereum developers to “take time to build additional testing infrastructure” before launching the upgrade.
Ethereum core developers will meet on March 7 to determine the official release date of Pectra.Any delay could cause controversy among Ethereum supporters, who are already in tension due to lagging ETH token prices, leadership turmoil at the Ethereum Foundation and growing competition from networks such as Solana.
