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Author: Aleks Gilbert Source: DLNews Translation: Shan Oppa, Bitchain Vision
A major Ethereum upgrade called Pectra was officially launched on Wednesday.Pectra brings improvements in user experience, Layer 2 blockchain, and validator.”This marks that Ethereum is finally starting to be like a modern network,” said an Optimism contributor.
Ethereum’s largest upgrade to date went live on Wednesday morning, simplifying the previously tedious user experience – one of the important factors that have long hindered public adoption.This time, known as Pectra, was activated just after 10 a.m. London time on Wednesday.Ethereum’s annual upgrade cycle has brought many major changes over the past few years.
In 2022, an upgrade called The Merge completely changed Ethereum’s consensus mechanism, reducing its energy consumption by about 99%.
This change is achieved by changing the way Ethereum validates transactions and adds them to the ledger – it abandons the initial Bitcoin-like approach and uses a stake mechanism where users can secure the network by locking ETH, thereby receiving certain annual rewards.
In 2023, Ethereum developers enabled the extraction function of staking ETH, freeing billions of dollars in locked capital.In 2024, the cost of using the Layer 2 blockchain was cut by up to 98%.
In this Pectra upgrade, developers chose a series of smaller but diverse improvements.These changes significantly enhance the functionality of digital wallets, making it easier for users to interact with applications such as decentralized exchanges and lending protocols in the Ethereum ecosystem.
In addition, it increases the capacity of the Layer 2 blockchain—ensures that during peak usage, the fees on these chains remain affordable—and increases the efficiency of validators, namely computers that process transactions and add new blocks to the Ethereum chain.
“This marks that Ethereum is finally starting to be like a modern network,” Binji, a contributor to Optimism, wrote on X.“Pectra reduces the number of clicks you need to complete the action.”
What does Pectra include?
Users can now submit transactions in batches, skipping the pop-up windows that have emerged in the past that require confirmation of pending transactions.
Users can also use itAny token payment fee.Previously, transaction fees had to be paid using Ethereum native token Ether.In the future, using tokens anchored to real-world currencies to pay fees will allow users to understand the actual cost of each transaction more clearly.
“‘Merger’ has changed the way the protocol works,” Binji writes, “and Pectra has changed the way Ethereum uses.”
Pectra is also based on the “Dencun” upgrade last year.
That upgrade introduced “blob” – a new data storage method that the Layer 2 blockchain can be used to submit compressed transaction data.
It further compresses Layer 2 transaction fees, which are already much cheaper than the Ethereum main chain, to the “several cents” level.
But Layer 2 blockchains quickly became congested again, and they fluctuate dynamic transaction fees based on network activity and even occasionally rebounded to pre-Dencun levels.
Pectra byDouble the number of blobs that Ethereum can handle, it is expected to ensure that Layer 2 transaction fees remain within a relatively acceptable range – at least for the time being.
During a developer call in January this year, Jesse Pollak, chief developer of Coinbase’s Layer 2 blockchain base, said he expects future user demand to exceed Ethereum’s own update pace.His colleagues expect demand will grow 10 to 20 times by 2025, far exceeding Pectra’s increased capacity.
Finally, Pectra allows validators to merge their staked capital – before every 32 ETHs had to be managed separately, and now up to 2048 ETHs can be managed at one time.For node operators, this means lower management overhead.
Pectra is the moment when Ethereum regains its own, not just to resist risks, nor to expand, but to users.
The pain of price
However, this upgrade has not solved a core issue around Ethereum: its cryptocurrency has been underperforming over Bitcoin and Solana for a long time.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake said in February this year that ETH has not fulfilled its promise as an “ultrasound currency.”Its supply should have decreased and its value should have increased.
Even after the election of US “crypto president” Trump, both Bitcoin and Solana hit record highs, ETH only hit $4,000 in December, well below its all-time high of $4,800 in 2021.
And in the market chaos caused by Trump’s new tariff policy last month, ETH fell faster than other mainstream crypto assets, hitting a two-year low, just slightly above $1,400.
Critics slammed developers for focusing on building cheaper and faster Layer 2 blockchains as a path to drive mass adoption, believing that these blockchains consume very little ETH in transactions, resulting in the originally expected logic of “decreasing supply and rising prices” that has simply failed to achieve.
Things have changed since the staffing changes at the Ethereum Foundation.This is a well-funded Swiss nonprofit that has been funding the ongoing development of Ethereum.
The new leadership said they planRefocus on reducing the cost of using Ethereum main chain and improving performance, instead of blindly handing over the burden of “being cheap” to the developer of Layer 2.
Fusaka
Leaders of the Ethereum Foundation have not yet stated when these changes (referring to the direction of more focus on mainchain performance) will come, or what will be included.At the same time, Ethereum will be upgraded to the next major codeFusaka, expected to be launched in the second half of this year.
Developers say Fusaka will further enhance Ethereum’sDecentralization degree.
Currently, every node computer in the Ethereum network must process blob data submitted by the Layer 2 blockchainDownload all data for the entire blob.
And after Fusaka upgrade, each computerJust download some blob data, and then verify the correctness of the data downloaded by other nodes through encryption.
This will significantly improve Ethereum’s ability to process blobs, according to independent Ethereum researcher Christine Kim.
