Pectra Upgrade Meaning

Oct 31, 2024 | Updated May 7, 2025

The Pectra upgrade is an upcoming Ethereum network upgrade aimed at improving overall scalability, security, and user experience, including account abstraction and validator operations.

What Is the Pectra Upgrade?

The Pectra upgrade refers to a major Ethereum upgrade made up of two previously planned upgrades – the Prague execution layer and Electra consensus layer updates. It’s made up of 11 total Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), making it the largest upgrade in the history of the Ethereum network.

Like the prior Dencun (Cancun-Deneb) upgrade, this upgrade constitutes changes that impact both the consensus layer and the execution layer of Ethereum.

The upgrade, which went live on May 7, 2025, aims to increase validators’ stake limit, enhance the efficiency of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), and improve Ethereum wallet functionality. It will also reduce gas costs, improve scalability, address the network’s energy consumption concerns, and introduce enhanced development tools to augment the user experience for both developers and users.

What Are the Key Improvements?

The Pectra upgrade consists of a series of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). Some of the key improvements include:

EIP-7702: Arguably the most impactful EIP in this upgrade, EIP 7702 which bridges the gap between regular user accounts known as Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs) and smart contract functionality. Specifically, this proposal enables EOAs to temporarily function like smart contracts during transactions, offering several user benefits.
EIP-7002: Allows validators to directly use their execution layer credentials to initiate full or partial withdrawals or trigger exits.
EIP-7251: Seeks to increase the maximum amount that a single validator can stake from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH to slow down the rate of growth and decrease the size of the network’s validator set. This aims to enhance the network’s security and reduce the computational burden on individual nodes.
EIP-7594: This improvement introduces the PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling) protocol, a networking mechanism that performs data availability checks while only downloading a subset of the data. As a result, it optimizes transaction processing and improves the scalability of layer 2 networks, thereby facilitating cheaper and faster transactions.
EIP-6110: Streamlined Validator Onboarding: This proposal eliminates an unnecessary delay from Ethereum’s proof-of-work days. Previously, validator deposits had to wait for 2,048 blocks (about 9 hours) before processing to account for potential chain reorganizations. With Ethereum’s move to proof-of-stake, this delay is no longer needed. EIP-6110 reduces this onboarding time to around 13 minutes, improving the staking experience.

Read our article on Ledger Academy to learn more about the Ethereum Pectra Upgrade.