What Is The Ethereum Pectra Upgrade?

As the pioneering network for smart contracts, Ethereum continuously evolves to meet new challenges. The recently launched Pectra upgrade represents a significant leap forward in Ethereum’s roadmap, addressing key limitations while enhancing the network’s scalability, security, and user experience.

Pectra combines two previously planned upgrades – the Prague execution layer and Electra consensus layer updates – into a single comprehensive update with 11 total Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) being implemented, making it the largest upgrade in the network’s history. After a challenging development journey that took over a year and a half, Pectra has finally arrived to make Ethereum more accessible, efficient, and user-friendly while maintaining its security and high levels of decentralization.  

In this article, Ledger Academy breaks down everything you need to know about the Ethereum Pectra upgrade, the EIPs it contains, and what it all means for the Ethereum network and its users. 

The History of Ethereum Upgrades

Since launching in 2015, Ethereum has undergone approximately 20 major upgrades, each implementing proposals that address weaknesses and enhance capabilities. 

For example, the network’s high-profile Paris Upgrade in 2022, commonly known as “The Merge,” marked a pivotal moment when Ethereum transitioned from the energy-intensive proof-of-work consensus mechanism to the more energy-efficient proof-of-stake. In March 2024, the Dencun upgrade introduced blob transactions through EIP-4844, dramatically reducing fees on Layer-2 scaling solutions, which greatly stimulated growth in the layer-2 ecosystem. 

Now, Pectra builds upon these foundations with comprehensive improvements across both the execution and consensus layers, addressing longstanding limitations while enabling new capabilities for users, developers, and validators alike.

What Does the Pectra Upgrade Mean for the Ethereum Ecosystem?

Better User Experience

Perhaps Pectra’s most user-facing improvement comes through account abstraction via EIP-7702. By enabling regular wallets to leverage smart contract capabilities, Ethereum moves closer to the seamless user experience found in traditional applications. Features like transaction batching, gas sponsorship, and simplified recovery options have the potential to address longstanding pain points in blockchain transactions.

Enhanced Scalability

The Pectra upgrade significantly increases Ethereum’s transaction capacity through both direct improvements (blob throughput increase via EIP-7691) and indirect enhancements (validator consolidation). These changes enable the network to process more transactions while maintaining reasonable resource requirements for node operators.

Lower Transaction Costs

By optimizing data availability for Layer-2 solutions and improving transaction bundling capabilities, Pectra continues Ethereum’s efforts to reduce user costs. The ability to batch transactions and sponsor gas fees particularly benefits new users, removing barriers to adoption.

When Will The Ethereum Pectra Upgrade Happen?

While the Pectra upgrade officially went live on May 7, 2025, the actual user-facing changes will roll out gradually across the Ethereum ecosystem. Validator improvements are already active and benefiting those who run or participate in staking pools, but other features will take time to implement.

Over the next 1-3 months, major wallets and dApps will begin incorporating EIP-7702 features, starting with transaction batching and eventually adding more complex functionality. Looking further ahead to the 3-6 month timeframe, we can expect to see more innovative applications that fully leverage Pectra’s improvements as developers become familiar with the new capabilities. The speed of adoption will vary significantly by application, with newer protocols likely to implement these features more quickly than ones requiring more extensive testing.

Key Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) in the Pectra Upgrade

While all 11 of Pectra’s Ethereum Improvement Proposals contribute to Ethereum’s improvement, let’s focus on the most impactful changes you’ll actually notice as a user:

Smart Account Capabilities with EIP-7702

One of Pectra’s most transformative changes for users comes through 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:

• Transaction batching: Users can execute multiple operations (like approving and swapping tokens) within a single transaction, reducing fees and the steps necessary to complete a trade
• Gas sponsorship: Applications can pay transaction fees on behalf of users, removing the need for newcomers to acquire ETH before using dApps
• Alternative authentication: Support for modern security technologies like passkeys and biometric verification means you could potentially use fingerprint scanning or face recognition to authorize transactions in the future.
• Spending controls: Users can set limits on application spending and implement daily withdrawal caps, similar to how you might set a daily ATM withdrawal limit on your bank account.

The implementation includes careful safety measures, such as chain-specific delegations to prevent cross-chain exploits, authorizations that automatically invalidate after use, and built-in revocability so that the EOA owner always remains in control.

Validator Improvements

Pectra introduces significant changes to Ethereum’s staking mechanics through three key EIPs:

EIP-7251: Increased Validator Capacity

This change raises the maximum effective balance for validators from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH.

With this enhancement, validators can now earn rewards on their entire stake up to 2,048 ETH, enabling true reward compounding without requiring multiple validator setups. This is particularly valuable for institutional and large-scale stakers who previously had to manage large stakes in fixed 32 ETH increments (imagine having to manage 64 separate accounts to stake 2,048 ETH!). 

This EIP gives them the ability to merge multiple 32 ETH validators, simplifying their staking process and reducing their hardware requirements. The network as a whole benefits from reduced load, as fewer validators mean fewer signatures to process and verify.

To balance the increased stake size, the proposal carefully adjusts slashing penalties to maintain appropriate risk levels. For validators using the new maximum effective balance, the initial slashing penalty changes from 1/32 to 1/4,096 of the effective balance.

EIP-7002: Execution Layer Withdrawals

Currently, validator exits and withdrawals can only be triggered using a validator’s active signing key. EIP-7002 enables withdrawals to be initiated from the execution layer through withdrawal credentials, reducing trust requirements and adding flexibility for staking pools and delegated validators.

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.

How Does The Ethereum Pectra Upgrade Impact Me? 

The Pectra upgrade will not impact your regular Ethereum transactions and transfers. These will continue to function seamlessly, just as they do today. You only need to be aware of the following if you intend to explore the new smart contract delegation capabilities offered by EIP-7702.

For those who may explore the new possibilities offered by EIP-7702, Ledger is implementing support with a strong emphasis on security. To utilize smart contract delegation via EIP-7702 on your Ledger device, you will need to ensure you are using the latest version of the Ethereum application.

Furthermore, in this initial phase, this functionality will only be available for whitelisted and securely audited smart contracts, following guidelines from the Ethereum Foundation.

For Ledger Nano S users, please be aware that as we are phasing out support and you will be unable to update to version 1.17 of the ETH application, and therefore won’t be able to benefit from EIP-7702, but can still send ETH transactions and transfers using the existing version of the ETH application.

Read our comprehensive blog article to understand Ledger’s secure approach to EIP-7702. 

Ledger: Secure Self-Custody for The Ethereum Ecosystem

The Pectra upgrade represents a significant advancement in Ethereum’s evolution, addressing fundamental limitations while introducing new capabilities that will shape the network’s future. By enhancing validator flexibility, improving account functionality, and increasing data availability, Pectra makes Ethereum more accessible, efficient, and user-friendly for everyone.

As Ethereum continues to evolve with innovations like account abstraction and enhanced staking mechanisms, maintaining proper security becomes even more crucial. The new capabilities introduced by Pectra, particularly through EIP-7702, create exciting possibilities but also new security considerations when interacting with smart contracts.

Ledger hardware wallets provide the perfect balance of security and accessibility when interacting with these new Ethereum features. By keeping your private keys offline and protected while providing clear transaction verification through our secure screens, Ledger ensures you can safely explore all that Ethereum has to offer while maintaining complete control of your digital assets.

Ready to experience Ethereum’s latest innovations with peace of mind? Discover the seamless access that Ledger provides to the expanding Ethereum ecosystem while maintaining the industry’s highest security standards. Whether you’re staking ETH, exploring DeFi applications, or simply sending transactions, Ledger gives you the confidence to participate fully in the next generation of Ethereum’s capabilities.