Ethereum Developers Split Upcoming "Pectra" Hard Fork into Two Stages

Ethereum developers agreed on Thursday to split the upcoming "Pectra" hard fork into two phases to reduce the complexity of this major upgrade and minimize the risk of errors or vulnerabilities.

This decision to split the upgrade is not surprising. According to CoinDesk, developers had previously considered splitting Pectra due to its large scale, making it difficult to implement in one go. This approach reduces the risk of discovering code errors.

Pectra was initially planned to be the largest hard fork in Ethereum's history. Now, developers can focus on a narrower scope. Developers have previously stated their goal of completing this upgrade in early 2025, and this remains the target for the first phase of the Pectra upgrade.

Core developers have decided that the first phase will include eight Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), including EIP-7702, which aims to improve wallet user experience. This proposal was conceived by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in just 22 minutes.

The specific contents of the second phase may be adjusted in the coming months, but it is currently expected to include proposals for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) known as EOFs, as well as the introduction of a feature called PeerDAS designed to improve data availability sampling. This feature is particularly beneficial for layer-2 blockchains.

Developers also acknowledge that the scope of these upgrades may change over time, making it unwise to definitively finalize the upgrade content at this stage.