Ethereum devs set Pectra upgrade for Q1 2025

Ethereum's anticipated Pectra upgrade is now scheduled for release by the end of Q1 2025, according to recent updates from Ethereum developers. Pectra is the next major milestone on Ethereum's development roadmap, following the Dencun upgrade which was successfully deployed in March.

The decision comes after Ethereum developers evaluated multiple timeline scenarios. The team has opted against a rushed release before Devcon in November 2024, favoring a more cautious approach that allows for the inclusion of additional, impactful user features.

"We are observing that this is also what happened with Cancun, so being realistic, my vote would be to aim to ship Prague in Q1 2025. With today's scope, delaying Prague seems to have marginal impact on users and allows us to consider expanding the scope to include more impactful features for users," Ethereum developers noted in a document .

Devcon is the largest developer summit in the Asia Pacific region. This year, the event will take place in Bangkok, Thailand, from November 12-15, aiming to bring together developers, technology leaders, and dev-tool companies to learn, discuss, and debate the key opportunities and challenges in the developer ecosystem.

Avoiding releasing the Pectra upgrade before/during Devcon will allow the developer team to effectively monitor the execution of Pectra.

During the deployment of Dencun on the Goerli testnet in January, Ethereum developers encountered difficulties achieving consensus within the expected timeframe. The issue was then resolved, allowing the Goerli testnet to finally reach consensus.

In addition to the upgrade timeline, the focus is on improvements in the consensus layer scope and execution layer scope. Developers aim to integrate PeerDAS into Pectra to enhance Ethereum's Data Availability capacity ahead of the Osaka upgrade, as noted in the document.

Ethereum's Osaka upgrade is a future hard fork that is expected to include features that were previously considered for the Pectra upgrade but have been postponed. Specifically, the Osaka upgrade is likely to include the implementation of Verkle Tree, a new data structure designed to enhance Ethereum's scalability and decentralization.

Developers also considered the inclusion of EOF to improve smart contract security and developer experience, as well as other enhancements like replacing EIP-3074 with EIP-7702 for better account abstraction compatibility, and patching EIP-2935.

"We need to decide on EIP7702 on ACDE, and if so, implement it as a replacement for EIP-3074. We think it makes sense to do so as it’s a more native-AA compatible solution because of the new transaction type vs an opcode," Ethereum developers wrote.

EIP-7702 is a new transaction type proposed by a group of prominent Ethereum developers, including Vitalik Buterin, earlier this month. The proposal is expected to bring similar benefits to EIP-3074 while addressing its potential risks.