In the latest Ethereum Core Developers Meeting (ACDE #188), the development team stated that the Pectra upgrade may be launched in the first quarter of 2025. Additionally, the account abstraction proposal EIP-7702, proposed by Vitalik Buterin this month, will replace EIP-3074 in the latest Pectra Devnet 1.
Summary:
During the 188th All Core Developers Execution (ACDE) conference call held yesterday (24th), the Ethereum core development team discussed the upcoming key upgrade, Pectra, which is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025, following the Dencun upgrade. The term “Pectra” is a combination of the Prague upgrade in the execution layer and the Electra upgrade in the consensus layer of Ethereum. Currently, it is unlikely that the Pectra upgrade will be delivered before the end of 2024, and the development team is expected to focus on the upgrade in early 2025. The operations team suggests splitting the Pectra upgrade into two forks, one to be conducted this year and another including the upgrades of EIP-7251 (maxeb), EOF, and potential peerDAS to be completed in early next year. The exact timing and scope of the Pectra upgrade have yet to be determined by all developers and will be discussed in the next ACDE meeting.
Furthermore, the meeting summary notes that the first development network, Pectra Devnet 0, has been successfully launched, including all execution layer (EL) and consensus layer (CL) clients. However, the intensive testing of EIP-3074, a critical step in achieving Account Abstraction, has not been conducted due to a bug that needs to be fixed. The client teams are preparing to launch the second development network, Pectra Devnet 1, which will include changes to EIP-2935 (saving historical block hashes in the state).
The developers have also agreed to remove EIP-3074 from Pectra Devnet 0 and replace it with the latest proposal, EIP-7702, introduced by Vitalik Buterin. EIP-7702 proposes modifications to EIP-3074 to make it more concise and compatible with EIP-4337, avoiding the creation of two independent account abstraction ecosystems. It also introduces a new transaction type to enhance the functionality of account abstraction, allowing an externally owned account (EOA) to be converted into a smart contract wallet during a single transaction and then revert back to a regular state after the transaction is completed. This proposal is considered one of the most significant changes in Ethereum’s history and has the potential to revolutionize the way people interact with Web3 applications.
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Understanding EIP-3074 Included in Ethereum Prague Upgrade: Impact on Wallets and DApps