A new upgrade is set to arrive by the end of the year! What are the possible highlights of Ethereum’s “Pectra”?
On March 13th, Ethereum officially completed the “Dencun” upgrade. One of the improvements proposed in Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4844 is the reduction of fees and increase in transaction speed on Ethereum’s Layer 2 chain, which will further contribute to the overall development of the Ethereum ecosystem. Following the completion of this upgrade, Ethereum developers quickly turned their attention to planning the next upgrade, known as “Pectra”.
️ Further reading:
Ethereum’s “Dencun” upgrade is here! Why the upgrade? Will transaction fees decrease? Core developers reveal all
Each Ethereum upgrade follows a naming convention. Upgrades at the execution layer are named after cities, while upgrades at the consensus layer follow the names of constellations. The term “Pectra” is a combination of the words “Prague,” representing the execution layer, and “Electra,” representing the consensus layer.
The “Pectra” upgrade is scheduled to take place at the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025. Although the specific details have not been confirmed yet, recent Ethereum conference calls have mentioned that the next upgrade is expected to include EIP-3074, which will bring additional functionalities to crypto wallets and enhance user experience (UX).
So, what is “EIP-3074”?
EIP-3074 is an Ethereum Improvement Proposal that aims to improve user experience by bringing smart contract-like functionalities to wallets without the need for deploying additional contracts or requiring manual upgrades from users. This proposal allows users on the blockchain network to batch approve multiple transactions, pay transaction fees in different ERC20 tokens (Gas Fee), enhance security, and enable account recovery.
Software engineer Laurence Day pointed out that the most useful feature is likely to be the “sponsored transactions” capability. This feature allows users to store their assets in wallets without holding Ether and pay fees through a wallet-controlled contract.
Benefitting gamers: One-time authorization for improved smoothness
For blockchain games, this feature eliminates the need for players to manually confirm and pay fees for each transaction. Players can simply authorize game developers or third parties to execute in-game transactions, significantly improving game smoothness and providing a better gaming experience.
The batch transaction functionality in the proposal also improves efficiency for liquidity providers and traders on the blockchain, while reducing participation costs.
Drawback: A single wrong signature can lead to complete loss of assets
However, although “EIP-3074” sounds promising, it also comes with potential risks. Allowing users to authorize third parties to operate their personal accounts through signatures increases the likelihood of being targeted by hackers or having permissions abused by malicious actors, resulting in the loss of personal assets or information.
Anonymous developer 0xngmi claimed on the community platform X that the drawback of “EIP-3074” is that “a single wrong signature can potentially result in the complete loss of all assets, such as tokens and NFTs, within an address.”
Harrison Leggio, co-founder of Gaslite, also stated on X that “people will always find a way to lose money,” adding, “for example, by providing private keys to trading bots.”
While the “Pectra” upgrade is relatively minor compared to past upgrades that focused more on blockchain efficiency and network security, it appears to have a greater emphasis on user experience. It will be interesting to observe and anticipate the impact of this upgrade on the future development of the Ethereum ecosystem.
References:
Cointelegraph, Coindesk, The Block
Proofread by: Gao Jingyuan
