the ethereum pectra upgrade is coming. it’s one of the most ambitious upgrades yet.
here is what you need to know 🧵
so, what is pectra?
pectra = prague + electra.
it’s ethereum’s glow-up.
let’s dive in.
first, the process:
teams tested over 100 devnets during an event in kenya (nyota interop). they tried everything. from there, they narrowed down 20+ ideas into 11 that are ready for prime time.
imagine trying to solve a calculus problem with a stick in the dirt, and then someone hands you a calculator, this is that.
eip-2935: saving historical block hashes
right now, ethereum is like your friend who only remembers what happened last week. this upgrade gives it memory stretching back months.
- apps can reference old data.
- light clients (small, efficient nodes) become actually useful.
also, this is step 1 toward making ethereum “stateless,” aka nodes that don’t hoard every single thing forever.
eip-6110: fixing staking deposits
stakers today face a weird delay before their deposits are recognized, like waiting for a text back from someone you just Venmo’d.
this eip removes that delay.
deposits now process faster. validators rejoice.
eip-7002: more control for validators
validators have two keys:
1.the “do my job” key.
2.the “pay me my money” key.
right now, only the first key works for exiting. this eip says, “let’s use the second key too,” giving validators more control over their funds. staking pools (like lido) and other setups also get a big decentralization boost.
eip-7251: raising the staking balance cap
imagine running a business where you stop earning profits after $32 (lol).
that’s staking today.
this eip raises the cap to 2,048 eth. now validators can compound rewards up to big-boy levels. fewer validators = a cleaner network = less stress for everyone.
eip-7549: validator voting gets smarter
validators currently sign votes like they’re in a courtroom, approving every little detail.
this eip basically just says, “just group those signatures”
result: 60x less work.
security: unchanged.
It’s like upgrading to google docs to collaborate after using typewriters
eip-7623: calldata cost adjustment
Imagine ethereum blocks like packing a suitcase, most people pack normal stuff (transactions), but some people bring their bowling ball collection.
this eip tells heavy packers to pay more for gas
eip-7685: execution layer hotline
Ethereum’s execution (EL) and consensus layers (CL) communicate like coworkers who only use email.
this eip creates a direct hotline between them, like Slack but without the unnecessary memes.
future upgrades will be easier because of this.
eip-7691 + eip-7840: making blobs better
blobs = big data chunks used by rollups .
right now, ethereum processes 3 blobs per block.
this upgrade doubles this to 6
result: cheaper rollups, faster scaling, and lower gas fees for everyone.
massive thanks to @timbeiko and the ethereum core devs.
they’re the heroes here.
if you see a core dev, buy them coffee or a blob. whatever they’re into.
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⚠️ You're about to hear the word 'Attestation' throughout ETH Denver; here's why it is important: 👇 🧵
To attest is to say something about something. E.G. "His name was Robert Paulson." We do this all the time in our daily lives; e.g when you sign into your email account, you attest that it is you.
Blockchains have attestations, too; when you sign a transaction, you use your private keys to attest that it is you. If someone goes to your txn history, they can see that you 'attested' to a contract.
“Traditional approaches to ‘multi-chain’ architectures suffer from two fundamental problems:
1) Each chain introduces a new security model, resulting in compounding systemic risk as new chains are introduced into the ecosystem.
2) New chains are costly to spin up because they require new validator sets & block producers
These issues come from a lack of a single shared blockchain (an “L1” chain) which serves as a shared source of truth for all of the chains (”L2” chains) within the multi-chain system.
🧵Today, Optimism announced the Superchain: a project that seeks to maximize interoperability and composability between different chains using the OP Stack, and integrate siloed L2s into a single, cohesive layer.
As part of that launch, Coinbase announced “Base,” a chain powered by Optimism that is joining the Superchain ecosystem.
These announcements start a world where Optimism moves from just OP Mainnet to something more.
In the short term,the mainnet will continue as it exists today. In the long term, the Superchain aims to create an ecosystem of aligned chains, united in a single network, working towards a future where launching an L2 is as straightforward as deploying a smart contrac.t
Builders burn out while corporations profit off their free legos. Without financial support, free software becomes unsafe — putting users, companies, and communities at risk.
And when building public goods isn’t profitable, the best and brightest of our generation are drawn to more lucrative work, rationally putting self-interest above the needs of the community.
The Optimism Collective believes that building public goods should be profitable.
This key ingredient to the Optimistic vision is more than just altruism – it’s core to our success. Optimism’s codebase itself is an open-source project, and builds on the shoulders of countless OSS giants which came before it.
" Cryptocurrency is the only thing currently being developed that can realistically combine the benefits of digitalization with cash-like respect for personal privacy."