Ethereum's core developers have discussed their plans to introduce the Pectra upgrade by the first quarter of 2025, marking the next significant development after the Dencun upgrade that was successfully implemented in March 2023.

The upgrade is set to incorporate EIP-7251, also known as "increase max effective balance," into Pectra. This change will allow individual validators to stake more than the current limit of 32 ETH, with a maximum of 2,048 ETH. This adjustment aims to streamline operations by enabling validators to manage fewer but higher-stake validators, potentially reducing complexity.

Additionally, the developers are considering integrating the Ethereum Virtual Machine Object Format (EOF), which includes around 11 improvement proposals enhancing the EVM code across both Layer 1 and Layer 2 levels. They are also contemplating replacing the account abstraction proposal EIP-3074 with a new suggestion, EIP-7702, proposed by Vitalik Buterin. EIP-7702 introduces a novel transaction type that allows Ethereum account addresses to temporarily function as smart contract wallets during a transaction, with their original state restored afterward.