Ethereum's highly anticipated Pectra upgrade is expected to bring about significant advancements in security, scalability, and performance, making it one of the most transformative updates to the Ethereum design. The upgrade, which is still under discussion, is predicted to be activated in the first quarter of 2025.

The Ethereum developers have agreed on at least five Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that will be incorporated into the Pectra upgrade. These proposals were shared by Anthony Sassano, an independent Ethereum researcher and educator. EIP-7702 is set to replace Ethereum's current Account Abstraction mechanism, ERC 4337, enhancing the performance of Ethereum accounts in executing smart contracts. EIP-7594, also known as 'Peer Data Availability Sampling', will enhance the scalability of Ethereum's L2 rollups. EIP-7251, dubbed 'MaxEB', will increase the staking limit in Ethereum's Proof of Stake (PoS) and introduce triggerable exits for participants. EIP-2537 aims to add functionality to efficiently perform operations over the BLS12-381 curve, including those for BLS signature verification. Lastly, EIP-7549 is designed to make consensus voting procedures more efficient by reducing the average number of pairings needed to verify consensus rules.

The Pectra upgrade is expected to bring about significant improvements in Ethereum's security, scalability, and performance. The upgrade is designed to enhance the performance of Ethereum accounts in executing smart contracts, improve the scalability of Ethereum's L2 rollups, and increase the staking limit in Ethereum's Proof of Stake (PoS). The upgrade is also expected to make consensus voting procedures more efficient by reducing the average number of pairings needed to verify consensus rules.

The highly anticipated Verkle Trees are likely to be added in Osaka, the first post-Pectra hard fork. While Sassano estimates the Pectra activation date to be in Q1, 2025, some community enthusiasts are also discussing Q4, 2024, as a potential timeline. The specifications for the Prague-Electra upgrade were introduced to the community in January 2024.

The Pectra upgrade is expected to be a major milestone in Ethereum's development, bringing about significant advancements in security, scalability, and performance. The upgrade is designed to enhance the performance of Ethereum accounts in executing smart contracts, improve the scalability of Ethereum's L2 rollups, and increase the staking limit in Ethereum's Proof of Stake (PoS). The upgrade is also expected to make consensus voting procedures more efficient by reducing the average number of pairings needed to verify consensus rules.