ETH developers activated the Pectra upgrade on the Holesky testnet, with the final outcome pending

Reports from The Block: Pectra was upgraded and activated on the Holesky test network at 4:55 PM yesterday (Eastern Time).

This activation marks a critical stress test phase before the official launch upgrade to the Ethereum mainnet.

Although the plan has been launched, the network has not yet completed the final confirmation since activation.

The Pectra upgrade is a major update to the Ethereum network, which was activated on the Holesky test network at 4:55 yesterday afternoon. This activation occurred at epoch 115,968, marking the first major stress test before this upgrade reaches the Ethereum mainnet.

Holesky is one of the test networks of Ethereum, aiming to simulate real-world conditions and enable developers to solve problems in a controlled environment.

Pectra's launch on Holesky did not go smoothly. Despite the upgrade proceeding as planned, the block explorer indicates that the network slots have not been confirmed since activation.

Ethereum developers are investigating the root cause of this eventual confirmation obstacle.

The next step for Pectra is the activation on the Sepolia testnet, scheduled for March 5th. However, if Holesky's issues persist, developers may delay Sepolia to allow more time for fixes and additional testing.

Assuming that these two testnets are ultimately successful, the Ethereum team will choose a mainnet activation date, possibly targeting April.

Pectra brings several changes aimed at improving Ethereum's scalability, security, and usability. These changes include improving the user experience and account abstraction of crypto wallets (EIP-7702), increasing the maximum validator staking limit from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH (EIP-7251), and doubling the maximum number of blobs to improve rollup scalability (EIP-7691).

This upgrade follows the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, which significantly reduces Layer 2 costs by introducing blobs.