Ethereum's Pectra Hard Fork Launched on Holesky Testnet, Fails to Finalize

What You Need to Know:

Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade was activated on the Holesky testnet on Monday but it didn’t finalize properly.
Developers are currently investigating the cause of the failure.

Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade went live on the Holesky testnet on Monday, but it did not finalize within the expected timeline. The upgrade was initiated at 21:55 UTC (4:55 PM ET), but preliminary blockchain data indicated that it failed to finalize.

Finality refers to the state where a transaction, once confirmed and included in a block, becomes immutable and irreversible. A testnet replicates a main blockchain, such as Ethereum, to test new upgrades or code before they are applied to the main network.

It remains unclear why the Pectra upgrade did not finalize. Ethereum developers were discussing potential issues in the Eth R&D Discord channel on Monday.

This isn’t the first occurrence of an upgrade failing to finalize on an Ethereum test network. In January 2024, during tests for the Dencun upgrade, the hard fork also failed to initially finalize on the Goerli testnet.

What is Pectra?

The Pectra hard fork consolidates 11 major upgrades, also known as Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), into one plan. A key element is EIP-7702, designed to enhance the user experience of cryptocurrency wallets. This proposal, conceived by co-founder Vitalik Buterin in just 22 minutes, will introduce some smart contract functionalities into wallets. This is part of a larger strategy to simplify wallet usability through account abstraction.

Another significant proposal, EIP-7251, aims to increase the maximum staking limit for validators from 32 to 2,048 ETH. This change is intended to address some of the complexities validators face today, such as having to distribute their stake across many validators when surpassing the 32 ETH limit, which complicates the process of setting up new nodes.

Holesky is the first of two testnets set to simulate the Pectra upgrade, with another test planned for the Sepolia testnet on March 5. However, Christine Kim, a VP of Research at Galaxy, mentioned that the timeline might be extended depending on the severity of the current issues.

After testing on both networks, a final date for activating the upgrade on the mainnet will be established.

Pectra was initially set to be Ethereum’s most significant update to date. However, due to its ambitious scope, developers decided to split it into two.