Ethereum ACDE Meeting #203: Can Ethereum's Pectra Upgrade Drive a Market Rally?
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Ethereum ACDE Meeting #203: Can Ethereum's Pectra Upgrade Drive a Market Rally?
The 203rd Ethereum ACDE meeting focused on the launch of Pectra Devnet 5, specification updates, and testnet upgrade plans, advancing mainnet upgrades and ecosystem collaboration into a new phase.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: Christine Kim
Translated by: Baicai Blockchain
On January 16, 2025, Ethereum protocol developers held the 203rd All Core Developers Execution (ACDE) meeting via Zoom. This week’s session was chaired by Tim Beiko, Protocol Support Lead at the Ethereum Foundation (EF). The ACDE meetings are a biweekly series where developers discuss and coordinate changes related to the Ethereum execution layer (EL).
During ACDE #203, developers discussed the launch of Pectra Devnet 5 and pending updates to the Pectra specifications. They also reviewed next steps for testing higher gas limits on the Holesky testnet, progress on RPC standardization, and specifications for minimum node hardware and bandwidth requirements.
1. Launch of Pectra Devnet 5
Pectra Devnet 5 was launched half an hour before the start of the meeting. Parithosh Jayanthi, Developer Operations Engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, reported observing gas estimation issues in the devnet and planned to collect relevant logs to share in the Ethereum R&D Discord channel.
2. Pectra Specification Updates
Developers discussed five outstanding specification updates for Pectra:
1) **EIP 7623: Clarifying Calldata Cost Refunds** The first update modifies EIP 7623 to clarify how gas refunds are handled. This change has already been merged on GitHub and is included in testing for Pectra Devnet 5.
2) **EIP 7840: Adding Blob Fee Scalar to Execution Client Configuration** The second update addresses the base fee scalar parameter in EIP 7840. With no objections raised during the call, developers agreed to merge the related changes into GitHub ahead of the Pectra test coordination meeting on Monday, January 20.
3) **Blob Base Fee Update – Excess Gas Calculation at Fork Boundary** The third update also relates to blob base fees, specifically how excess gas is calculated during Pectra activation. Alex Stokes, Research Lead at the Ethereum Foundation, explained that this calculation depends on information from the previous block header. If the blob capacity change activates exactly at the fork boundary (the Pectra activation block), then excess gas would be computed using the prior block built under old fork rules. Stokes emphasized that while either approach is viable, consistency is key: “It doesn’t matter which way we choose, but we need to align.” Developers unanimously agreed to clarify EIP 7691 so that the increase in blob capacity takes effect one block after the fork boundary, ensuring calculations use only the new fork rules. Mario Vega, Ethereum test developer, confirmed client teams are already testing this logic. Geth developer "Lightclient" committed to updating EIP 7691 on GitHub before the upcoming test coordination meeting.
4) **EIP 2537: Precompile Cost Calculation for BLS12-381 Curve Operations** The fourth update concerns multiplication cost calculation within EIP 2537. Developers agreed to explicitly define the computation as integer division in the EIP text. Client teams testing through Pectra Devnet 5 have likely already implemented this behavior in code; thus, only a specification-level clarification is needed. Paweł Bylica, Ethereum Virtual Machine developer, stated he will make the necessary edits on GitHub before the Monday test meeting.
These updates continue to refine and align Pectra development efforts, paving the way for future mainnet upgrades.
5) **EIP 7702: Enabling Code Introspection for Delegated Accounts** The final update involves EIP 7702, a proposal introducing a new transaction type allowing externally owned accounts (EOAs) to permanently set code. Julian Rachman, COO of Otim Labs, proposed modifying the EIP's behavior to enable code introspection. According to documentation authored by the Otim Labs team, code introspection refers to the ability of legacy contracts to inspect their own bytecode or that of external contracts and adjust behavior accordingly.
While the Ethereum Virtual Machine Object Format (EOF) development team plans to disable code introspection in future upgrades, both the documentation and discussion noted that enabling introspection specifically to check the EOA’s “delegate_address” does not interfere with EOF progress. Allowing introspection to detect delegate addresses in EIP 7702 transactions enables secure use of relayers and other EOAs when leveraging features like gas sponsorship.
Geth developer "Lightclient" expressed support for including this change in the Pectra specification, stating: “This update is very easy to implement. We’re already determining whether an account is an EIP 7702 delegation target—adding a designated return address is trivial.” Meeting chair Beiko suggested participants take a few more days to review the proposed changes before deciding on final inclusion. He recommended revisiting the topic during the test coordination meeting on Monday.
Beiko also requested that Rachman’s team formally submit a pull request on GitHub containing all EIP 7702 modification proposals for discussion on Monday. Regarding whether a new Pectra devnet would be required for testing this change, Jayanthi indicated it could instead be tested via shadow forks on public testnets without launching a new devnet. Beiko added that none of the other specification changes discussed in the meeting require a new Pectra devnet, meaning developers can proceed with public testnet preparations once further testing on Pectra Devnet 5 concludes.
3. Pectra System Contracts Audit Update
Fredrik Svantes, Protocol Security Researcher at the Ethereum Foundation (EF), reported that all third-party audits of the Pectra system contracts have been completed. No critical issues were identified, and audit reports will be uploaded to GitHub for client teams to review. Svantes suggested allocating dedicated time during the next ACDE meeting for auditors to present findings and answer questions from client teams.
4. Pectra Testnet Upgrade Timeline
Tim Beiko proposed a preliminary timeline for testnet upgrades. He suggested finalizing the target block heights for upgrading the Sepolia and Holesky testnets during the next two ACD meetings, with client releases prepared by February 3, 2025. The plan envisions the Sepolia fork occurring during the week of February 12, followed by the Holesky fork during the week of February 19. Assuming no major bugs or issues arise, the Pectra upgrade could go live on the Ethereum mainnet in early to mid-March—approximately three to five weeks after the Holesky fork. No attendees objected to this proposal. Alex Stokes further recommended aligning client release timelines closely with the Sepolia and Holesky testnet upgrades.
5. Holesky Gas Limit
Sophia Gold, Generalist Engineer at EF, proposed setting the default gas limit in the Holesky upgrade client releases to 36 million (36m), and continuing to raise Holesky’s default gas limit so it consistently remains above the Ethereum mainnet’s limit. This ensures any proposed increases to the mainnet gas limit can first be tested on Holesky. No objections were raised during the meeting. Representatives from Teku, Besu, Prysm, and Nethermind confirmed their Holesky client releases already set the default gas limit to 36 million.
6. RPC Standardization Efforts
Geth developer Felix Lange expressed disappointment over insufficient feedback from client teams regarding ongoing efforts to standardize the Ethereum JSON-RPC API. One key issue he highlighted was the lack of clear definition around the scope of standardization and which ecosystem stakeholders should be involved. Lange detailed his standardization initiative and next steps in a blog post. Beiko suggested continuing the discussion on Discord and organizing a dedicated workshop. Justin Florentine, Besu developer, volunteered to coordinate scheduling for the workshop.
7. Node Hardware and Bandwidth Requirements Specification
Kevaundray Wedderburn, Applied Researcher at EF, requested feedback on his document outlining minimum hardware and bandwidth requirements for running Ethereum nodes. Beiko asked whether these requirements should be formalized as an informational EIP for reference by developers and the broader Ethereum community. Potuz, a Prysm developer, pointed out that validator nodes and full nodes have different hardware needs, so the document should clearly distinguish between them. Beiko agreed with Potuz and suggested further discussion on Discord about node requirements and the next steps toward formalizing Wedderburn’s document.
8. EIP Editor Workshop
Finally, the meeting briefly mentioned an upcoming workshop focused on the EIP editor process, though specific details and timing have not yet been finalized and may be discussed further in future meetings.
The Ethereum Cat Herders team will host an EIP Editor Workshop on January 17, 2025, at 16:00 UTC. The session will provide an overview of the EIP editor process and is open to all Ethereum community members interested in EIP workflows and editorial procedures. A recording of the meeting will be published on YouTube afterward for on-demand viewing.
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