2025-03-14
Ethereum developers have decided to delay the Pectra upgrade until
at least late April.
They will launch a third testnet, called Hoodi, to ensure the
upgrade works properly after the first two testnets, Holesky and Sepolia, faced
issues.
Hoodi will go live on March 17, and the Pectra upgrade will be
activated on it on March 26, according to Ethereum developer Tim Beiko.
If everything runs smoothly, developers could set a mainnet launch
date for Pectra about 30 days after Hoodi’s activation, meaning it could launch
as early as April 25.
Pectra will introduce improvements for Ethereum wallets and increase
the amount of data available for scaling, doubling the current "blob"
count from three to six.
Originally planned for late 2024, the upgrade has faced multiple
delays due to technical issues, including synchronization bugs and client
readiness problems.
When Pectra was tested on Sepolia on March 5, developers noticed
errors in their geth nodes and empty blocks being mined.
To prevent similar problems, Hoodi will be designed to closely mimic
the Ethereum mainnet, with at least 20 million test-staked Ether distributed
across multiple teams and staking operators.
The decision to add a third testnet comes after Ethereum developers
agreed to speed up future protocol updates in a February 13 meeting.
Some industry players, like venture capital firm Paradigm, have also
urged Ethereum to release upgrades faster to stay ahead in the blockchain
space.
