Ethereum Major Upgrade Pectra Launches: Dual Improvements in User Experience and Performance

On May 7th (Wednesday), Ethereum completed the important upgrade Pectra, focusing on user experience, Layer 2 blockchain, and validator efficiency optimization.

Core Improvements and Features

- User Experience Upgrade:

- Supports batch processing of transactions, reducing repeated confirmation pop-ups;

- Allows payment of transaction fees using any token (previously limited to ETH), intuitively displaying real costs.

- Layer 2 Scalability Enhancement:

- Doubles the amount of “blob” data that can be processed, reducing Layer 2 transaction fees to “a few cents,” alleviating congestion issues (though long-term capacity still faces demand growth pressure).

- Validator Efficiency Improvement:

- Allows validators to consolidate staked funds, increasing the management cap from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH, lowering operating costs.

Industry Evaluation and Impact

Optimism contributor Binji stated: “Pectra makes Ethereum feel more like a modern network, shifting from ‘protocol operation’ to ‘user experience.’” This upgrade is based on the technical foundation of the 2023 Dencun upgrade, further solidifying Ethereum's position as the core of the Layer 2 ecosystem.

Price and Future Challenges

Despite the continuous benefits of the upgrade, ETH price performance still lags behind competitors like Bitcoin: affected by Trump’s tariff policies, it fell to a two-year low last month (slightly above $1400), still far from the historical peak in 2021 ($4800). Critics point out that Layer 2 does not consume enough ETH, leading to unmet expectations for its “deflationary appreciation.”

Next Steps: Fusaka Upgrade

The Ethereum Foundation plans to launch the Fusaka upgrade in the second half of this year, using “shard data sampling” technology to allow nodes to download only part of the data to verify integrity, further enhancing decentralization and processing capability.

Summary: Pectra marks Ethereum's shift from “underlying reform” to “user-friendly iteration,” but balancing Layer 2 development with the value of the native token remains its long-term challenge.