April 4, 2025
Holesky Reaches Finality
Originally planned for March 2025, the upgrade was delayed due to issues with finality on the Holesky testnet. However, it has been running smoothly on the Hoodi testnet, and a minor issue on the Sepolia testnet was resolved in early March.
Source: YouTube (@Ethereum)
Testnets allow developers to trial upgrades before they go live on the mainnet. Holesky reached finality on March 10th, marking a key milestone ahead of Pectra’s release.
Pectra’s Launch & Key Updates
The final release date was confirmed during an Ethereum developer call, with Alex Stokes from the Ethereum Foundation announcing, “We’ll lock in May 7th for Pectra on the mainnet.” Pectra will enhance scalability and raise validator staking limits from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH.
A major change will be account abstraction, allowing users to pay gas fees with tokens other than ETH, such as stablecoins. Additionally, wallet functionality will improve, potentially offering social recovery for lost wallet seed phrases.
