Why was the Ethereum Pectra activation schedule delayed?

Test networks play a crucial role in the upgrade process of Ethereum. However, the two major test networks, Holesky and Sepolia, have been in constant condition recently. When testing the Pectra upgrade, the Sepolia network seemed to be going well in the early stages, but an error began to occur a few hours later, resulting in empty blocks being added to the chain. The Ethereum Foundation blamed this problem on "Sepolia's licensed deposit contract configuration error", which prevented many execution layer clients from including transactions in the block, seriously affecting the normal progress of the test.

The Sepolia test network's licensed deposit contract issues are not isolated incidents. After the problem arose, the client team quickly identified the cause and started to fix it, but it had an impact on the test progress. The Sepolia network only returns to normal throughput after the validator deploys the fix. However, this tossing has forced all Sepolia node operators to upgrade execution layer clients to maintain network compatibility, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of time costs and technical coordination, further delaying the overall process of Pectra upgrade.

Holesky Network was also not spared. In the test of Pectra upgrade, we also encountered vulnerabilities caused by configuration errors. Due to unstable testing, developers have to create a "shadow fork" for the Holesky testnet. This move is designed to allow key stakeholders, such as staking pools and DApp developers to continue testing their code before Pectra is officially launched. However, the Holesky network is expected to resume normal operation until March 28, during which time, it is unable to provide full efforts to provide a stable testing environment for Pectra upgrades, seriously hindering the speed of the upgrade.

In addition to the technical issues of the test network itself, the preparation of the Ethereum ecosystem has also impacted the Pectra activation timeline. During the testing of Pectra upgrade, the support and adaptation levels of upgrades by relevant ecological projects and applications are uneven. Some DApps and L2 are not fully prepared to support some key features in Pectra upgrades, such as account abstraction. This makes it impossible to fully and effectively verify the feasibility and stability of the upgrade in actual application scenarios during the testing process, which in turn causes developers to need more time to coordinate all parties in the ecosystem and improve relevant preparations.

The Pectra upgrade includes several important technological improvements, such as reducing data availability costs by increasing the number of “blob” transactions on the Layer 2 network, significantly increasing staking restrictions, and introducing account abstractions. These technological improvements are interrelated and face many challenges in the integration process. Different technical modules need to be fully run-in and debugged in the test network to ensure that they can work together and operate stably after the main network is activated. However, judging from the current situation, various problems exposed in the test network show that the difficulty of technology integration is beyond expectations, which is also an important factor in the delay of the activation schedule.

The Ethereum community pays great attention to Pectra upgrades. Developers need to fully consider community feedback when promoting the upgrade. The problems that arose during the testing process caused dissatisfaction among some members of the community, who criticized the Ethereum Foundation for failing to formulate a clear development route. Faced with these feedbacks, developers need to weigh the opinions of all parties and make necessary adjustments and optimizations to the upgrade plan. This process takes time to coordinate and make decisions, and to some extent it has led to the delay of the Pectra activation schedule.

Given the current status of the Holesky and Sepolia test networks, Ethereum Foundation developers have decided to launch a new test network, Hoodi. Hoodi will be used to test the final Pectra deployment before mainnet activation. However, the preparation of the new test network itself also takes time, and every link cannot be neglected from planning, construction to debugging. Until Hoodi is officially launched and can effectively support Pectra upgrade testing, mainnet activation can only wait, which further extends the timeline for Pectra upgrades.

The Pectra upgrade involves many participants in the Ethereum ecosystem, including developers, validators, node operators, DApp developers, staking pools, etc. All parties have their own tasks and needs during the upgrade process, and they need to be closely coordinated and cooperated. However, in actual operation, coordination work becomes extremely complicated due to differences in the interests and technical capabilities of each party. For example, when solving test network problems, different parties may have differences in the formulation and implementation of repair plans, which requires a lot of time to communicate and negotiate, resulting in the delay of the Pectra activation schedule.