Pectra upgrade test on Sepolia testnet encounters errors, raising concerns about the mainnet launch

Ethereum developers on Wednesday initially celebrated a seemingly successful test of Pectra, the blockchain's most significant upgrade since 2024

Ethereum developers are initially planning to launch the Pectra upgrade on March 7, pending a final test on the Sepolia testnet.

The test began at 7:00 AM ET on Wednesday, aiming to deploy the Pectra code to the Sepolia network. The goal was to reach a height of 578 on Thursday morning, marking the activation of Pectra.

However, the Sepolia chain began encountering errors, and by Thursday afternoon, it was still largely stalled at 577.

It was the second buggy test for the highly anticipated Pectra upgrade, which is designed to improve Ethereum's efficiency, user experience, and validator system. The issues have led to calls from some developers for the upgrade to be delayed.

Wednesday's Sepolia test was expected to be the final step before Pectra's launch on Ethereum's mainnet. Initially, the test appeared to succeed, but later, developers noticed that empty blocks were being added to the chain.

The Ethereum Foundation attributed the issue to "an issue with Sepolia's permissioned deposit contract, which prevented many execution layer clients from including transactions in blocks." In other words, the problem stemmed from a misconfiguration specific to the Sepolia test, rather than a flaw with Pectra itself.

Ethereum Foundation developers said that they "identified the root cause within minutes" and deployed a fix to restore the network's normal function.

However, despite this swift action, the test has nevertheless raised concerns about whether Pectra has undergone sufficient testing. The previous test on Ethereum's Holesky testnet also ran into configuration issues, this time caused by misconfigured validators.

"I do think the incidents on both the Holesky and Sepolia testnets warrant a delay to Pectra mainnet activation," Christine Kim, vice president of research at Galaxy Digital told CoinDesk. Kim noted that while developers may feel ready, the broader Ethereum ecosystem—including major smart contract applications and wallet providers—needs to be prepared.

Kim suggested that Ethereum's developers "spend the time to set up additional testing infrastructure" before launching the upgrade.

"Given the Series A fundraising activity, new application development, and renewed focus on Web3 this year, perhaps a delay to Pectra would buy some time for the broader ecosystem to prepare accordingly."

Ethereum core developers are set to meet on March 7 to determine Pectra's official launch date. Any delay could stir controversy among Ethereum supporters, who are already on edge due to a lagging ETH token price, leadership drama at the Ethereum Foundation, and mounting competition from networks like Solana.