The Ethereum core developers have set a target of the first quarter of 2025 for the rollout of the Pectra upgrade, which will follow the previous Dencun upgrade implemented in March 2023.
The Pectra upgrade is expected to incorporate EIP-7251, which aims to increase the maximum effective balance for individual validators. This change will enable validators to stake more than 32 ETH, with a new maximum limit of 2,048 ETH instead. This adjustment could simplify operations for validators by allowing them to manage fewer but higher-stake validators.
In addition, the developers have discussed the inclusion of the Ethereum Virtual Machine Object Format (EOF), which consists of 11 improvement proposals for enhancing the EVM code on both Layer 1 and Layer 2 levels. They have also considered replacing the current account abstraction proposal (EIP-3074) with a new proposal called EIP-7702, suggested by Vitalik Buterin.
EIP-7702 introduces a new transaction type that enables Ethereum account addresses to temporarily function as smart contract wallets during transactions, with their original state restored afterward.