Ethereum delays Pectra upgrade, launches third ‘Hoodi’ testnet for mainnet prep

• Ethereum devs have delayed Pectra upgrade to April/May for further tests
• Hoodi testnet success will determine when the upgrade goes live on mainnet

Ethereum [ETH] core devs have pushed the Pectra upgrade on the mainnet to April/May, depending on its performance on the proposed third testnet – Hoodi. 

In a developers’ call on 13 March, the team agreed to launch the Hoodi testnet on 17 March to monitor bugs previously reported during the Holesky and Sepolia testnets. Part of the outline from one of the devs, Tim Beiko, read, 

“This (Hoodi) will enable us to test validator exists, which is impossible on Holesky right now given the exit queue will take ~1 year to empty. All other Pectra functionality, including validator consolidations, can still be tested on Holesky and Sepolia.”

What’s next after Pectra upgrade?

For those unfamiliar, there’s always a queue and fluctuating waiting period for validators who want to be block proposers (enter or exit) in the Ethereum PoS (Proof-of-Stake) system. Currently, it takes about an hour for new validators to enter the network on mainnet and 1 year on Holesky. 

Hence, to avoid the validator exit issue on the mainnet, the Pectra upgrade will be monitored in Hoodi. The devs added, 

“A mainnet fork time for Pectra will only be chosen after Pectra successfully activates on Hoodi and client teams feel confident in the state of testing. Mainnet will be scheduled at least 30 days after the Hoodi fork (April 25 or later).”

In the meantime, some aspects of Pectra features will be tested on Holesky and Sepolia. After Pectra, the next focus will be on Fusaka implementation aimed at scaling L2s. Research teams have until early April to submit inclusions for Fusaka. 

In February, Paradigm’s CTO Georgios Konstantopoulos urged the Ethereum developer team to fast-track the Fusaka upgrade after Pectra to scale L2s to compete with other blockchains like Solana.

For his part, Vitalik Buterin, Founder of Ethereum, echoed a similar sentiment in early March and stated, 

“For 2025 we need Fusaka on L1 with PeerDAS, ideally with 48/72 blob target/limit. Let’s aim to get a Fusaka testnet with these blob parameters running the day after Pectra goes live.”

The upgrades collectively aim to lower Ethereum transaction costs further and increase network throughput, especially amid competition from Solana and other smart contract platforms.