Ethereum delays Pectra upgrade for third testnet ‘Hoodi’

Ethereum developers have postponed the Pectra upgrade to introduce a third testnet, Hoodi, delaying its release until no earlier than late April.  

After identifying bugs in the initial testnets, Ethereum developers decided to launch Hoodi, which pushed the Pectra upgrade’s release to at least late April.  

Following the Ethereum All Core Dev Call on March 13, Ethereum Foundation developer Tim Beiko confirmed that developers would release the Hoodi testnet on March 17 and activate its Pectra upgrade on March 26.  

Beiko stated that if Pectra performs well on Hoodi without major bugs, developers could confirm a mainnet rollout date as early as 30 days later.  

This timeline suggests that Ethereum’s mainnet could activate Pectra as early as April 25.  

By integrating over 10 Ethereum Improvement Proposals, Pectra will enhance wallet functionality and improve user experience, drawing features from the Prague and Electra proposals.  

Another key feature includes a scaling update that increases the blob count for data availability from three to six.  

Due to synchronization bugs in the Holesky and Sepolia testnets, along with client readiness challenges, Ethereum developers have repeatedly pushed back Pectra’s originally planned late 2024 mainnet launch.  

On March 5, developers launched Pectra on Sepolia, but they soon observed geth node errors and empty block mining.  

Ethereum developers designed Hoodi to imitate the Ethereum mainnet as accurately as possible by setting up a validator system similar to the one currently in use, according to Christine Kim, Galaxy Digital’s vice president of research.  

Under this model, developers will distribute at least 20 million test-staked Ether across 11 client teams and five staking operators.  

Beiko stated that developers may still test specific Pectra features on Sepolia and Holesky.  

During the “All Core Devs” meeting on February 13, Ethereum developers committed to accelerating future protocol upgrades, leading them to introduce a third testnet.  

To ensure Ethereum remains competitive as a layer 1 blockchain, crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm urged core developers to deliver protocol updates more quickly and advance Ethereum’s technical roadmap.