Ethereum Launches Hooli Testnet for Pectra Upgrade After Setbacks
4min read Ethereum developers have launched a new testnet, named Hooli, for the Pectra upgrade following earlier setbacks. This decision comes after two problematic tests on the network's primary test networks, Sepolia and Holesky, which encountered configuration errors that hindered proper testing. The new testnet is scheduled to go live on Monday, with the Pectra upgrade being tested on Wednesday, March 26. This final test aims to evaluate the performance and stability of the new version of Ethereum before its deployment on the main network.
Ask Aime: What impact will the Hooli testnet have on Ethereum's main network?
The Pectra upgrade includes several code changes designed to enhance Ethereum's speed, efficiency, and user-friendliness. One of the most notable improvements is the addition of "smart contract" functionality to addresses, allowing user wallets to be programmed with new features. This includes the ability to pay transaction fees in currencies other than ETH, making the network more versatile and accessible.
Ask Aime: What is the Pectra upgrade in Ethereum?
If the Hooli test succeeds, developers plan to launch the upgrade approximately 30 days later, subject to further testing. This timeline suggests that Ethereum users can expect Pectra to reach the ecosystem's main network in late April or early May, provided everything proceeds as planned. The successful implementation of Pectra is seen as crucial for restoring confidence in Ethereum's technical roadmap, especially during a challenging period marked by declining ETH prices and leadership transitions at the Ethereum Foundation.
Test networks like Holesky, Sepolia, and Hooli function almost identically to the main Ethereum network but are generally free to use and not intended to support real value. Major upgrades like Pectra are typically implemented on these test networks before full deployment on the mainnet. This approach ensures that any disruptions on the actual Ethereum network can be avoided, as such disruptions could be extremely costly.
According to tim Beiko, who coordinates the ecosystem's core developers at the Ethereum Foundation, Sepolia and Holesky serve different testing purposes. While Sepolia and Holesky are now running Pectra successfully, Hooli is specifically designed for testing validator exits. This differentiation allows developers to focus on specific aspects of the upgrade, ensuring comprehensive testing and validation.
The Pectra upgrade introduces 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), each targeting specific aspects of the network. Key proposals include EIP-7702, which allows externally owned accounts to execute smart contract functions, enhancing wallet functionality and supporting more operation modes. EIP-7251 increases the maximum staked balance of a validator from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, simplifying validator management and allowing for larger validator nodes. EIP-7002 enables execution layer addresses to trigger withdrawal operations, reducing trust assumptions and simplifying the withdrawal process. EIP-6110 reduces the activation delay of validator deposits from about 9 hours to about 13 minutes, improving the efficiency and flexibility of validator participation. EIP-7691 increases the data block capacity by 50%, enhancing the network's ability to handle more transactions and improving overall scalability and transaction throughput. EIP-7516 provides more information and transparency about the maximum extractable value of MEV, helping users and developers better understand and monitor MEV activity. EIP-7549 adjusts the Gas fee structure to optimize the network's fee mechanism, reducing the network burden during peak hours and making transaction fees more reasonable. EIP-7685 optimizes network governance, enhancing decentralized governance mechanisms and making governance processes more transparent and efficient. EIP-7021 adjusts the penalty mechanism for validators to ensure that their behavior aligns with the network's interests. EIP-7683 optimizes the execution efficiency of smart contracts, reducing execution costs and improving operating efficiency. EIP-6123 enhances the cross-chain compatibility of the Ethereum network with other blockchains, promoting interoperability between different blockchains.
The Pectra upgrade adopts a dual-layer upgrade method, merging the execution layer (Prague) and the consensus layer (Electra) to solve synchronization problems that may arise from separate upgrades. The execution layer is responsible for processing user transactions, executing smart contracts, and managing state changes, while the consensus layer manages validators through the Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism to ensure block generation and chain security.
The Pectra upgrade is expected to have a significant impact on the Ethereum ecosystem and the broader crypto market. It introduces smart contract functionality to regular wallets, simplifying the development process and expanding the scope of possible applications. Features such as social recovery and transaction batching make it easier to create user-friendly decentralized applications (DApps), whether in DeFi, GameFi, or other applications. Users can expect to experience more reliable and efficient DApps on the Ethereum network.
However, the upgrade also raises questions about the value of the Ethereum mainnet, as the L2 chain has attracted a large number of DeFi activities, resulting in a decrease in transaction fees on the Ethereum mainnet and an increase in ETH's inflation rate. The centralized sorter and independent economic model of the L2 chain have raised questions about the value of the Ethereum mainnet.
The Pectra upgrade is seen as a hope to change the rules of the game for ETH, mainly improving real staking and L2 scalability. It makes wallet operations more flexible, can process transactions in batches or sponsor gas fees, increases the staking limit of validators, speeds up withdrawals and joining the network, and makes operations more convenient. The relatively increased block capacity of the network allows faster transaction processing, and more stable gas fees, which will not suddenly become expensive during peak periods.
The upgrade also significantly raises the pledge threshold, improving the overall MEV transparency, increasing the MEV cost, and making network governance more transparent and efficient. In terms of smart contracts, execution will be more "cost-effective" and cross-chain compatibility has also been improved. However, the expansion of Ethereum's fragmentation and the development route of taking the high throughput of a single network instead of relying on the aggregation of multiple chains to solve it will also become shackles on the future development of Ethereum itself.
The Pectra upgrade enhances the overall security and scalability of Ethereum, but it also deepens the centralization of Ethereum and turns it into the home ground of large investors and institutions. Whether it can rely on the huge 2048 ETH pledges to cut off the threshold for retail investors to attract large capital investment, turn to Solana and Sui to embrace American capital, and thus push up the price of ETH remains to be considered. The current Ethereum seems to be facing new challenges. The narrative ability, centralized pull, and decentralized PoS pledge have become the "new impossible triangle" problem.
