The next upgrade to the Ethereum (ETH) network is Pectra. It is planned for the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025. The developers talked about the new features that await users after upgrading Pectra. In particular, innovations will affect cryptocurrency wallets and user experience.
EIP-3074 and Lost Keys Recovery
Yesterday, April 11, one of the main developers of Ethereum, Tim Beiko, confirmed that Pectra is implementing EIP-3074. The proposal will improve regular crypto wallets on the network with several new smart contract capabilities. One of them is recovering lost keys or seed phrase.
All things considered, teams were in agreement about moving forward in the EIP. 3074 will be included in Pectra 🎉!
— timbeiko.eth ☀️ (@TimBeiko) April 11, 2024
To use the tool, the user will need to transfer ownership of their assets to the executing contract through a digital signature. An executor contract is a type of smart contract designed to manage assets and execute transactions on behalf of a user. However, Transferring rights does not mean that the user loses control of the wallet. The wallet is managed by the contract only temporarily. Moreover, users can restore funds thanks to a special function in the contract, activated by the user’s digital signature.
As explained by Web3 expert cygaar, EIP-3074 turns wallets into smart contracts with two new features:
-AUTH checks digital signatures and whether they were left correctly;
-AUTHCALL activates the smart contract to perform the action.
Together, these two opcodes significantly improve the functionality and security of transactions on Ethereum. The process becomes more reliable and user-controlled.
What additional enhancements will the Pectra upgrade bring to Ethereum?
Another key innovation of EIP-3074 is the ability to carry out transactions without ETH on the wallet balance. Instead, the contract executor can pay for gas in advance.
According to cygaar, this could attract a wider audience to the network. Additionally, the ability to make transfers with zero ETH will also allow users to perform multiple actions in a single transaction. For example, now to exchange tokens on the decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap, the user must first allow the platform to use their tokens, and then conduct the exchange itself. However, these actions require two separate transactions, which is not always convenient.
Earlier, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin spoke about the upgrade of The Purge (translated as “ Cleaning ”). The main goals of the upgrade will be to simplify the structure of the blockchain, as well as reduce the load on nodes.
