Hoodi Testnet Successfully Forks Pectra in Final Pre-Mainnet Trial
Ethereum has taken a major step toward its next protocol upgrade, Pectra, by successfully deploying it on the Hoodi test network on Wednesday. This move is seen as the final trial run before the upgrade potentially goes live on Ethereum’s mainnet later this year. The Hoodi testnet, launched on March 17, was created specifically for this purpose, after earlier attempts to test Pectra on Holesky and Sepolia encountered significant bugs and instability. Developers confirmed that Hoodi successfully forked the Pectra upgrade and reached finality within about 30 minutes of activation—marking a key milestone in Ethereum’s rollout timeline.
Why Hoodi Was Needed
Prior test deployments of Pectra hit roadblocks:
- Holesky suffered from weeks-long finality issues and an exit queue jam that made it hard to fully test validator lifecycle changes.
- Sepolia encountered syncing problems due to configuration errors.
Hoodi offers a clean slate for developers to validate all proposed changes. It is also expected to replace Holesky entirely, which will be deprecated later this year.
What’s in the Pectra Upgrade?
The Pectra upgrade includes several technical enhancements aimed at improving scalability, user experience, and validator flexibility:
- EIP-7702: Account abstraction improvements to boost wallet functionality.
- EIP-7251: Raises the validator staking cap from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, optimizing validator participation.
- EIP-7691: Increases blob count to support greater scalability for rollups, a key scaling solution.
These changes will be stress-tested by staking operators and Ethereum client teams during the Hoodi phase.
When Will Pectra Go Live?
During a recent core developer call, contributors suggested that if no major bugs surface, Pectra could be ready for mainnet activation about 30 days after the Hoodi deployment, possibly by late April. However, there is no fixed timeline yet—developers may choose to delay until May or June to allow more time for testing and stakeholder coordination.
