Ethereum's latest major update, the Pectra upgrade, officially went live on the mainnet on May 7, 2025. This marks the third major upgrade following the Merge in 2022 and the Cancun upgrade (Dencun) in 2024. With the Pectra upgrade, Ethereum's price rose to $1940 per coin today. This article will detail the benefits of this upgrade for Ethereum and its impact on various projects. First, let's discuss the upgrade content. This upgrade includes a dual-layer hard fork for the execution layer (Prague) and the consensus layer (Electra). For the execution layer, the main updates include EIP-3074 (AUTH and AUTHCALL), EIP-5806 (delegated call improvements), EIP-2935 (historical state access optimization), EIP-7702 (account abstraction extension), and EIP-7685 (universal execution requests). The impacts are as follows: EVM performance optimization, reducing the execution cost of complex contracts by improving opcodes and gas fee mechanisms. New opcodes support more efficient cryptographic operations (e.g., elliptic curve operations), enhancing security. Data availability is improved through collaboration between the execution and consensus layers, optimizing blob data storage (introduced by EIP-4844) to provide lower-cost data availability for Layer 2 (L2). Blob capacity is doubled (from 3 to 6), directly reducing rollup transaction fees. From an ecosystem perspective, this execution layer upgrade injects fresh vitality into ETH. EIP-3074 and EIP-7702 make wallet operations more intuitive, offering a smooth experience similar to Web2 applications, attracting non-technical users to DeFi, NFTs, and other fields. EIP-7685 and EIP-2935 simplify DApp development for developers, providing technical support for automated trading. Additionally, the L2 ecosystem benefits from increased blob capacity, directly reducing L2 transaction fees and optimizing cross-layer interactions to promote seamless L1-L2 collaboration. For the consensus layer, the main updates include EIP-7600 (flexible staking cap), EIP-7251 (staking exit optimization), EIP-7594 (data availability sampling), and EIP-6988 (penalty mechanism improvements). EIP-7600 adjusts the validator staking cap from a fixed 32 ETH to a dynamic range of 32 ETH to 2048 ETH. This allows validators to adjust their staking amounts based on demand, lowering the entry barrier for small stakers while supporting large stakes to improve efficiency. This attracts more individual participants, enhances network decentralization, and reduces reliance on large staking pools like Lido. EIP-7251 optimizes the validator exit mechanism, shortening the exit queue wait time (from several days to a few hours, depending on network load) and introducing more efficient balance handling, allowing partial staking funds to exit quickly. This improves validator liquidity, reduces exit costs, and encourages more users to participate in staking. EIP-7594 introduces preliminary data availability sampling (Data Availability Sampling), paving the way for future Danksharding technology. Validators only need to verify part of the blob data (instead of all), reducing node bandwidth and storage requirements. This enhances network scalability, supports low-cost data storage for L2 rollups, and prepares for full sharding. EIP-6988 improves the penalty mechanism for inactive or malicious validators, reducing false penalties. It more accurately identifies network failures and deliberate attacks, improving penalty fairness. This enhances network security and incentivizes validators to remain online and honest. From an ecosystem perspective, EIP-7600 and EIP-7251 lower the barriers for staking and exiting, attracting more retail users to participate, and the number of validators is expected to increase significantly. Flexible staking caps support individual and small-scale validators, reducing reliance on centralized staking services and promoting network decentralization. Doubling blob capacity directly reduces L2 data storage costs, benefiting rollup transaction throughput and user experience. The preliminary implementation of data availability sampling provides technical support for L2's long-term scalability. Improvements in penalty mechanisms and increased validator participation enhance Ethereum's resistance to 51% attacks. More efficient exit mechanisms reduce the risks associated with locked funds for validators. Now, let's analyze the impact of this upgrade on various project ecosystems. First, the staking sector: This upgrade includes many staking-related updates, significantly impacting staking projects. The lowered individual staking threshold encourages independent validators or small staking pools to participate. This may divert some users from existing staking projects. However, due to the complexity of staking projects and their close collaboration with DeFi projects, staking projects are unlikely to lose many users and will maintain their positions. Decentralized features of projects like Rocket Pool may attract users who value decentralization. Impact on L2: Transaction costs are reduced as L2 rollups (e.g., Arbitrum, Optimism) see a roughly 50% reduction in data storage costs, directly lowering user gas fees. Throughput is increased as more blob space allows L2 to handle more transactions, potentially increasing Optimism's TPS (transactions per second) from dozens to hundreds. EIP-7685 improves cross-chain communication, stimulating the development of emerging L2 ecosystems. Especially for some DeFi projects, account abstraction (EIP-3074, EIP-7702) simplifies L2 wallet operations, attracting Web2 users to L2, benefiting beginner-friendly L2s like Base (supported by Coinbase). Doubling blob capacity directly reduces L2 gas fees, benefiting DeFi users on Arbitrum and Optimism (e.g., Uniswap, Aave) with lower transaction costs. Impact on account abstraction projects: This upgrade allows external accounts (EOAs) to authorize transactions via smart contracts, supporting batch transactions, gas sponsorship (third-party gas payments), and custom signature logic. Projects focused on account abstraction can develop better without technical constraints. Users face lower entry barriers, potentially leading to more user growth for such projects. Finally, let's discuss risks. The authorization mechanisms introduced by EIP-3074 and EIP-7702 may be exploited by malicious contracts, such as phishing attacks tricking users into granting authorization and stealing funds. Wallet projects need to strengthen security audits. EIP-7600 allows validators to stake 32-2048 ETH, which may lead to further centralization of large staking pools like Lido due to their higher capital efficiency. Ethereum's decentralization may decrease, increasing the risk of 51% attacks or governance manipulation. Related projects should encourage small staking pools and decentralized governance. Additionally, regulatory risks exist. Pectra's staking optimizations (EIP-7600) and account abstraction features may attract regulatory scrutiny, especially in the U.S., where liquid staking (e.g., Lido) and smart accounts may be considered financial services and face compliance requirements. These are the main contents of this upgrade and its impacts. Give it a like and save it for later support!