U.Today – The network is on the cusp of a major upgrade, which is expected to bring significant improvements and changes to the platform. This upcoming update is called the Prague Upgrade, also known as the Pectra Upgrade, and has been a hot topic in the Ethereum community.
Testnets are essential foundations for new features, and the Dencun upgrade will first roll out to several testnets: Goerli on January 17, Sepolia on January 30, and Holesky on February 7, 2024. These testnets Testing will allow developers to refine the upgrade in a controlled environment, ensuring everything works correctly before going live on the mainnet.
Source: Tim Beiko on Ethereum Magicians The core development team is currently in a debate over whether to prioritize the implementation of Verkle Trees, a data structure that would optimize storage and access to information on Ethereum. While some developers advocate making Verkle trees the sole focus, others suggest pursuing a smaller range of features alongside Verkle development.
The main argument for focusing solely on Verkle trees comes from their complexity and the time required to implement them effectively. This could mean that if Verkle trees become the next priority, no new execution layer (EL) features might appear for 12 to 24 months, or even longer.
Nonetheless, it is understood that while the focus is on Verkle trees, minor updates to the Ethereum Layer (EL) might still be required. For example, gas limit changes for data availability are crucial for Ethereum scaling solutions and require coordination between the execution layer and the consensus layer (CL).
The Prague Upgrade is expected to include various proposals to refine the Ethereum platform on different layers, including precompilations for specific crypto operations, a new EVM Object Format (EOF), and changes to smart contract capabilities.
The Prague Upgrade promises to be a significant event that will shape the future of the Ethereum ecosystem. This is a step forward in ensuring that Ethereum continues to offer a secure, efficient and scalable platform for decentralized applications.