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Ethereum's Second Buggy 'Pectra' Test Could Lead to a Delayed Upgrade
Developers encountered issues during Ethereum's Sepolia test for the upcoming Pectra upgrade, raising concerns.
What to know:
- Ethereum’s Sepolia test for the Pectra upgrade encountered issues with empty blocks.
- This was the second testnet problem following a previous Holesky test failure.
- Both issues resulted from misconfigurations with the test rather than with Pectra itself.
- Some in the Ethereum community have argued that the upgrade should undergo more tests before it goes live.
Ethereum developers on Wednesday initially celebrated a seemingly successful test of Pectra, the blockchain’s most significant upgrade since 2024, on the Sepolia test network. However, hours after the test, Sepolia began to encounter errors.
It was the second buggy test for the highly anticipated Pectra upgrade, which is designed to improve Ethereum's efficiency, user experience, and validator system. The issues have led to calls from some developers that the upgrade be delayed.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Wednesday’s Sepolia test was expected to be the final step before Pectra’s launch on Ethereum’s mainnet. Initially, the test appeared to succeed, but later, developers noticed empty blocks being added to the chain.
The Ethereum Foundation attributed the issue to "an issue with Sepolia's permissioned deposit contract," which "prevented many execution layer clients from including transactions in blocks." In other words, the problem stemmed from a misconfiguration specific to the Sepolia test, rather than a flaw with Pectra itself.
Ethereum Foundation developers said they "identified the root cause within minutes" and deployed a fix to restore the network’s normal function.
Despite this, the test has raised concerns about whether Pectra has undergone sufficient testing. The previous test on Ethereum’s Holesky testnet also ran into configuration issues, that time caused by misconfigured validators.
"I do think the incidents on both the Holesky and Sepolia testnets warrant a delay to Pectra mainnet activation," Christine Kim, vice president of research at Galaxy Digital told CoinDesk. Kim noted that while developers may feel ready, the broader Ethereum ecosystem—including major smart contract applications and wallet providers—needs to be prepared.
Kim suggested that Ethereum’s developers "spend the time to set up additional testing infrastructure" before launching the upgrade.
Ethereum core developers are set to meet on March 7 to determine Pectra’s official launch date. Any delay could stir controversy among Ethereum supporters, who are already on edge due to a lagging ETH token price, leadership drama at the Ethereum Foundation, and mounting competition from networks like Solana.
Sam Kessler
Sam is CoinDesk's deputy managing editor for tech and protocols. His reporting is focused on decentralized technology, infrastructure and governance. Sam holds a computer science degree from Harvard University, where he led the Harvard Political Review. He has a background in the technology industry and owns some ETH and BTC. Sam was part of the team that won a 2023 Gerald Loeb Award for CoinDesk's coverage of Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX collapse.
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