In 2024, Ethereum introduced blob space through the Dencun upgrade, making significant progress in rollup-centered development and helping L2 reduce transaction costs by 10 to 100 times.
What Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) and Ethereum Requests for Comments (ERCs) should be closely watched in 2025?
This article will review five Ethereum upgrades worth paying attention to, some of which are confirmed to launch in the Pectra upgrade, while others will take longer to realize but are supported by some well-known advocates.
EIP-3074
A major improvement that has received significant attention in the Pectra upgrade is EIP-3074. Users can combine multiple transactions into one, and projects can fund user transactions and pay their gas fees, while also introducing a method to recover wallets in case users lose their private keys.
EIP-3074 introduces new Ethereum opcodes. This system will allow EOA users to authorize smart contracts to perform operations on their behalf in a single transaction while retaining security and control without permanently transferring their private keys.
These new opcodes implement the following user-friendly utilities:
Transaction batching—batching multiple transactions (such as multiple token transfers) into a single operation.
Sponsored transactions—The ability for a third party to pay for transactions opens new avenues for applications to cover gas fees for their users.
Conditional transactions—a complex transaction structure that can link multiple steps and execute conditionally, such as transactions that are only executed if certain conditions are met, without needing a separate transaction for each step.
Meta transactions—the ability to sign transactions that can be submitted by another party, such as signing transactions offline or from other interfaces, without needing ETH for gas.
Delegated security—by allowing trusted callers to manage transactions, users can benefit from a higher-level security model, such as those involving multi-signature wallet setups.
EIP-3074 is the next major step in the future development of Ethereum's account model. It is a short-term fix before the rise of ERC-4337, but its elevation of user experience (UX) is significant.
EIP-7251
For validators holding a large amount of ETH, EIP-7251 is undoubtedly a proposal of higher value. It allows validators to receive additional rewards for staking beyond the standard limit of 32 ETH. Previously, any amount staked above 32 ETH remained idle. Validators wishing to stake additional ETH had to set up a new validator node and invest an extra 32 ETH. With EIP-7251, validators can use a single validator node to stake all their held ETH.
This improvement is expected to attract large institutions to run their own validator nodes, further engaging with the Ethereum ecosystem.
Additionally, as part of the Pectra upgrade, this proposal may enhance the operational speed of the Ethereum network through the integration of validator nodes. For example, projects like Lido can reduce the number of active validator nodes and earn rewards beyond the standard staking limit of 32 ETH.
EIP-7002
As part of the Pectra upgrade, EIP-7002 addresses some significant risk issues in the operation of validator nodes.
For example, if you want to earn rewards for running a validator node but do not want to deal with complex operations, you can delegate this task to a validator node operator and provide them with the validator key (which is used to validate and propose blocks). However, when you want to withdraw ETH, you must use the validator key to sign a 'voluntary exit message' to complete the operation. If the operator deliberately makes things difficult by not signing this message, or if the validator key is leaked, your ETH could be maliciously withheld or even extorted.
EIP-7002 provides a solution that allows stakers to withdraw ETH simply by extracting their keys. This improvement eliminates the risk of malicious operators refusing to sign exit messages and reduces the likelihood of ETH being withheld if validator keys are leaked.
ERC-7683
In recent years, Intents have been one of the hot topics in DeFi. ERC-7683 is a token standard aimed at directly addressing cross-chain interoperability issues and defining a shared structure for cross-chain intents. This standard 'is like an order ticket that anyone can create and any resolver can fulfill.'
ERC-7683 was first proposed in 2024 and was co-drafted by Uniswap and Across Protocol. ERC-7683 aims to standardize Intents, bringing multiple benefits to the Ethereum ecosystem:
Unified Ethereum: Establishing a universal standard for cross-chain operations across L2 and sidechains to support Ethereum as the leading decentralized application platform.
Achieving interoperability: Standardizing order and settlement interfaces for seamless cross-chain execution.
Eliminating fragmentation: Providing a universal framework to coordinate different systems for smoother cross-chain operations.
Enhancing user experience: Providing users with simplified, intuitive, and frictionless cross-chain interactions.
Increasing liquidity: Allowing DApps to access cross-chain shared filling networks to provide deeper liquidity.
Accelerating transactions: Reducing failure rates and speeding up transaction times by facilitating competition among fill providers.
Driving innovation: Changing the cross-chain landscape by promoting collaboration and encouraging innovative solutions on Ethereum.
ERC-7841
ERC-7841 is a novel token standard that proposes a low-level message format and API for applications to send messages to other chains or receive messages from other links.
ERC-7841 abstracts chain-specific logic from applications, meaning the same application can be deployed across multiple chains without changing how it sends/receives messages.
ERC-7841 is a modular foundation that specifies only the information needed to route messages between applications. This allows specific message types (such as cross-chain or intent message types) to be flexibly built on a single interface rather than for each message type.
ERC-7841 is compatible with synchronous messaging protocols (like CIRC) and asynchronous messaging protocols (like most existing protocols and CIRC).
Although there are other EIPs with similar core goals, the ongoing discussions surrounding ERC-7841 indicate a strong momentum in the interoperability industry.
This article is republished with permission from: (BlockBeats)
Original author: Kazu Umemoto, Bankless
'Ethereum 2025 will welcome five major upgrades! What features will be improved? How will it affect ordinary users?' This article was first published on 'Crypto City'
