Original Title: Ethereum Upgrades to Watch in 2025
Original Author: Kazu Umemoto
Original Compilation: Odaily Planet Daily
In 2024, Ethereum made significant progress with the Dencun upgrade by introducing blob space, helping L2 reduce transaction costs by 10 to 100 times.
What Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) and Ethereum Request for Comments (ERCs) should we closely watch in 2025?
This article will review five Ethereum upgrades to watch, some of which are confirmed to launch in the Pectra upgrade, while others will take longer to realize but have garnered attention from notable supporters.
EIP-3074
A notable improvement in the Pectra upgrade is EIP-3074. Users can merge multiple transactions into one, and project teams 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 maintaining security and control without permanently transferring their private keys.
These new opcodes enable 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 pay Gas fees for their users.
Conditional transactions - complex transaction structures where multiple steps can be linked and executed conditionally, such as executing a transaction only when 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 a transaction offline or from another interface without needing ETH as Gas.
Delegated security - by allowing trusted callers to manage transactions, users can benefit from advanced security models, such as those involving multi-signature setups.
EIP-3074 is the next significant step in the future development of the Ethereum account model. It serves as a short-term remedy before the rise of ERC-4337, but it significantly enhances the user experience (UX).
EIP-7251
For validators holding a large amount of ETH, EIP-7251 is undoubtedly a more valuable proposal. It allows validators to earn additional staking rewards beyond the standard 32 ETH staking limit. Previously, any staking amount over 32 ETH was idle. Validators wishing to stake extra ETH had to set up a new validation node and invest an additional 32 ETH. With EIP-7251, validators can use a single validation node to stake all their ETH.
This improvement is expected to attract large institutions to run their own validation nodes and further engage in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Additionally, this proposal, as part of the Pectra upgrade, 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 running validator nodes and earn rewards on top of the standard staking limit of 32 ETH.
EIP-7002
As part of the Pectra upgrade, EIP-7002 addresses some significant risk issues in validator node operations.
For example, if you want to receive rewards for running a validating node but don't want to deal with complex operations, you can delegate this task to a validator operator and hand over the validation key to them (the validation key is used to validate and propose blocks). However, when you want to withdraw ETH, you must sign a 'voluntary exit message' with the validation key to complete the operation. If the operator intentionally obstructs this by not signing the message or if the validation 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 the key. This improvement eliminates the risk of malicious operators refusing to sign exit messages and reduces the likelihood of ETH being withheld after the validation key is leaked.
ERC-7683
In recent years, intents have been one of the hot topics in DeFi discussions. ERC-7683 is a token standard designed to directly address cross-chain interoperability issues and define 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, 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, supporting Ethereum's goal as the leading decentralized application platform.
Achieving Interoperability: Standardizing order and settlement interfaces for seamless cross-chain execution.
Eliminating Fragmentation: Providing a common framework to coordinate different systems for smoother cross-chain operations.
Enhancing User Experience: Providing users with streamlined, intuitive, and frictionless cross-chain interactions.
Increasing Liquidity: Allowing DApps to access a shared cross-chain fill network, providing deeper liquidity.
Accelerating Transactions: Reducing failure rates and speeding up transaction times by fostering competition among fillers.
Driving Innovation: Transforming the cross-chain landscape by promoting collaboration and encouraging innovative solutions on Ethereum.
ERC-7841
ERC-7841 is a novel token standard that introduces a low-level message format and API for applications to send messages to or receive messages from other chains.
ERC-7841 abstracts chain-specific logic from applications, meaning the same application can be deployed on multiple chains without changing how it sends/receives messages.
ERC-7841 is a modular foundation that specifies only the information required to route messages between applications. This allows specific message types (e.g., bridging or intent message types) to be flexibly built on a single interface rather than requiring a separate one for each message type.
ERC-7841 is compatible with synchronous messaging protocols (like CIRC) and asynchronous messaging protocols (like most existing protocols and CIRC).
While there are other EIPs with similar goals, the ongoing heated discussions around ERC-7841 indicate strong momentum in the interoperability space.
