What are Ethereum Improvement Proposals?

EIPs are a critical part of Ethereum’s development process and are how Ethereum network upgrades are achieved. 

An EIP is a proposal or standard that details potential new features, improvements or processes for the Ethereum blockchain network. They contain technical specifications for proposed changes and, according to Ethereum.org, serve as a “source of truth” for the community. 

Ethereum network upgrades are proposed to the Ethereum development community and discussed and developed through the EIP process. Anyone within the community can create an EIP, and the author is responsible for reaching an agreement with the Ethereum development community and documenting any contrasting opinions. 

EIP authors are usually developers. EIPs enable changes to Ethereum and are proposed, debated, and, if successful, adopted. Ethereum network upgrades, like Dencun and Pectra, consist of a set of EIPs that, once finalized, must be implemented by each Ethereum client on the blockchain’s network. 

The Ethereum development roadmap: Prague/Electra upgrade timeline

Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade occurred in March 2024, and Pectra is scheduled to go live in 2025.

Ethereum’s post-merge roadmap is part of what Buterin outlines as a five-step process to improve the smart contract blockchain after Ethereum moved to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism in September 2022. The five stages are Merge, Surge, Verge, Purge and Splurge. 

Ethereum developers decided against rushing to release Pectra before Devcon in November 2024 to allow developers to monitor the upgrade more effectively, given their experiences with previous upgrades.