Ethereum Revival Pathway: Pectra Upgrade, User Experience Reshaping, Foundation Restructuring

Original Title:《Can Pectra, UX and Team Shuffle Revive ETH?》

Original Source: PRATHIK DESAI AND TOKEN DISPATCH

Original Translation: Patti, ChainCatcher

「One of Bitcoin's most outstanding qualities is the design of its protocol, so elegantly simple.」 Ethereum's co-founder Vitalik Buterin said this when discussing the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.

His remarks come at a time that aligns with the identity crisis Ethereum is currently facing. Just a week ago, Vitalik wrote this in his blog post "Simplifying the L1." Three days later, Ethereum developers deployed the network's most complex upgrade to date onto the blockchain. On the one hand, ETH saw its strongest weekly performance since 2021 following the Pectra upgrade on Wednesday. On the other hand, its co-founder aims to rebuild the network with a simpler architecture.

Is this the beginning of Ethereum's revival, or is it yet another false dawn for a network that has stagnated for years while its competitors continue to reach new heights? In this article, we will explore the changes happening in Ethereum, why these changes are important, and whether these rapid developments can help Ethereum break free from years of stagnation.

Pectra Upgrade: A Key Battle in Ethereum's Revival Attempt

The success of Ethereum's current revival attempt largely hinges on its recent upgrade.

On May 7, 2024, the Pectra upgrade—a significant code change, the largest since The Merge in September 2022—officially went live. This upgrade made wallets smarter, validators more efficient, and Layer 2 fees lower. The upgrade ultimately took over a month longer to complete than originally planned, altering the way Ethereum operates. Notably, Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-7702 granted regular wallets smart contract capabilities.

This seemingly technical change has, in fact, reshaped users' fundamental experience. Anonymous Optimism project contributor Binji wrote on the X platform: "Only now does Ethereum truly start to feel like a modern network." He further added that the Pectra upgrade reduced the number of clicks users need to "get things done."

Simply put, this upgrade has brought the following conveniences to users:

· Users can now bundle multiple operations together to execute without needing to approve each step of the transaction individually.

· Users can pay transaction fees with stablecoins, without having to use Ethereum (ETH) in each transaction.

DApps can even pay gas fees for users, enabling a "freemium" model where users can interact without holding any ETH. For validators, EIP-7251 has significantly increased the staking cap from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH. This means lower operational costs, particularly beneficial for institutional stakers.

Layer 2 also benefits from this upgrade. EIP-7691 has doubled the blob space per block, helping to keep Layer 2 transaction fees low amidst increasing demand. This upgrade comes at a crucial time—Jesse Pollak, a developer on Coinbase's Base Chain, had previously warned that by 2025, the demand for Layer 2 could grow "10 to 20 times."

So, can these technological improvements translate into a recovery in market confidence? Historically, Ethereum upgrades have often been accompanied by a "buy the rumor, sell the news" situation. After the 2022 "merge" upgrade was completed, the price of ETH fell by over 30%.

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However, this time might be different, as alongside code changes, there has also been a shift in narrative and leadership. So, what's the outcome? Within the first 40 hours of the Pectra upgrade going live, the price of ETH surged by approximately 40%.

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Vitalik Calls for Reshaping Ethereum's User Experience

Three days before the formal launch of the Pectra upgrade, Vitalik Buterin published what may be his most significant vision statement in years—"Simplifying the L1." In the article, he conveyed the core message that Ethereum must become "as close to simple as Bitcoin within five years."

Over the years, Ethereum has continuously increased its complexity to address various technical challenges. However, today, the Ethereum co-founder aims to remove this complexity to ensure the network's long-term sustainability and resilience. In his vision statement, he pointed out that even high school students can understand Bitcoin's code. In contrast, Ethereum has become increasingly complex, limiting the range of people who can effectively contribute to it.

Vitalik's plan includes three radical proposals:

· Replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V architecture. The RISC-V architecture is simpler and more efficient, potentially bringing about a "hundredfold performance improvement."

· Simplify Ethereum's consensus mechanism through "3-Slot Finality," discarding complex systems such as epochs and validator shuffling.

· Standardize the entire protocol stack from data encoding to tree structure.

Ethereum Foundation Leadership Restructuring

In February of this year, Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi announced her transition to the newly established position of "Chair," putting an end to the community's months-long dissatisfaction with the Foundation's leadership and direction.

Prior to this, critics increasingly questioned the Foundation's approach—amid an increasingly competitive market environment, whether prioritizing ideological purity over a competitive position can still meet Ethereum's development needs. The resulting restructuring was officially finalized at the end of April, marking a significant governance change in the history of the Ethereum Foundation.

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The newly appointed Foundation leadership quickly clarified their focus: expanding the Ethereum mainnet's capacity, improving Layer 2 rollups, and enhancing user experience. The two co-directors stated in a public statement, "We are acutely aware that we need to speed up the journey for developers, founders, institutions, etc., developing on and adopting Ethereum technology."

For years, the Foundation has maintained a "neutral" position towards ecosystem development according to critics, avoiding engagement in any activities that seem like marketing or competitive positioning. The newly appointed co-director Stańczak, in an interview with Bankless, stated that improving communication is now a priority for the Foundation, and "clearly conveying information is also part of marketing." This simple statement, compared to the Foundation's past attitude of not even recognizing marketing as a legitimate function, marks a fundamental shift.

The Challenge Remains

Despite Ethereum's promising developments, it still faces significant hurdles. Currently, the price of Ethereum (ETH) is around $2,200, less than half of its all-time high of $4,878 reached in November 2021. Meanwhile, both Bitcoin and Solana have surpassed their previous records in 2025, leaving Ethereum lingering at a low point.

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In March of this year, due to market turmoil caused by Trump's tariff policies, ETH saw a more significant drop than other mainstream cryptocurrencies, with the price briefly dipping below $1,600, marking the coin's lowest point in a year and a half.

Critics point out fundamental issues in Ethereum's economic model.

· The Layer 2 Paradox: The success of Layer 2 scaling means a reduction in transaction volume on the mainnet, leading to a decrease in ETH's fee revenue.

· Inefficient Staking: Prior to the Pectra upgrade, institutional stakers had to operate multiple validation nodes due to staking rules, increasing costs and lowering returns.

· Accumulating Technical Debt: Ethereum's complexity has slowed down the pace of innovation and raised the barrier to entry for contribution.

Furthermore, competition is intensifying. In February and April of this year, Solana's DEX trading volume surpassed Ethereum's. Even in the realm of institutional investment, Bitcoin ETFs have captured the majority share of inflowing funds, while Ethereum-related products have seen lukewarm market acceptance. The leadership crisis in March only exacerbated these issues. Given this backdrop, it's not hard to understand why the Ethereum Foundation, Vitalik Buterin, and core developers are actively taking action from multiple angles. After all, maintaining the status quo is no longer sustainable.

So, can these changes reverse the challenges that Ethereum has accumulated over the years?

Ethereum's Reform Calibration

Ethereum's current reform is not just limited to individual upgrade measures but a recalibration of its overall development path. As these reforms progress, Ethereum has finally realized that relying solely on technical prowess is insufficient to succeed in the cryptocurrency world. The key lies in the timing of these reforms. These changes have come belatedly for Ethereum after years of market share loss and poor price performance.

After the Pectra upgrade, ETH price surged by 40%, indicating that investors still have a strong interest in Ethereum. However, Ethereum is facing tough competition from projects that integrated simplicity into their design from the start, rather than through later modifications. The Ethereum Foundation has brought technical experts into management roles and recognized the importance of marketing efforts, indicating that it has begun to address the cultural inertia issue hindering its competitiveness.

The improvements made in the validator economics model and L2 scalability through the Pectra upgrade will bring short-term benefits. However, the long-term viability of Vitalik Buterin's five-year RISC-V architecture vision will be a significant challenge for Ethereum. After all, Ethereum has often struggled to maintain focus due to conflicting priority tasks in its past development.

The upcoming Fusaka upgrade will be a key indicator of Ethereum's strategic transformation. If this upgrade places mainnet improvements on top of second-layer network infrastructure, it will confirm that Ethereum's strategic shift is genuine and enduring, rather than temporary.

The next 12 months will reveal whether these changes are a revitalization of Ethereum or merely a delayed adaptation to market realities. For investors, Ethereum's network resilience to adhere to the new direction can be glimpsed through the leadership team's consistent performance and the development progress; this is far more critical than any single technological milestone.

If Ethereum can complete this transformation while adhering to its core values, its vision of a "world ledger" may reposition ETH as the foundational asset of the next-generation global financial system, with its value far surpassing the level reflected by the current price of $2200.

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