Ethereum’s next major protocol upgrade, Pectra, is officially entering its final security testing phase with the launch of the Pectra Audit Competition on Cantina. Running from February 21 to March 24, the event invites white hats and security researchers to help identify vulnerabilities in advance of the highly anticipated hard fork.
🔍 Why Pectra Matters
Pectra introduces several Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) designed to enhance both user experience and network scalability.
🧠 Key EIPs Under Audit
🟡 EIP-7702 — Smart Accounts for EOAs
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Adds smart contract functionality to Externally Owned Accounts
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Features:
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Transaction batching
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Gas sponsorship
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Hardware-based authentication
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Spending limits
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Account recovery options
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Chain-specific delegations
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Nonce-bound delegation revocation
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🟣 EIP-7251 — Validator Consolidation
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Increases validator cap from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH
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Enables compounding rewards and validator merges
🟢 EIP-7002 — Execution Layer Exits
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Lets Ethereum addresses (e.g. DAOs) trigger validator exits
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Minimizes trust in validator operators
🔵 EIP-6110 — Faster Deposits
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Reduces ETH deposit wait time from 9 hours to 13 minutes
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Optimizes Beacon Chain performance post-merge
🟠 EIP-7691 — Blob Scaling for L2
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Boosts blob capacity by 50%
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Cuts Layer 1 data fees by 10–100×
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Paired with EIP-7623 to limit worst-case block size
🛡️ Audit Competition Scope
This competition focuses strictly on Pectra-related code. Non-Pectra vulnerabilities should be submitted through the Ethereum Foundation Bug Bounty Program.
The goal is to surface critical issues before Pectra is deployed to mainnet.
🤝 Ethereum Protocol Attackathon Recap
This launch follows the successful Ethereum Protocol Attackathon, hosted on Immunefi, where partners like Bybit, Wormhole, Base, and The Graph joined the Ethereum Foundation to fund security efforts. The event marked a major milestone in protocol-level security coordination.