Brief summary of Ethereum's Pectra upgrade (2025):

1. What is it?
Pectra is the next major upgrade of Ethereum, combining the previous two upgrades Prague and Electra to increase scalability, performance and user experience.

2. Notable features:

Account Abstraction:
Allows gas fees to be paid with ERC-20 tokens such as USDC, DAI instead of just ETH. Can sponsor gas from third parties.

Smart contract optimization (EIP-7692):
Helps contracts operate more efficiently and save gas.

Staking upgrade:

EIP-7251: Increases validator staking limit from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH.

EIP-7002: Supports more flexible ETH staking withdrawal.

Storage and Scalability Infrastructure Improvements:

Verkle Trees: Reduces data storage, increases validation efficiency.
PeerDAS: Increases layer-2 throughput, reduces congestion.

3. Important EIPs in Pectra:

EIP-7702: Temporarily turns user accounts (EOAs) into smart contracts.
EIP-7742: Doubles blob capacity → reduces Layer-2 fees.
EIP-2537 & EIP-2935: Improved cryptography and historical data storage.
EIP-6110: Simplifies validator deposit process.

4. User Impact:

Lower or sponsored gas fees.
Transaction pooling → faster and more economical.
Ethereum wallets with social resilience, multi-signature wallets.
Enhanced user experience, security, and usability.

5. Long-term implications:
Pectra is a step forward for Ethereum's future towards a more decentralized, efficient, and user-friendly platform. This is the next step in the journey after "The Merge" (2022) and "Dencun" (2024).