Ethereum News: Holesky Reaches Finality After 2 Weeks, Pectra Testing Continues

Ethereum's Holesky Reaches Final Stage After Two Weeks, While Pectra Testing Continues

The Pectra update was launched on February 24, but its final release was delayed due to a configuration error in the client software.

Posted by Shaurya Malwa | Edited by: Sheldon Reback Updated: March 11, 2025 14:29 UTC Published: March 11, 2025 12:35 UTC

Key points:

• Ethereum's Holesky testnet has finally reached finality nearly two weeks after the Pectra upgrade, overcoming a client software configuration issue that had been preventing finality since February 24.
• The Sepolia testnet, also running on the Pectra upgrade, reached finality but encountered empty block issues due to a buggy deposit contract that was subsequently fixed.

The Ethereum Holesky testnet finally completed the finalization process on Monday, nearly two weeks after the Pectra upgrade was implemented.

Epoch 119,090 recorded a transaction at approximately 19:00 UTC, with more than two-thirds of the validators confirming the network's operation. An epoch is a time period during which a certain number of blocks are completed on the blockchain.

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The finality feature, which irreversibly confirms transactions within two epochs, or about 13 minutes, has been missing since February 24 due to a configuration error in the client software, not a Pectra update.

Recovery efforts in recent weeks have contributed to this progress. Developers are currently stabilizing nodes and cleaning up old states to fully restore the testnet for testing Pectra.

The Sepolia testnet, also running on Pectra, reached finality but then encountered empty blocks due to flaws in the deposit contract. An attacker took advantage of this by sending transfers with a zero token, as noted by Ethereum developers; the issue was later fixed by the client teams.

The Pectra update introduces important improvements such as the ability to pay for gas with tokens other than ETH, account abstraction, and higher staking limits.

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