Ethereum’s next hard fork could make lost private keys a thing of the past

Ethereum's planned EIP-3074 upgrade, which Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko confirmed as an addition to the Pectra hard fork in an April 11 X post, could let users recover assets after losing their seed phrase through a "social recovery" feature. Ethereum Foundation researcher Domothy explained in a March 25 blog post that the upgrade gives ordinary wallets smart contract capabilities by delegating ownership to an invoker contract via a digital signature. Domothy shared concerns that funds could be drained if users delegate to a malicious invoker contract, though he expects a few audited invoker contracts to become available after the upgrade. Cygaar noted that users would not need Ether for transactions and that multiple actions could be batched into one transaction. The Pectra hard fork is reportedly expected in late 2024 or early 2025.