Upgradeable smart contracts are converging on one standard: UUPS. Unlike Transparent proxies, UUPS moves upgrade logic into the implementation itself, reducing gas overhead and architectural complexity. The proxy stays minimal, while the contract controls upgrades via strict authorization hooks.
At the same time, the ecosystem hardened its defenses: initializer-only deployments, multisig + timelock governance, and safer tooling now define the baseline. A key shift is ERC-7201 namespaced storage, replacing fragile storage gaps with deterministic, collision-free layouts.
The result: upgrades are lighter, safer, and easier to reason about , if standard patterns are followed.
