Ethereum's London hard fork and EIP-1559

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Anett Rolikova of the Ethereum Magicians

Why Anett Rolikova of Ethereum Magicians Doesn't Like EIP-1559

EIP-1559, the August Ethereum protocol change to "burn" transaction fees and thereby goose ETH's value, feels like ancient history by now. But one of the top voices in Ethereum makes the case that it should be revisited. Anett Rolikova is part of the three-person leadership team of the Fellowship of Ethereum Magicians, which coordinates discussion around changes to the blockchain's code and technical fixes. She told Decrypt at last week's Messari Mainnet conference that EIP-1559 has been a disa...

Aug 12

Ethereum Has Burned $100 Million in Fees Since EIP-1559 Took Effect

Ethereum's London hard fork, a long-awaited network upgrade that included a measure to reduce the supply growth of ETH, went live just last Thursday. What a difference a week makes. Since the hard fork, over $100 million in ETH has been burned, or taken out of circulation, helping fuel a price increase from $2,725 to $3,230, according to data from Nomics. The London upgrade featured five code changes, but the most discussed was EIP-1559. The "Ethereum Improvement Proposal" altered the transact...

Aug 9

Shark Tank's "Mr. Wonderful" Kevin O'Leary. Image: Shutterstock

Shark Tank's 'Mr. Wonderful' Shills Ethereum as 'Ultra-Sound Money' After EIP-1559

Kevin O'Leary, the Canadian investor best known for his role as "Mr. Wonderful" on the reality competition show "Shark Tank," has made a U-turn on cryptocurrencies this year. He's now driving straight toward Ethereum after the network's London upgrade last week, which started creating deflationary pressure on ETH's price. "If Bitcoin is sound money because of the 21 million coin supply ceiling, Ethereum enjoys the same benefit now," O'Leary told viewers on Cameo, an app for people to pay celebri...

Aug 6

Vitalik Buterin speaking at Ethereal in Tel Aviv in 2019. Image: Shutterstock.

Ethereum Co-Creator ‘Confident’ About Next Steps After London Hard Fork

Yesterday, Ethereum completed a major upgrade, the London hard fork. It appears to have gone off without a hitch, implementing EIP-1559, an update that reduces the variability of transaction fees and introduces a burning mechanism to counterbalance Ethereum inflation. Following the successful rollout, which has seen tens of thousands of dollars worth of ETH burned every minute, Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin is "confident" about the next phase of the network's development: the merge betwee...

Aug 5

EIP-1559 is almost here. Image: Shutterstock

Ethereum Hard Fork Is Just Hours Away. Here's What Could Go Wrong

On Thursday, the Ethereum network is getting an upgrade as five Ethereum Improvement Proposals get incorporated into the blockchain's code. The most-talked about change is EIP-1559. That proposal does a number of things in a bid to stop transactions from building up on the sluggish network—and make it clearer to Ethereum users how much they must pay in "gas" fees to push their transactions through in a timely manner. For months, Ethereum users have been looking to this upgrade to boost ETH price...

Aug 4

Ethereum Price Spikes on Eve of EIP-1559 Network Upgrade

Most crypto markets are in the green today, led by Ethereum. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has jumped over 8% in the last 24 hours. The price of ETH now sits near $2,700, its highest level in over a month. The upward movement is happening on the eve of a major upgrade for the network. The London hard fork, as it is called, includes several modifications to the Ethereum code, including EIP-1559. EIP-1559 changes how transactions are structured on the network. At present, the pr...

EIP-1559: What Happens Next for Ethereum

Ethereum's London hard fork drops this week, and bundled with it is EIP-1559—an Ethereum Improvement Proposal that aims to address the network's persistent issues with transaction fees. It's a significant change for the Ethereum network, and one that's already got the markets a-flutter. But how's the upgrade set to unfold, and what comes next for Ethereum users? What is EIP-1559? At its core, EIP-1559 aims to make Ethereum's transaction fees less volatile and more predictable, removing the probl...

Aug 2

Ethereum is going through some things. Image: Shutterstock

How Will EIP-1559 and Ethereum's 'Triple Halving' Affect ETH's Price?

An August 5 Ethereum upgrade, known as the London hard fork, will bring a major change in the form of EIP-1559—a code change that begins to remove some ETH from circulation. In theory, that will have an effect on Ethereum's price. But what—and when? EIP-1559 will change how transaction fees work. Though the details are complicated, the upshot is that anyone who makes a transaction on the network will now pay a base fee that will be burned instead of going to Ethereum miners. Burning, in this...

Jul 31

Ethereum has value. Gas tokens are losing theirs. Image: Shutterstock

Ethereum London Hard Fork to Make Some Tokens Worthless

In the run-up to the London hard fork, the Ethereum upgrade slated for the early hours of August 5, much of the talk has been around EIP-1559, a contentious code change that will burn transaction fees, taking some ETH out of circulation. But those aren't the only tokens the London upgrade will do away with. Gas tokens such as GST2 and CHI, used by developers to secure lower prices when deploying smart contracts, will become obsolete. amidst the coordination for EIP-1559, I admit we have neglect...

Jul 15

Ethereum is getting an upgrade. Image: Shutterstock

What's in the Ethereum London Hard Fork Beyond EIP-1559?

No one knows more about Ethereum network upgrades than Tim Beiko. A developer with the Ethereum Foundation, Beiko runs the core developer meetings and has been running point on the upcoming London hard fork. Expected to go live August 4, London is a network upgrade that encompasses five Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), which are changes to the code that must be agreed to by stakeholder consensus. But although people have likely heard about some of the elements of the London fork, in partic...

Jun 18

Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency network by market cap. Image: Shutterstock

What Is EIP-1559 and Why Are Markets So Excited About It?

The Ethereum network has, in its short six-year history, come to dominate cryptocurrencies. While Bitcoin has hogged the headlines thanks to its spectacular rises and falls, Ethereum has cemented itself as the place where people go to build things on blockchain. But with that dominance has come a number of challenges. The first and foremost is transaction times. While faster than Bitcoin’s paltry 3-5 transactions per second, the popularity of Ethereum has meant its 10-15 transactions per second...

May 30

Ethereum Devs Close EIP-1559 Loophole That Could Have Overwhelmed Blockchain

Ethereum developers have fixed a loophole in a forthcoming upgrade that would have left the network vulnerable to fake large transactions. Scheduled for mid-July, EIP-1559 burns some ETH spent on processing transactions instead of giving it all to miners, as is currently the case. The proposal aims to reduce the volatility of Ethereum’s transaction fee. Under EIP-1559, users can “tip” miners and the Ethereum network to speed up transactions. To do this, they specify the maximum amount they are...

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