EIP-1559: Fee Market Change (Base Fee + Burn)
EIP-1559 introduced a new transaction fee mechanism to Ethereum. Rather than a simple first-price auction, it sets a base fee per block that adjusts algorithmically based on congestion — rising when blocks are full, falling when empty. The base fee is burned (removed from supply), making ETH deflationary during high-activity periods. Users can also add a tip (priority fee) to incentivise validators.
Authors: Vitalik Buterin · Eric Conner · Rick Dudley · Matthew Slipper · Ian Norden
Protocol Impact
Predictable gas prices + deflationary ETHVERIFIED
- Replaced chaotic first-price gas auctions with a stable base-fee curve
- Base fee burned each block — over 4M ETH burned since activation
- Enables Type 2 (EIP-1559) transaction format with maxFee + maxPriorityFee
- Fee escalator: base fee adjusts ±12.5% per block toward 50% utilization target
Cumulative ETH Burned
ETH removed from supply via base fee burn since London (Aug 2021)DEFLATIONARY
Each unit = 1M ETH removed from circulating supply
London Upgrade
Other EIPs activated in the same forkLondon· 2021-08-05LIVE
No other tracked EIPs in this fork.