A long-awaited upgrade to the Ethereum network is ready for deployment according to the lead developer.
According to a post on the official Ethereum blog, the London upgrade will first go live on the Ropsten testnet, at block 10499401, which is expected to happen around June 24, 2021.
The mainnet launch for the upgrade will occur once it has passed the testing phase with the last one on the Rinkeby testnet scheduled for July 7.
Five EIPs, but All Eyes on 1559
The London upgrade follows Berlin, which was activated in mid-April on the Ethereum mainnet. By starting the work on London while Berlin was being rolled out, client teams were able to release this network upgrade at record speed, said developer Tim Beiko.
Five Ethereum Improvement Proposals will be included though EIP-1559 is the one everyone has been waiting for. This upgrade will bring in a long-awaited adjustment to the way network fees are managed.
Ethereum network fees are currently calculated in an auction-type mechanism that works by having everyone submit bids for how much they’re willing to pay to have their transaction picked up by a miner.
The miners will naturally prioritize the highest bid which leads to network congestion and very long waits for everyone else paying less in gas.
EIP-1559 is a proposal to modify this system so that everyone pays just the lowest bid that was included in the block. The fees would be dynamically adjusted depending on network load and demand which would allow wallets, and protocols to automatically set lower, and more accurate gas fees.
The proposal will also cause part of the transaction fees to be burnt. This is something that a large part of the community sees as a critical improvement to the Ethereum network’s economics as it will become deflationary over time.
There are four other EIPs; 3198 which is a companion to 1559, adding a code for the new fee structure. EIP-3529 reduces refunds allowing blocks to use up to twice the current gas limit. EIP-3541 is a simple change that lays the groundwork for broader EVM improvements. Finally, EIP-3554 delays the difficulty bomb, known as the Ethereum Ice Age, to December 1, 2021.
Ethereum Price Slumps 9%
Ethereum prices have slumped 7.8% over the past 24 hours at the time of publication. According to CoinGecko, ETH had fallen to $2,000 during Monday morning’s Asian trading session. Crypto twitter is already preparing for more downsides in price.
What EIP1559 really stands for is ETH price 1559 huh?
— Molly (@bigmagicdao) June 20, 2021
ETH has now fallen to its lowest price since the May 24 market crash and is down 54% since its all-time high of $4,350 on May 12.
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