Understanding Ethereum Ethereum London Hard Fork — What is it? by Nikita Bakshi 7th August 2021

A hard fork, often known as a (hardfork), is a significant change to a blockchain network’s protocols. In simple terms, a hard fork divides a single cryptocurrency into two and causes the validity of previously invalid blocks and transactions, or vice versa. As a result, all developers must upgrade to the most recent version of the protocol software.

Understanding EIP.

EIP-1559 was a common term you’d hear. It isn’t all that opulent. Each protocol number represents the number of proposed Ethereum network improvements. Anyone in the community has the ability to propose an EIP.

Yes, anyone with an interest in Ethereum can propose an EIP. The Ethereum community’s stakeholders will make the final choice on whether or not to embrace it.

EIP was inspired by Bitcoin Improvement Proposals, which is a bitcoin-based version of EIP (BIP). The Ethereum Improvement Protocol (EIP) was established to document the Ethereum network’s enhancements and updates.

Key Improvements in EIP London Hard Fork.

EIP-1559: The fee market for the ETH 1.0 chain has changed.
EIP-1559 aims to address the inconsistency of network fees. When a user transacts ETH, they have the option of choosing between “fast,” “normal,” or “slow” bids. Making a bid to miner nodes is similar to this. As an unforeseen consequence, miners are compelled to service the highest bidder (“quickly”). As a result, cryptocurrency users will have to pay a higher network fee for their transactions. EIP-1559 establishes a minimum fee that must be paid when a transaction takes place. The base cost (minimum network fee) varies according on the number of transaction requests handled by the network. You can reward miners by leaving a tip if you want the transaction to be faster. Miners are only allowed to keep the transaction’s tips. Because the base fees are returned to the network. For ETH, this “burn mechanism” also serves as a deflationary mechanism (which has no supply cap, unlike Bitcoin). Will EIP-1559 lower gas prices? It is debatable. However, it will undoubtedly make ETH gas fees considerably easier to predict.

EIP-3529: Refund reduction
EIP-3529 eliminates SELFDESTRUCT gas reimbursements and decreases SSTORE gas refunds. SSTORE and SELFDESTRUCT for gas refunds were first implemented. It serves as a motivator for programmers to create apps that make optimal use of storage and reduce unnecessary code. When the variable storage is reduced, it refunds the gas fee. To save Ethereum clients the trouble of having to choose between old smart contracts that aren’t in EVMOF format and new smart contracts that are in EVMOF format. If the EVMOF proposal fails to pass. Future modifications that require EIP-3541 can be deployed.

EIP-3541: Use the 0xEF byte to reject new contracts.
Existing smart contracts containing the 0xEF byte will be accepted, while new smart contracts containing the 0xEF byte will be refused.To create a new byte sequence to separate new contracts. The adoption of EVM Object Format necessitated the EIP-3541 upgrade (EVMOF). To save Ethereum clients the trouble of having to choose between old smart contracts that aren’t in EVMOF format and new smart contracts that are in EVMOF format. If the EVMOF proposal fails to pass. Future modifications that require EIP-3541 can be deployed.

BASEFEE opcode EIP-3198
Improvements to EIP-1559 are directly connected. The BASEFEE opcode returns to EVMs the current block’s base fee value (computers that run Ethereum client). This allows smart contracts or DApps to immediately get the value of the base charge. DApps and smart contracts will be able to improve their services thanks to EIP-3198.

Difficulty Bomb Delay until December 2021 (EIP-3554).
Increase the difficulty of mining until December 2021. The purpose of this increase in difficulty is to make Ethereum mining less appealing. Encourages the network to upgrade from ETH 1.0 proof-of-work to ETH 2.0 proof-of-work. The proof-of-stake mechanism has been updated to version 2.0. The goal of EIP-3554 is to make it more difficult following the combination of ETH 1.0 and ETH 2.0. The merger is set to take place during the Shanghai upgrade, in October 2021.

Points to Remember.

EIP-1559 provided a deflationary mechanism for Ether, allowing for more predictable network fees.

EIP-3198 allows Ethereum client computers to obtain the current base fee value.

EIP-3529 prevents the gas reimbursement system from being abused and minimises the amount of junk data that clogs the network.

New smart contracts must have different machine codes than the present 0xEF, according to EIP-3541.

According to EIP-3541, new smart contracts must have different machine codes than the current 0xEF.