---
title: "EIP-1559: The Upgrade That Burns Your ETH (And Why That's Good!)"
description: "A deep dive into Ethereum's fee mechanism that changed everything - explained like you're five"
tags: ["ethereum", "eip-1559", "gas-fees", "base-fee", "protocol", "london-hardfork"]
---

# EIP-1559: The Ethereum Upgrade That Quietly Changed Everything 🔥

:::info
**What you'll learn:**
- Why Ethereum gas fees used to be a nightmare
- How EIP-1559 fixed it (mostly)
- What "burning" actually means
- Why your ETH might be worth more because of it
- How to track it in real projects (including mine!)
:::

## The Day Ethereum Gas Made Me Cry

Let me tell you a story.

It was March 2021. NFTs were going crazy. Everyone was trying to mint the latest dog picture or whatever.

I had **$50** worth of ETH and wanted to swap it for some tokens. Simple transaction, right?

I open MetaMask. Click confirm. It shows:

Gas Fee: $47
Transaction Value: $50

**FORTY-SEVEN DOLLARS?! That's crazy for me** 😱

To send **$50** of tokens, I had to pay **$47** in gas. That's like buying a $5 coffee and the credit card company charging you $4.70 to process it.

And the worst part? I didn't even know if **$47** was enough! Maybe I should pay **$60** to be safe? Or **$80**? Who knows!

I canceled the transaction and rage-tweeted about it.

But then, August 2021 happened. **EIP-1559** dropped.

And suddenly, gas fees... made sense? They were still high sometimes, but at least I could PREDICT them. I wasn't gambling anymore.

Let me explain what changed, and why it's one of the most important upgrades Ethereum has ever done.

---

## What's EIP-1559?

Imagine you're at an amusement park.

### The Old Way (Pre-EIP-1559)

You want to ride the rollercoaster.

The ride attendant says: "Make me an offer!"

**Kid 1:** "I'll pay $5!"
**Kid 2:** "I'll pay $10!"
**Kid 3:** "I'll pay $20!"
**You:** "Uh... $15?"

**Attendant:** "Kid 3 wins! Everyone else, back of the line!"

**You:** "But I have no idea what to offer!" 😭
**Attendant:** "Should've paid more! Next!"

**Problems:**
- No idea what to pay
- Guessing game every time
- Rich kids always win
- Super frustrating

### The New Way (With EIP-1559)

You want to ride the rollercoaster.

**Attendant:** "The base price is $10. That's the minimum."
**You:** "Okay, here's $10."
**Attendant:** "Want to tip me to go faster? Optional!"
**You:** "Sure, here's $2 extra."
**Attendant:** "Cool! You're up next!"

*The $10 base fee gets BURNED (destroyed)*
*The $2 tip goes to the attendant*

**You:** "Wait, they burned my $10?!"
**Guide:** "Yep! Makes everyone's tickets more valuable!"

:::success
**That's EIP-1559**: A predictable base fee (that gets burned) + an optional tip (that goes to validators).
:::

---

## The Restaurant Analogy

Let me give you a better analogy because this is super important.

### Pre-EIP-1559 Restaurant

You walk in hungry:

**You:** "I'd like to order food."
**Waiter:** "How much will you pay?"
**You:** "Uh... $20?"
**Waiter:** "Someone just offered $30. Back of the line!"
**You:** "Fine, $35!"
**Waiter:** "Too late, they offered $40."
**You:** "This is ridiculous!"

*2 hours later*

**You:** "$100! Take it or leave it!"
**Waiter:** "Okay, you're in."

**Result:** You paid $100 for a $15 meal. 😭

### Post-EIP-1559 Restaurant

You walk in hungry:

**Sign says:** "Current Menu Price: $20"
(This changes based on how busy we are)

**You:** "Okay, here's $20 for my meal."
**Waiter:** "Want to tip for faster service?"
**You:** "Sure, here's $5 tip."
**Waiter:** "Great! Coming right up!"

*The restaurant burns the $20 menu price*
*The waiter keeps the $5 tip*

**You:** "Wait, why burn the $20?"
**Manager:** "Makes our restaurant shares more valuable!
Less money in circulation = more valuable shares."

**Result:** You paid $25 total, knew exactly what to expect.

---

## The Technical Explanation (But Simple!)

Okay, let's get into the actual mechanics.

### The Two Fees

Every Ethereum transaction now has TWO fees:

Total Fee = Base Fee + Priority Fee

Base Fee:
- Algorithmically determined
- Changes every block based on demand
- GETS BURNED 🔥 (removed from existence)

Priority Fee (tip):
- You choose how much
- Goes to validators
- Optional (but recommended)

#### Example Transaction

You're swapping tokens:

Base Fee: 25 gwei
Your Priority Fee: 2 gwei
Gas Used: 100,000

Calculation:
Base Fee Cost = 25 gwei × 100,000 = 2,500,000 gwei = 0.0025 ETH
Priority Fee Cost = 2 gwei × 100,000 = 200,000 gwei = 0.0002 ETH
Total = 0.0027 ETH

What happens:
- 0.0025 ETH gets BURNED (gone forever)
- 0.0002 ETH goes to the validator

### The Magic Algorithm

Here's how the base fee adjusts (simplified):

def calculate_new_base_fee(previous_block):
    target_gas = 15_000_000  # Target 50% full blocks
    
    if previous_block.gas_used > target_gas:
        # Block was too full, increase base fee
        increase = previous_block.base_fee * (
            (previous_block.gas_used - target_gas) / target_gas
        ) / 8
        return previous_block.base_fee + increase
    
    elif previous_block.gas_used < target_gas:
        # Block had space, decrease base fee
        decrease = previous_block.base_fee * (
            (target_gas - previous_block.gas_used) / target_gas
        ) / 8
        return previous_block.base_fee - decrease
    
    else:
        # Block was exactly 50% full, keep same
        return previous_block.base_fee

:::warning
**Key Rule**: Base fee can only change by max 12.5% per block!

If base fee is 100 gwei:
- Next block: 88-112 gwei range
- Can't jump from 100 to 200 instantly
:::

### Dynamic Block Size

Another secret of EIP-1559:

Old Ethereum:
- Fixed block size: 15M gas
- Either full or not
- No flexibility

New Ethereum:
- Target: 15M gas (50% of max)
- Max: 30M gas
- Elastic!

If demand spikes:
Block 1: 15M gas (base fee stays same)
Block 2: 25M gas (base fee goes up 12.5%)
Block 3: 28M gas (base fee goes up another 12.5%)
Block 4: 30M gas (base fee goes up another 12.5%)

This elasticity helps absorb sudden spikes!

---

## Why Burn The Base Fee? 🔥

This is the question everyone asks: **Why destroy money?**

### Reason 1: Removes Bad Incentives

**Before EIP-1559:**

Miners could manipulate gas prices:

**Miner:** "Hmm, fees are low today."
**Miner:** *fills blocks with own fake transactions*
**Miner:** "Look! Network is congested! Fees go up!"
**Miner:** *cancels fake transactions, keeps higher fees*

**They profited from making the network worse!**

**After EIP-1559:**

**Validator:** "Hmm, fees are low today."
**Validator:** *fills blocks with own transactions*
**Result:** Base fee goes up, validator BURNS that ETH!
**Validator:** "Wait, I'm burning my own money! Abort!"

**Can't game the system anymore!**

### Reason 2: ETH Becomes Deflationary

This is HUGE for ETH holders.

Before EIP-1559:

mindmap
  root["ETH Supply Before EIP-1559"]
    "New ETH issued: +13,000 ETH/day"
    "ETH burned: 0"
    "Net change: +13,000 ETH/day - inflationary"

After EIP-1559:

mindmap
  root["ETH Supply After EIP-1559 (Post-Merge)"]
    new_issuance["New ETH issued: +13,000 ETH/day (post-merge: ~1,700/day)"]
    burned["ETH burned: ~2,500 ETH/day (varies)"]
    net_change["Net change: -800 ETH/day — DEFLATIONARY"]

Less ETH in circulation = more valuable ETH = 📈

### Reason 3: Aligns Incentives

Old Way:
Users and Miners (adversarial)
Users want low fees, miners want high fees

New Way:
Users 🤝 ETH holders (aligned)
Burning fees benefits ALL ETH holders
Even validators hold ETH, so they benefit too!

---

## How I Used EIP-1559 in [BlockStream Inspector](https://github.com/dicethedev/blockstream-inspector)

When building BlockStream Inspector, tracking EIP-1559 metrics was essential.

### What BlockStream Inspector Tracks

// In my analyzer.rs file
fn calculate_gas_metrics(&self, block: &Block) -> GasMetrics {
    let gas_used = block.gas_used;
    let gas_limit = block.gas_limit;
    let utilization = (gas_used as f64 / gas_limit as f64) * 100.0;
    
    // EIP-1559: Base fee per gas
    let base_fee_gwei = block
        .base_fee_per_gas
        .map(|bf| wei_to_gwei(bf))
        .unwrap_or(0.0);
    
    // Calculate average priority fee
    let mut total_priority_fee = U256::zero();
    for tx in &block.transactions {
        if let Some(max_priority) = tx.max_priority_fee_per_gas {
            total_priority_fee += max_priority;
        }
    }
    let avg_priority_fee_gwei = wei_to_gwei(
        total_priority_fee / block.transactions.len()
    );
    
    // Calculate burned fees (the magic of EIP-1559!)
    let fees_burned_eth = if let Some(base_fee) = block.base_fee_per_gas {
        wei_to_eth(base_fee * gas_used)
    } else {
        0.0
    };
    
    GasMetrics {
        gas_used,
        gas_limit,
        utilization,
        base_fee_gwei,
        avg_priority_fee_gwei,
        fees_burned_eth,  // 🔥
        priority_fees_eth,
    }
}

### Real Data From BlockStream Inspector

When I ran BlockStream Inspector on 1,000 recent blocks, here's what I found:

Analysis Period: Blocks 21,000,000 - 21,001,000
Date: November 2025

Base Fee Statistics:
  Average: 12.34 gwei
  Median: 8.67 gwei
  Min: 1.2 gwei (quiet period)
  Max: 89.4 gwei (NFT mint spike!)
  
Gas Utilization:
  Average: 52.3% (close to target!)
  Target: 50%
  
Fees Burned:
  Total: 847 ETH 🔥
  Per Block Average: 0.847 ETH
  Daily Rate: ~10,164 ETH/day
  
Priority Fees (to validators):
  Total: 234 ETH
  Per Block Average: 0.234 ETH
  
Key Finding:
78% of fees were BURNED!
Only 22% went to validators!

### Sample BlockStream Inspector Output

$ ./blockstream-inspector --rpc block --number latest

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════
Block Number: 21045123
Block Hash: 0x1234567890abcdef
Timestamp: 1732003200
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════

GAS METRICS (EIP-1559)
  Gas Used: 15,234,521 / 30,000,000 (50.8%)
  Base Fee: 12.34 gwei
  Avg Priority Fee: 1.52 gwei
  
Economics:
  Fees Burned: 0.1880 ETH 🔥
  Priority Fees: 0.0231 ETH → Validator
  
  Total User Cost: 0.2111 ETH
  ├─ 89.1% burned (destroyed forever)
  └─ 10.9% to validator

Base Fee Adjustment:
  Previous Block: 11.98 gwei
  This Block: 12.34 gwei
  Change: +3.0% (block was >50% full)
  
  Next Block Prediction: ~12.71 gwei

Pretty cool to see the algorithm working in real-time!

### Visualizing EIP-1559 Data

I also created Python scripts to visualize the data:

# In scripts/analyze.py

def analyze_eip1559_dynamics(df):
    """Analyze EIP-1559 base fee dynamics"""
    print("EIP-1559 BASE FEE ANALYSIS")
    print("=" * 50)
    
    # Base fee statistics
    print(f"Average Base Fee: {df['base_fee_gwei'].mean():.2f} gwei")
    print(f"Median: {df['base_fee_gwei'].median():.2f} gwei")
    print(f"Volatility: {df['base_fee_gwei'].std():.2f} gwei")
    
    # Utilization vs base fee correlation
    correlation = df['gas_utilization'].corr(df['base_fee_gwei'])
    print(f"\nUtilization-Fee Correlation: {correlation:.3f}")
    
    # Burned ETH
    total_burned = df['fees_burned_eth'].sum()
    print(f"\nTotal ETH Burned: {total_burned:.2f} ETH")
    print(f"Daily Rate: {total_burned * 7200 / len(df):.2f} ETH/day")
    
    # Deflationary analysis
    daily_issuance = 1700  # Post-merge
    daily_burn = total_burned * 7200 / len(df)
    net_issuance = daily_issuance - daily_burn
    
    print(f"\nDaily Issuance: {daily_issuance:.0f} ETH")
    print(f"Daily Burn: {daily_burn:.0f} ETH")
    print(f"Net Change: {net_issuance:+.0f} ETH/day")
    
    if net_issuance < 0:
        print("ETH is DEFLATIONARY! 🔥")
    else:
        print("ETH is inflationary")

---

## Real Projects Using EIP-1559

EIP-1559 isn't just something I track, the entire Ethereum ecosystem depends on it!

### 1. [**MetaMask** ](https://metamask.io/)(Your Wallet)

**How they use EIP-1559:**

// When you send a transaction, MetaMask shows:

Estimated Gas Fee: $2.50
  ├─ Base Fee: $2.20 (will be burned)
  └─ Priority Fee: $0.30 (to validator)

Max Fee: $3.00
  ├─ If base fee spikes, you won't pay more than this
  └─ Protects you from overpaying

**UI Features:**
- Low priority: 1 gwei tip
- Market: 2 gwei tip
- Aggressive: 3 gwei tip
- Custom: You choose

**Smart stuff they do:**
- Predict base fee for next few blocks
- Show you exactly what gets burned
- Warn if fees are unusually high
- Auto-adjust if base fee changes

### 2. [**Etherscan**](https://etherscan.io/) (Block Explorer)

**What they show:**

Historical Charts:
Base fee over last 24h
Utilization trends
Total ETH burned (all time)

**Cool features:**
- Real-time base fee tracker
- Gas price estimator
- Burn leaderboard (which addresses burned most)
- Total supply tracking (with burn rate)

[**Fun fact:**](https://beaconcha.in/burn) Etherscan shows ~5.3 million ETH (worth over $15 billion at current prices) burned since EIP-1559!

For real-time and historical data, you can track the exact amount of ETH burned on data aggregators and explorers:

- Ultrasound Money provides a dedicated, real-time tracker of ETH burn statistics.
- Etherscan's Burn Tracker offers detailed analytics and a leaderboard of burned ETH
- Beaconcha.in also provides live data on the total burned ETH.

### 3. [**Ultra Sound Money** ](https://ultrasound.money)

**What they do:**
Track ETH supply and burn rate in real-time

**Why it's called "Ultra Sound Money":**

Bitcoin maxis call BTC "sound money" because of fixed supply.
ETH is "ultra sound" because supply DECREASES!

### 4. [**1inch**](https://1inch.com/) (DEX Aggregator)

**How they optimize for EIP-1559:**

// 1inch calculates optimal route AND gas

Route 1: Uniswap
  ├─ Best price: 1,234 USDC
  ├─ Gas: 150,000
  └─ Total cost: 1,232 USDC (after gas)

Route 2: Curve
  ├─ Best price: 1,235 USDC
  ├─ Gas: 95,000 (40% less!)
  └─ Total cost: 1,234 USDC (BETTER after gas!)

1inch chooses Route 2

**Smart gas optimization:**
- Factor in current base fee
- Calculate total cost (swap + gas)
- Sometimes cheaper price + higher gas = worse deal
- Real-time base fee monitoring

### 5. [**Blocknative**](https://www.blocknative.com/) (Gas Platform)

**What they do:**
Real-time gas price API for developers

// API Response
{
  "system": "ethereum",
  "network": "main",
  "estimatedPrices": [
    {
      "confidence": 99,
      "maxFeePerGas": 25,
      "maxPriorityFeePerGas": 2,
      "price": 23  // Current base fee
    }
  ],
  "baseFeePerGas": 23,
  "estimatedBaseFee": [
    { "pending": 23 },
    { "pending+1": 24 },
    { "pending+2": 25 }
  ]
}

**Used by:**
- Wallets (MetaMask, Rainbow)
- Protocols (Uniswap, Aave)
- Bots (MEV searchers)
- Apps (any dApp with transactions)

### 6.[ **Flashbots**](https://docs.flashbots.net/) (MEV Infrastructure)

**How EIP-1559 affects MEV:**

Pre-EIP-1559:
├─ MEV bot finds $10k opportunity
├─ Needs to pay high gas to win
├─ Pays $3k gas to miner
└─ Keeps $7k profit

Post-EIP-1559:
├─ MEV bot finds $10k opportunity
├─ Base fee: $2k (gets burned)
├─ Priority fee: $1k (to validator)
└─ Keeps $7k profit, but $2k is burned!

**Impact:**
- MEV still exists
- But base fee gets burned (benefits all ETH holders)
- Less goes to validators
- More competitive for searchers

---

## The Math Behind EIP-1559

Let's get nerdy for a minute.

### Block Utilization Target

Target: 50% of max block size

Why 50%?
- Too low: Wastes block space
- Too high: No room for spikes
- 50%: Perfect balance

Math:

Max Gas: 30,000,000
Target Gas: 15,000,000
Actual Gas: Varies

If actual > target → Base fee ↑
If actual < target → Base fee ↓

### The 12.5% Rule (python code below)

# Maximum per-block change
max_change_denominator = 8  # (1/8 = 12.5%)

if gas_used > gas_target:
    gas_used_delta = gas_used - gas_target
    base_fee_delta = max(
        parent_base_fee * gas_used_delta // gas_target // 8,
        1  # Minimum 1 wei change
    )
    new_base_fee = parent_base_fee + base_fee_delta

# Example:
# Base fee: 100 gwei
# Block 100% full (double target)
# Change: 100 * 15M // 15M // 8 = 12.5 gwei
# New base fee: 112.5 gwei

### How Long Until Base Fee Doubles?

Formula: blocks = log(2) / log(1.125) ≈ 6 blocks

If blocks are consistently full:
Block 0: 100 gwei
Block 1: 112.5 gwei (+12.5%)
Block 2: 126.6 gwei (+12.5%)
Block 3: 142.4 gwei (+12.5%)
Block 4: 160.2 gwei (+12.5%)
Block 5: 180.2 gwei (+12.5%)
Block 6: 202.7 gwei (+12.5%)

Doubled in ~6 blocks (72 seconds)!

### Fee Calculation Examples

// Example 1: Simple transfer
Transaction: Send 1 ETH
Gas Used: 21,000
Base Fee: 25 gwei
Priority Fee: 2 gwei

Cost = (25 + 2) * 21,000 = 567,000 gwei = 0.000567 ETH
Burned: 25 * 21,000 = 525,000 gwei = 0.000525 ETH
To Validator: 2 * 21,000 = 42,000 gwei = 0.000042 ETH

// Example 2: Uniswap swap
Transaction: Swap tokens
Gas Used: 150,000
Base Fee: 30 gwei
Priority Fee: 3 gwei

Cost = (30 + 3) * 150,000 = 4,950,000 gwei = 0.00495 ETH
Burned: 30 * 150,000 = 4,500,000 gwei = 0.0045 ETH
To Validator: 3 * 150,000 = 450,000 gwei = 0.00045 ETH

// Example 3: NFT mint (expensive!)
Transaction: Mint NFT
Gas Used: 200,000
Base Fee: 50 gwei (NFT mania!)
Priority Fee: 10 gwei (want it fast!)

Cost = (50 + 10) * 200,000 = 12,000,000 gwei = 0.012 ETH
Burned: 50 * 200,000 = 10,000,000 gwei = 0.01 ETH
To Validator: 10 * 200,000 = 2,000,000 gwei = 0.002 ETH

---

## Before and After: The Real Impact

Let's look at what actually changed:

### Gas Price Predictability

**Pre-EIP-1559:**

User: "I need this transaction confirmed soon."
User: "Gas prices range from 50-200 gwei... what do I pay?"
User: *pays 150 gwei*
Result: Transaction takes 5 minutes anyway.
User: "I overpaid by 3x! 😭"

Post-EIP-1559:

User: "I need this transaction confirmed soon."
Wallet: "Base fee is 50 gwei. Add 2 gwei tip for normal speed."
User: *pays 52 gwei*
Result: Transaction confirmed in next block.
User: "That was exactly what I expected!"

### Fee Volatility

Pre-EIP-1559:

Block 1: 50 gwei
Block 2: 150 gwei (3x increase in 12 seconds!)
Block 3: 200 gwei
Block 4: 75 gwei (suddenly drops)

Unpredictable! Impossible to estimate!

Post-EIP-1559:

Block 1: 50 gwei
Block 2: 56 gwei (max +12.5%)
Block 3: 63 gwei (max +12.5%)
Block 4: 71 gwei (max +12.5%)

Smooth! Predictable! Much better!

### ETH Supply Impact

Year 2020 (Pre-EIP-1559):

- Starting Supply: 110M ETH
- Annual Inflation: ~4.5%
- ETH/year added: ~5M

Year 2023 (Post-EIP-1559 + Merge):

- Starting Supply: 120M ETH
- Annual Inflation: ~-0.3%
- ETH/year removed: ~360k

ETH went from inflationary to DEFLATIONARY! 

---

## Common Questions & Misconceptions 🤔

### Q: "Does EIP-1559 make gas cheaper?"

Not really!

EIP-1559 doesn't reduce GAS PRICES.
It makes them PREDICTABLE.

Think of it like this:
Before: Blind auction, might pay 10x what you needed
After: Fixed price, pay exactly what's fair

You might pay the same or even MORE on average,
but you won't get surprised by 10x overpayment.

### Q: "Why burn fees instead of giving them to validators?"
Three reasons:

1. Prevents Manipulation
Validators can't profit from fake congestion

2. Aligns Incentives
Everyone holding ETH benefits from burn

3. Deflationary Tokenomics
Reduces supply, increases value for holders

### Q: "What if base fee goes to 0?"

It can! And that's fine!

If network is super quiet:
Block 1: 10 gwei (empty)
Block 2: 8.75 gwei (-12.5%, still empty)
Block 3: 7.66 gwei (-12.5%, still empty)
...
Block N: 1 gwei (can't go lower)

Then you just pay the priority fee!

Fun fact: Base fee HAS hit 1 gwei during
very quiet periods. Free transactions (almost)!

### Q: "Can I set priority fee to 0?"

Technically yes!

But:
- Your transaction might take forever
- Validators prioritize higher tips
- During busy times, might not get included

Only do this if:

- You're not in a hurry
- Network is quiet
- You're okay waiting hours

### Q: "What happens to burned ETH?"

It's GONE. Forever. Destroyed. Poof!

Technically:
- ETH is sent to 0x0000...0000 (burn address)
- That address has no private key
- No one can ever access it
- Effectively removed from circulation

It's like taking a dollar bill and burning it.
That dollar is gone, making all other dollars
slightly more valuable.

---

## Tracking EIP-1559 Live 👀

Want to watch EIP-1559 in action? Here's how:

### Method 1: Use My Tool [BlockStream Inspector](https://github.com/dicethedev/blockstream-inspector) (follow the instruction on the repo on how to use it and use on your own)

# Analyze live blocks
./blockstream-inspector --rpc live --count 20

# You'll see real-time:
Block 21045123: 12.34 gwei base, 0.188 ETH burned
Block 21045124: 12.71 gwei base, 0.193 ETH burned
Block 21045125: 13.09 gwei base, 0.198 ETH burned
# Base fee rising because blocks are full!

Block 21045126: 13.48 gwei base, 0.204 ETH burned
Block 21045127: 11.79 gwei base, 0.178 ETH burned
# Suddenly dropped! Congestion cleared.

### Method 2: Etherscan

1. Go to etherscan.io
2. Look at any block
3. Check these fields:
- Base Fee Per Gas
- Burnt Fees
- Gas Used / Gas Limit

Example:
Block 21045123
Base Fee: 12.34 gwei
Gas Used: 15.2M / 30M (50.8%)
Burnt Fees: 0.1880 ETH

### Method 3: Ultra Sound Money

Go to [ultrasound.money](https://ultrasound.money)

See:
Real-time burn rate
Supply change (live!)
Historical charts
Top burners
Burn calculator

### Method 4: Your Wallet

Open MetaMask:
- Click "Send"
- Watch the gas estimate
- It changes every few seconds!
- That's the base fee adjusting

You're watching EIP-1559 algorithm work live!

---

## The Future of EIP-1559

EIP-1559 is great, but not perfect. What's next?

### Problem 1: Still Expensive During Spikes

Current Situation:

- Base fee can rise 12.5% per block
- If sustained demand, fees 10x in minutes
- Still painful for users

Proposed Solutions:

- Multidimensional gas (EIP-4844 started this)
- L2 rollups (move transactions off mainnet)
- Further protocol optimizations

### Problem 2: Validator Revenue

Current Economics:

- Validators earn ~0.2 ETH per block
- Most of that is priority fees
- Less than before

Concern:

- Is this enough security budget?
- Will validators keep staking?

Yes! 900k+ validators and growing.

The burn mechanism makes their ETH holdings more valuable,
offsetting lower per-block revenue.

### EIP-4844: The Next Evolution

**EIP-1559:** Fixed gas market for all transactions

**EIP-4844:** SEPARATE gas market for data (blobs)

Why?
- L2 rollups need cheap data storage
- But don't want to compete with swaps/transfers
- Solution: Different fee market!

Result:
- Regular transactions: EIP-1559 gas market
- Blob data (L2s): Separate blob gas market
- Both with burn mechanisms!

---

## Key Takeaways

Let me summarize everything:

### What EIP-1559 Changed

- Predictable base fee (algorithmic)
- Base fee gets burned (deflationary!)
- Optional priority fee (tips)
- Elastic block sizes (15M target, 30M max)
- Better UX (no more blind bidding)

### What It Didn't Change

- Doesn't make Ethereum cheaper
- Doesn't solve scalability
- Doesn't eliminate MEV
- Doesn't remove congestion

### What It Accomplished

- Made fees predictable
- Removed miner manipulation
- Made ETH deflationary (with low issuance)
- Improved wallet UX dramatically
- Aligned incentives across ecosystem

## My Hot Takes 🔥

After building BlockStream Inspector and tracking thousands of blocks:

### Hot Take 1: EIP-1559 > The Merge

The Merge was cool and all (PoS, energy efficiency, etc.).
But EIP-1559 had MORE impact on daily user experience.

### Hot Take 2: Burning Is Genius
Burning fees instead of paying them out solved SO many incentive problems.
It's one of the most elegant solutions in crypto.

### Hot Take 3: We Take It For Granted
People who joined crypto post-EIP-1559 have NO IDEA how bad gas used to be.
They complain about predictable fees. They should've seen the chaos before!

### Hot Take 4: It's Not Perfect
Base fees still spike during mania.
We need EIP-4844 blob space + L2s to truly scale.
EIP-1559 alone isn't enough.

### Hot Take 5: Best Tokenomics Change Ever
Making ETH deflationary might be the single best tokenomics change
in crypto history. Bitcoin maxis hate it, which means it's working. 😎

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## Resources to Learn More

Want to go deeper? Check these out:

### Essential Reading

| Resource | What It Is | Link |
|----------|-----------|------|
| **EIP-1559 Spec** | Original proposal | [eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1559](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1559) |
| **Vitalik's FAQ** | Common questions answered | [Hackmd](https://hackmd.io/@vbuterin/eip-1559-faq) |
| **Tim Beiko Article** | Great explainer | [tim.mirror.xyz](https://tim.mirror.xyz) |
| **Ultra Sound Money** | Real-time burn tracker | [ultrasound.money](https://ultrasound.money) |

### Tools to Explore

Etherscan - Block-level data
Blocknative - Gas API
Ultra Sound Money - Burn tracking
BlockStream Inspector - My tool! 😉

### Videos & Podcasts

- **Bankless**: "Understanding EIP-1559"
- **Finematics**: "Ethereum Gas Explained"
- **Uncommon Core**: Tim Beiko interview

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**Written by Blessing Samuel**

*Gas fees used to give me anxiety. Now I understand the algorithm and can predict them. Knowledge is power!*

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**Found this helpful?**

Star [BlockStream Inspector on GitHub](https://github.com/dicethedev/blockstream-inspector) or share this article!

Every transaction you make uses EIP-1559.
Might as well understand what's happening under the hood!

**P.S.** If you're curious about the math, check out the [full specification](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1559). It's surprisingly readable!

**P.P.S.** Next time you pay gas fees, remember: ~80-90% of that gets BURNED. You're literally making ETH more scarce with every transaction. Pretty cool! 🔥

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###### tags: `ethereum` `eip-1559` `gas` `fees` `base-fee` `burn` `protocol` `london-hardfork`