Skip to main content

Try it Live

Run Hardfork examples in the interactive playground

    EIP-1559 Features

    Active Since: London (August 5, 2021)

    Changes Introduced

    Base Fee Mechanism:
    • Base fee per gas (burned, not paid to miners)
    • Dynamic base fee adjustment based on block fullness
    • Target block utilization: 50% (15M gas out of 30M limit)
    • Base fee increases/decreases by max 12.5% per block
    Transaction Format:
    • Type 2 transactions (EIP-1559 format)
    • maxFeePerGas - Maximum total fee willing to pay
    • maxPriorityFeePerGas - Tip for block producer
    • Effective gas price = min(maxFeePerGas, baseFee + maxPriorityFeePerGas)
    New Opcode:
    • BASEFEE (0x48) - Pushes current block’s base fee onto stack

    Usage Patterns

    Transaction Type Selection

    Choose appropriate transaction format:

    Gas Price Calculation

    Calculate effective gas price:

    Fee Market Configuration

    Configure fee market parameters:

    Opcode Availability

    Check BASEFEE opcode support:

    Network Configuration

    Validate network supports EIP-1559:

    EIP References

    Primary:
    • EIP-1559 - Fee market change for ETH 1.0 chain
    Related:
    • EIP-3198 - BASEFEE opcode
    • EIP-2718 - Typed transaction envelope (required for Type 2)

    Impact

    For Users:
    • More predictable transaction fees
    • No overpaying during low-congestion periods
    • Base fee burned (deflationary pressure on ETH)
    For Developers:
    • Must handle two transaction formats (Type 0 legacy, Type 2 EIP-1559)
    • Fee estimation more complex (base fee + priority fee)
    • BASEFEE opcode available for smart contracts
    For Validators:
    • Only receive priority fee (tip), not base fee
    • Incentivized to include transactions with higher tips

    See Also

    • hasEIP3855 - Check PUSH0 opcode availability (Shanghai)
    • hasEIP4844 - Check blob transactions availability (Cancun)
    • isAtLeast - General version comparison