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- Ethereum hit block number 12,244,000 and launched its Berlin hard fork upgrade.
- Berlin includes 4 EIPs: EIP-2565, EIP-2718, EIP-2929 & EIP-2930.
- Promising reduced gas costs, Berlin marks another step towards the launch of EIP1559 with July’s London.
The world’s second-largest blockchain by market cap is getting a new upgrade. Ethereum network is witnessing a spike in demand as more and more users register with the platform. Even though the platform has some setbacks, like significantly higher gas fees and a not-so-quick transaction process, the accompanying services and benefits mostly outweigh the cons and have made Ethereum the most actively used blockchain. And now, the all too familiar network hit block number 12,244,000 and launched its hard fork upgrade. So what changes does this upgrade bring?
Berlin and the EIPs
Berlin hard fork comprised four major Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). Anyone can submit an EIP; afterward, those accepted by the community get implemented into the blockchain. Berlin included EIPs are as follows:
- EIP-2565: will reduce the gas cost for the modular exponentiation (ModExp) function.
- EIP-2718: will allow people to combine transactions.
- EIP-2929: will increase gas costs for state access operations (opcodes) to speed up processing times and limit denial-of-service attacks.
- EIP-2930: will balance the price rise from EIP-2929 to some extent and reduce the risk of broken smart contracts.
The EIPs 2929 and 2930 were proposed by Martin Swende and Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin.
Controversial EIP-1559 Update
What the community awaits is the controversial EIP-1559 update, which is to be included in the London hard fork. Presently, gas prices get entered as an estimate; consequently, many users overpay for transactions. EIP-1559 will make the transaction costs easier to predict. It will introduce a base fee, minimum gas required for transactions to get added to a block. This fee will then get burned, reducing the ETH supply. Miners will still receive rewards in the form of freshly minted ETH, though.
The EIP-1559 research and implementation coordinator, Tim Beiko, referred to it as an “ETH buyback” proposal and said EIP-2929 and EIP-2718 are essential “prerequisites” for the update. However, since it reduces their profit, some miners are opposed to the update, arguing it’ll threaten the network security. Nonetheless, Berlin’s completion marks another step towards London, expected in July or August.
Rising Transaction Fees & its Significance
Reminiscing now, Ethereum used to have around $4 transaction fees, which began rising dramatically with last year’s DeFi interest explosion. February 23 reported an above $38 average transaction fee. The rise signified a rising number of developers and users, developing and assessing applications atop the network. But it also meant an added burden on the platform to manage the ever-increasing number of transactions to lessen traffic.
It’s a Start, Though!
The under-development, proof-of-stake system, Ethereum 2.0 will eradicate the gas fee problem. It’ll introduce shard chains, a branched network, to remove network traffic, which in turn will increase the infrastructural supply and decrease fees.
Comparatively, Berlin isn’t going to change much, but a change is still a start.