Co-founder of ethhub.io, Anthony Sassano, gives the Ethereum mainnet London hard fork a tentative Aug 4 rollout date. However, this depends on the success of the Rinkeby testnet, which is scheduled for release this Wednesday.
Crypto YouTuber Lark Davies chimed in by saying it could be delayed months beyond Aug 4. But we’ll know more after the devs meet this week.
“It may not actually be soon. lol. Ethereum man… Anyway, the core devs are meeting on the 9th to discuss the release. It was originally scheduled for the 14th. August 4th is now being floated. Could easily be pushed back months.“
In response, comments from some sections of the community have jumped on the possible delay, even going as far as calling into question the benefits it will bring.
Ethereum Improvement Proposal-1559
Ethereum’s London hard fork includes five EIPs, the main one being EIP-1559, which intends to overhaul the gas fee structure.
- EIP-1559: Fee market change for ETH 1.0 chain
- EIP-3198: BASEFEE opcode
- EIP-3529: Reduction in refunds
- EIP-3541: Reject new contracts starting with the 0xEF byte
- EIP-3554: Difficulty Bomb Delay to December 1st 2021
With EIP-1559 comes a new deflation mechanism that will burn the base fee. Developers expect this process to increase scarcity and improve the general useability of the Ethereum network.
At present, under the auction system, users bid to pay gas fees. This incentivizes miners to cherry-pick the most profitable transactions leading to spiraling fees and long wait times for low bidders. Under EIP-1559, each block will have a fixed, associated fee instead, making a more predictable and fairer fee mechanism.
A common misconception is that EIP-1559 will reduce high fees on the Ethereum network. The proposal aims to make transaction fees less volatile by creating an algorithmic model to adjust with traffic activity automatically.
High gas fees are mainly caused by the network’s inability to handle traffic during peak times. EIP-1559 does not influence this factor. Therefore, on its own, it is not expected to reduce transaction fees.
Some Doubt The Efficacy Of The Upgrade
From a miner’s perspective, EIP-1559 has received a lot of pushback ever since the idea was first floated in 2019. This April saw some miners threaten a “show of force” to concentrate hashing power. The outcome could have left Ethereum open to a 51% attack.
Although that threat fizzled into nothing, EIP-1559 remains a point of hatred amongst miners who fear a significant drop in revenue once it goes live. Estimates put this drop at between 20%-35%.
Also, one pro-Cardano Twitter user called EIP-1559 a “band aid to appease speculators,” implying that it provides little in the way of tangible benefits. He added that he isn’t surprised that it could be delayed past the July date initially given.
“The EIP-1559 band aid to appease speculators was always just that. A shallow ploy to keep markets happy and generate hype to compensate for a shocking lack of fundamental improvements towards #ethereum 2.0. I told you it wouldn’t be ready in July. Potentially months away.#cardano“
As the Alonzo upgrade and London hard fork both hit the home straight, it’s likely we’ll see a heightening of hostility between Cardano and Ethereum supporters.
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