Today, at block 12,965,000, Ethereum undergoes the London Hard Fork, a long-anticipated network upgrade. From the protocol level to the user-facing wallet, there are a number of changes that benefit users and developers on Ethereum. 

Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, which reforms Ethereum’s fee market mechanism, is a key change in this network upgrade. EIP-1559 replaces the first-price gas fee auction with a fixed-price sale. MetaMask, the most used self-custodial wallet and portal to Web3, is one of the only two wallets ready today with some key updates to gas controls in support of EIP-1559. 

One of the main benefits of EIP-1559 is more transparency around gas fees. Wallets will have better gas fee estimates, which makes transaction fees more predictable. MetaMask will set a recommended transaction priority based on the type of transaction you’re making. 

The user interface will now include default “low,” “medium” and “high” transaction thresholds. Users who want more granular control can also edit the transaction speed by changing the “Gas Limit,” “Max priority fee,” and “Max fee” in the advanced settings. Should a user edit their gas fee beyond the recommended threshold, MetaMask will show a warning to minimise the risk of a transaction failing.

“MetaMask has taken time to create a first-class EIP-1559 gas estimation that we expect to allow our users to have a great experience under any network conditions. EIP-1559 provides a way for users to avoid overpaying under normal conditions, and MetaMask's advanced mempool monitoring will help our users get transactions mined the fastest under volatile conditions, too,” said Dan Finlay, Co-founder and Lead Developer on MetaMask.

Resources

Check out MetaMask’s EIP-1559 launch page for everything you need to know about how transaction fees will change with EIP-1559. Resources include:

  • A video tutorial showing how to set a transaction fee in MetaMask

  • General FAQs about EIP-1559

  • FAQs for developers

  • Glossary of new terms 

The upgrade includes changes to existing data structures, a new transaction format, and a new JSON RPC call that may impact dapps. If you’re a developer that uses Infura’s Ethereum API, be sure to check out these resources.

Finally, if you are running a Hyperledger Besu mainnnet Ethereum node, the Consensys Quorum team released version 21.7.2, which contains improvements and bug fixes for optimum compatibility with other London client versions.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsfJywNxpi4&t=1s