Ethereum’s long-awaited London Hard Fork is likely to launch on August 4 between 13:00 UTC and 17:00 UTC, with the block 12,965,000.
Ethereum’s London hard fork is already launched on various testnets. After successful activation on Ropsten and Goerli testnets earlier in June, the developer proposed the final release date for the hard fork.
“This pull request proposes block 12965000 for the mainnet activation of the London network upgrade. The ETA for this block should be between 13:00 UTC and 17:00 UTC on August 4, 2021,” Ethereum lead developer Tim Beiko wrote on Github.
Though the launch date is not final. Beiko said on Twitter that the date will depend on if anyone has an objection to the proposed block in the next 24 hours. However, he said that it should land on August 4. Many Ethereum enthusiasts are excited for the delayed release, while some are watching on with “cautious optimism”. London hard fork follows the Berlin upgrade, which went live in April.
EIP 1559 & EIP 3554 Improvements
The London hard fork has been implemented into various testnets. The London hard fork comes with five important Ethereum Improvement Proposals. Most notably, EIP 1559 and EIP 3554 proposals. Their purpose is to counter multiple inefficiencies present in the blockchain.
EIP-1559, which aims to bring a positive change to the network’s fee structure. This protocol has been highly controversial. It promises to make ETH deflationary token for the first time in its history by burning base fees. These burned fees will decrease the miner’s revenue. Though, traders and investors are happy with this proposal.
EIP -3554 delays Ethereum’s difficulty bomb to Dec 1. This mechanism will increase the difficulty of mining on the Ethereum network. It will effectively freeze the Proof-of-Work model in preparation for Ethereum’s move to the Proof-of-Stake model. The London hard fork is a path to implementation of the Proof-of-stake Ethereum 2.0.