Ethereum’s London Hard Fork

 
What is London Hard Fork? 
The London Hard Fork update is believed to be a preface to the main upgrade dubbed ‘Serenity’ or ETH 2.0, which is expected to come by the end of 2021 or early next year. Serenity will most likely convert Ethereum from a Proof-of-Work to a Proof-of-Stake blockchain. 
 
Proof of Work vs Proof of Stake? 
Proof of Work (POW) takes massive amounts of energy and may require miners to sell their coins to cover the costs; Proof of Stake (PoS) grants mining power depending on the proportion of coins a miner owns. 
 
How did it come to the picture? 
Ethereum and other blockchain networks have a community. This community approves or opposes a network modification. This is often done to ensure that the network runs as smoothly as possible. In certain instances, hard forks are used to safeguard the network from possible damage. The Ethereum community recognized that the current blockchain had several flaws. That’s when the London Hard Fork update stepped in. 
 
How will it help? 
– Unpredictability of change 
One of the most significant issues with the Ethereum network is the unpredictability of transaction costs. These transaction costs are sometimes referred to as “gas prices.” During periods of network congestion, these gas costs may reach a few hundred dollars. The added scalability is expected to tackle the high gas fees. 
 
– Supply 
A significant disadvantage of the Ethereum blockchain has been the ETH token’s unlimited supply. As a result, Ethereum is plagued by an issue of inflation. It will change once Ethereum 2.0 is released later this year. Miners will no longer earn money from transaction fees after the upgrade. This can lead to a decrease in the supply and make Ether a deflationary asset. 
 
– Scalability 
The most significant advantage of the latest upgrade is letting the network process many more transactions per second. 
 
What’s next? 
The next hard fork is Shanghai, and the tentative date remains unknown. 

5 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP) 

EIP 1559: Intended to address the issue of high gas prices by instituting a base fee. 

EIP 3198: Adds an operational code to allow smart contracts access the block’s base fee. 

EIP 3554: Postpones the difficulty bomb, a technique in Ethereum to “freeze” mining when the network moves to Proof of Stake. 

EIP 3529: Removes previously suggested refund modifications, the advantages of which have proved to be lesser than expected. 

EIP 3541: Rejects deployment of contracts beginning with the 0xEF byte. It sets the foundation for future Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) enhancements.