London Hardfork - ELI5 Edition

What is it?

A non contentious hard fork to improve Ethereum. This is better described as a network upgrade than a hard fork.

When is it?

Block number 12,965,000. Or, more simply, approximately August 4th.

Who is doing it?

Everyone. This is a non-contentious fork, meaning that us nerds on Twitter and Reddit aren't fighting about it.

Do I get double ETH for FREEEEEEEEE?

Technically yes. But the old ETH will be worthless, and the new ETH will assume the value that the old ETH had. ELI5: No.

I have a CDP and/or a Vault. What do I need to do?

Nothing!

I have stuff locked in Uniswap/dYdX/Compound/whatever. What do I need to do?

Nothing!

My ETH is on an exchange, what do I need to do?

Nothing!

My ETH is in a MEW, Mycrypto, Coinbase Wallet, Argent, paper wallet etc. What do I need to do?

Nothing!

My ETH is on a hardware wallet what do I need to do?

Nothing!

I got contacted by someone asking for my private key to upgrade my ETH or whatever?

It's a scam!

I was contacted by someone with a link to go claim my fork ETH, should I do that?

Scam!

I run a node what do I need to do?

Update it before Tuesday, August 3! But if you don't, you won't lose your ETH or anything so don't stress too much.

I mine, what do I need to do?

Make sure your miner is pointed at the new chain by updating your node.

I have validator(s) running, what do I need to do?

Make sure your Eth2 client is pointed at the new chain by updating your eth1 node. Also remember to update your Eth2 node.

Is this going to increase the price?

Maybe?

Is this the fork where we add EIP-1559?

YES! This is the big one.

Is this the fork where we merge and turn off PoW?

Nope. But it will be the next one.

What's this even all about then?

This hard fork is adding the following Ethereum Improvement Proposals.

EIP-1559: Fee market change for ETH 1.0 chain - A transaction pricing mechanism that includes fixed-per-block network fee that is burned and dynamically expands/contracts block sizes to deal with transient congestion.

EIP-3198: BASEFEE opcode - Adds an opcode that gives the EVM access to the block’s base fee.

EIP-3554: Difficulty Bomb Delay to December 2021 - Delays the difficulty bomb to show effect the first week of December 2021.

EIP-3529: Reduction in refunds - Remove gas refunds for SELFDESTRUCT, and reduce gas refunds for SSTORE to a lower level where the refunds are still substantial, but they are no longer high enough for current “exploits” of the refund mechanism to be viable.