Ethereum Proof-of-Work Fork (ETHPOW) Driven By Miners To Abolish EIP-1559

EIP-1559 will be abolished in the Ethereum proof-of-work (PoW) fork.

In a lengthy Twitter thread touted as the Ethereum PoW manifesto, the parties pushing for the Ethereum PoW fork as the Ethereum Medge approaches reveal that they plan to abolish EIP-1559.

ETHPOW, which will be forked by the miner organization, would be abolished. “Abolition of EIP-1559. In a truly open and inclusive system/society, there is no justification for punishing one group of participants in favor of another,” the organization writes in a tweet.

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3. Abolition of EIP-1559. In a truly open and inclusive system/society, there is no justification for punishing one group of participants in favor of another.

— EthereumPoW (ETHW) Official (@EthereumPoW) August 10, 2022

It is worth noting that EIP-1559, introduced in August 2021, reduced the volatility of Ethereum gas prices by creating a base fee for transactions. Additionally, these base fees are burned to make Ethereum which lacks a hard cap like Bitcoin, more deflationary, increasing the potential for a higher asset value in the future.

Notably, before EIP-1559, Ethereum used an auction mechanism called the first price auction mechanism. In this model, users sent in transactions with fee bids, allowing miners to choose transactions with the highest bids to add to the block. Unsurprisingly, this model led to network congestion and gas price inflation. 

Abolishing EIP-1559 in the Ethereum PoW fork creates a system where miners stand to benefit the most. 

As the Ethereum Medge approaches, Ethereum miners face possible obsoletion as the network migrates to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) model. While some miners band together to push for a PoW fork, the idea has failed to receive much-needed support from stablecoin issuers like Tether and Circle.