EIP-3044: Adds `baseFee` to `eth_getBlockByNumber`

Metadata

Status: StagnantStandards Track: InterfaceCreated: 2020-10-14

Authors

Abdelhamid Bakhta (@abdelhamidbakhta)

Requires

EIP-1474, EIP-1559

Links

GitHub page Discussion on Ethereum Magicians

Simple Summary

Add basefee field to eth_getBlockByNumber RPC endpoint response.

Abstract

Adds baseFee property to the eth_getBlockByNumber JSON-RPC request result object. This property will contain the value of the base fee for any block after the EIP-1559 fork.

Motivation

EIP-1559 introduces a base fee per gas in protocol. This value is maintained under consensus as a new field in the block header structure. Users may need value of the base fee at a given block. Base fee value is important to make gas price predictions more accurate.

Specification

`eth_getBlockByNumber`

Description

Returns information about a block specified by number. Every block returned by this endpoint whose block number is before the EIP-1559 fork block MUST NOT include a baseFee field. Every block returned by this endpoint whose block number is on or after the EIP-1559 fork block MUST include a baseFee field.

Parameters

Parameters remain unchanged.

Returns

For the full specification of eth_getBlockByNumber see EIP-1474. Add a new JSON field to the result object for block headers containing a base fee (post EIP-1559 fork block).

{Quantity} baseFee - base fee for this block

Example

Rationale

The addition of a single parameter instead of introducing a whole new endpoint was the simplest change that would be easiest to get integrated. For backward compatibility we decided to not include the base fee in the response for pre-1559 blocks.

Backwards Compatibility

Backwards compatible. Calls related to block prior to EIP-1559 fork block will omit the base fee field in the response.

Security Considerations

The added field (baseFee) is informational and does not introduce technical security issues.