Base Fee
The base fee is the mandatory, protocol-set portion of every Ethereum transaction fee (since EIP-1559): it rises when blocks are full and falls when they'r
The base fee is the mandatory, protocol-set portion of every Ethereum transaction fee (since EIP-1559): it rises when blocks are full and falls when they’re empty — and it gets *burned*, permanently removing ETH from supply.
Why it matters
Burning the base fee turned ETH potentially deflationary during busy periods — “ultrasound money” — directly linking network usage to holder value. For users, it means fee estimates are saner than the old blind auctions; for analysts, the burn rate is a live gauge of real economic demand for block space.