Welcome to the ECIP-1120 research hub. This site documents the development of "Basefee Market with Miner Rewards"—a minimal implementation of EIP-1559 for Ethereum Classic that redistributes base fees to miners instead of burning them.
What is ECIP-1120?
ECIP-1120 introduces EIP-1559 compatible fee market mechanisms to Ethereum Classic with one critical modification: base fees are distributed in full to miners rather than burned.
This approach delivers:
- Modern transaction UX: Type 2 transactions with predictable base fees
- Ecosystem compatibility: Works with modern wallets and tooling expecting EIP-1559
- Miner sustainability: Fees go to miners to maximize chain security
- Minimal complexity: Math-only, protocol-native solution
- Zero governance: No smart contracts, no DAOs, no discretionary spending
Why Does ETC Need This?
EIP-1559 has been adopted across many EVM chains thanks to more efficient transaction pricing and improved UX for end users. For Ethereum Classic to maintain future compatibility with the wider ecosystem—including wallets and smart contracts—adoption of this standard is increasingly necessary.
However, Ethereum's approach of burning base fees is not practical for Ethereum Classic:
Ecosystem Compatibility: Modern wallets, tools, and infrastructure increasingly expect EIP-1559 transaction types. ETC needs to adopt these standards to remain accessible.
Security Budget: ETC already has a fixed supply cap via ECIP-1017. Burning fees would remove security budget exactly when miners need it most as block subsidies decline.
Miner Sustainability: Fees should go to miners to maximize security of the chain, especially during tail-end emissions.
ECIP-1120 solves these problems through protocol-native fee redistribution.
How It Works
ECIP-1120 consists of two key mechanisms:
1. Basefee Market
The Basefee Market is a straightforward replication of EIP-1559's proven mechanics:
- Type 2 transactions: Users specify a maximum fee and priority fee (tip), with the protocol algorithmically determining the basefee based on network demand
- Block elasticity: Blocks can temporarily exceed the target gas limit during demand spikes, with the basefee adjusting to bring utilization back to target
- BASEFEE opcode: Smart contract compatibility via EIP-3198
Type 0 and Type 1 transactions remain supported for legacy compatibility.
2. Basefee Distribution
Instead of burning the basefee, it is distributed to miners. The distribution mechanism is designed to:
- Maximize chain security by directing fees to miners
- Maintain clean separation between protocol and application layers
- Disincentivize empty blocks when transactions are available
- Disincentivize spam transactions that manipulate the basefee
- Be calculated statelessly, reducing attack surface
What Makes This Different?
Protocol-Native Implementation
Everything happens at the consensus level:
- Zero execution overhead: No gas costs for fee handling
- Zero smart contracts: No contract vulnerabilities
- Zero external dependencies: Pure consensus code
Minimal Complexity
ECIP-1120 presents an alternative to more complex proposals like ECIP-111X (Olympia):
- No treasury contracts
- No DAO governance
- No voting mechanisms
- No discretionary allocation
The goal is the minimal complexity solution—a solid foundation that other solutions can build upon if necessary.
True Neutrality
ECIP-1120 preserves ETC's founding principle: Code is law.
- Changes require hard fork consensus (as they should)
- No ongoing governance needed
- No centralization risk
- No political capture vectors
Block Elasticity Opportunity
An opportunity arose when implementing ECIP-1120 to achieve closer feature parity with Ethereum.
EIP-1559 sets a block elasticity multiplier of 2x. Combined with Ethereum's 30M gas limit, this gives a maximum theoretical transaction size of 60M gas—useful for deploying large contracts or L2 state validation.
By increasing the block elasticity multiplier (to 4x, 16x, or 32x), ETC could enable the same or greater maximum transaction size as Ethereum, despite having a smaller target block gas limit. Research is being conducted to determine suitable values.
Why This Site Exists
ECIP-1120 is currently in the research phase. Before activation, we need to determine optimal parameters through rigorous analysis. This site serves as the central hub for:
- Publishing research findings: Benchmarks, simulations, economic models
- Documenting progress: Regular updates on what we're learning
- Community engagement: Clear explanations accessible to all stakeholders
- Transparent process: All data and analysis available for review
What We're Researching
Block Elasticity Parameters
Question: How much can blocks expand beyond the target gas limit?
- Client performance benchmarking (Core-Geth, Besu) at various elasticity multipliers
- Block propagation time analysis under different gas limits
- Uncle rate impact assessment
- Large contract deployment feasibility vs. Ethereum
Distribution Mechanism
Question: How should fees be distributed to miners?
- Historical ETC fee revenue patterns
- Economic modeling across market cycles
- Security budget sustainability projections
- Parameter optimization
Alternative Approaches
ECIP-1120 isn't the only proposal for bringing EIP-1559 to ETC:
Olympia (ECIP-1111) proposes redirecting base fees to a smart contract treasury with DAO governance for discretionary allocation.
Key differences:
- Olympia: Treasury + governance → flexible allocation
- ECIP-1120: Protocol-native + algorithm → automatic distribution to miners
We've published a detailed comparison explaining why ECIP-1120's approach better aligns with ETC's principles.
Get Involved
This is a transparent, community-driven research process. We welcome:
- Technical feedback: Client developers, infrastructure operators
- Economic analysis: Miners, mining pools, economists
- Security review: Researchers, auditors
- General input: All ETC community members
Research findings will be published here for public review before any final specification is proposed.
The Path Forward
ECIP-1120 represents a pragmatic path to EIP-1559 adoption that:
- Maintains ETC's philosophical commitments
- Addresses real ecosystem compatibility needs
- Minimizes complexity and governance
- Preserves protocol neutrality
- Supports long-term miner sustainability
This isn't just about adopting Ethereum's fee market. It's about doing so in a way that strengthens ETC's unique value proposition: a neutral, immutable, proof-of-work blockchain governed by code, not committees.
Questions or feedback? Check out the full specification or browse our research articles.