What Is EIP-1559 and How Did It Change the Gas Fee Mechanism?

EIP-1559 is an Ethereum Improvement Proposal that restructured the transaction fee mechanism. It introduced a base fee that is dynamically adjusted based on network congestion and is burned (destroyed), and a smaller, optional priority fee (tip) that goes to the validator.

This changed the gas fee from a simple auction (where the highest bidder wins) to a hybrid system, making fee estimation more predictable and reducing the incentive for validators to reorder transactions based solely on total gas price.