In 2021, I lost 300U Gas on the London Hard Fork, but I ramped up my ETH position from 20% to 55%! Looking back 4 years later, this move was totally worth it!

Can you believe it? Someone got burned by Ethereum's high Gas fees for 300U, only to double down on their ETH position right after? That's me, the 'crazy' player! On August 5, 2021, at the crack of dawn, I was camping on OpenSea to snag a BAYC floor price. Gas fees spiked to 220 gwei, my wallet was flashing red, I gritted my teeth and spent 198U, but the transaction stalled for 4 hours—no movement. That was still under the old bidding rules. Once block 12965000 confirmed and the London hard fork took effect, within ten minutes, the same priority Gas dropped to 11 gwei. I straight-up yelled in the group chat: "This chain actually came back to life?"

 

Here's the core highlights straight to you: EIP-1559 changed Gas fees from 'blind bidding' to 'clear pricing + burning', with overpaid amounts automatically refunded; EIP-3238 delayed the 'difficulty bomb', giving the merge an extra 14 months of life; 4 years burned 4.31 million ETH (worth 15 billion USD), making ETH scarcer with use; miners grumbled and pivoted, now L2 fees are as low as 0.01U! This is pure personal experience, no shilling or brainwashing—just laying out the pits I stepped in back then, the money I made, and the logic I saw through. Whether you hop on board is up to you!

On the night of August 5, 2021, I fully tasted the pitfalls of the old Gas mechanism. Spending 198U to grab a BAYC and getting stuck was bad enough, but a few months earlier, transferring 3000U USDC was even worse—I panicked and bid 420 gwei, but actually only used 47 gwei, the extra hundreds of U went down the drain, so mad I quit two crypto groups.

 

But once the hard fork activated, the reversal hit like a ton of bricks! MetaMask clearly labeled the 'Base Fee', no more guessing blindly; adding just 2-3 gwei tip lets you jump the queue, and overpaid amounts get refunded automatically. After upgrading, my first transaction set a 20U limit, actually only spent 6.8U, and 3.2U came back to my wallet in 3 minutes—this feature was a pipe dream before!

 

What really got me hooked was the burn data! I stared at ultrasound.money all night; in the first hour of the hard fork, 213 ETH were burned (worth 560k USD at the time). Watching the ETH supply dwindle bit by bit, it suddenly hit me: this coin might actually get more valuable over time. That day, I bumped my ETH position from 20% to 40%, and as I saw more data, it felt even more solid, slowly adding up to my current 55%.

Before, Ethereum's Gas fees were a 'newbie harvester'! Pure bidding mode—whoever bids highest goes first. When the network clogged, fees skyrocketed; many friends of mine got scared off by hundreds of U in transfer fees right after entering the space.

 

EIP-1559 straight-up sentenced that broken system to death! Now MetaMask auto-shows the current base fee (averaging just 12-15 gwei in 2025), you just decide if you want to add a tip, set a max payment limit, and any excess is 100% refunded. These years using Ethereum, I've never been a sucker again; the most I overpaid was 1.5U, refunded in minutes.

 

The killer part is the burn effect! By December 2025, a total of 4.31 million ETH burned, wiping out 15 billion USD from circulation at current prices! Uniswap alone contributed 280k ETH burned in a year, with new platforms like Jupiter and Blur adding fuel to the fire—the actual deflation is way harsher than the whitepaper. The ETH in my wallet now, watching burn data rise monthly, feels more solid than any financial product.

Many don't know that in 2021, Ethereum nearly 'died' in winter! That 'difficulty bomb' (aka Ice Age) was set to explode by year's end, pushing block times from 13 seconds to 1 minute, 3 minutes, and eventually stalling completely—ETH price could've halved and halved again.

 

The community Discord was buzzing daily with @VGod pleas for extension, but luckily EIP-3238 arrived, delaying the bomb by 14 months and buying crucial time for the September 2022 merge. Looking back now, without those 14 months, Ethereum might've been outcompeted by low-fee chains like Solana and BSC, no chance for the current L2 ecosystem boom. That's what I saw through back then, so I dared to add more confidently—this isn't faith, it's knowing Ethereum won't fizzle out easily.

On London hard fork day, miners' Discord exploded! With base fees burning, their daily income slashed 30%-50%; small mine bosses spammed 'VGod cut my lifeline', some even threatened to fork Ethereum.

 

But rants aside, no one fights reality for money. Post-2022 merge, miners pivoted en masse; I know a Sichuan small mine boss who sold his last 200 S19 rigs as scrap, then ran Lido nodes—now his annualized yield is steadier than mining, no worries about electricity or rig failures.

 

Interestingly, small miners exiting actually decentralized the network more! Now the top 10 validator nodes only hold 26%, lower than 2021 mining pool concentration, boosting security. This proves how wise the upgrade was—upsetting miners short-term, but securing Ethereum's long-term future.

Now I hardly touch Ethereum mainnet; daily trades, DeFi play, airdrop farming—all on L2s like Arbitrum, Base, Blast. Fees just 0.01-0.1U, hundreds of times cheaper than mainnet, and faster too. Occasional mainnet errands, set Gas limit and done—no more Gas anxiety.

 

My ETH position is 55% now, not from blind faith, but hard data: 4 years burned 15 billion USD ETH, deflation logic is solid; L2 ecosystem maturing, users growing; validators more dispersed, network safer. These are real values, not airy promises like shitcoins.

After 6 years in crypto, I've seen tons of 'pie-in-the-sky' upgrades, but London hard fork truly pulled Ethereum from 'doomed' to 'fighter'.

 

Without EIP-1559, users would've fled high Gas to other chains, Ethereum now just an unused 'relic'; without EIP-3238 delaying the bomb, merge fails, ETH still burning electricity for mining—can't compare efficiency or eco-friendliness to current PoS. Now we comfortably use L2s, earn points, play Restaking, all thanks to that 2021 'miners rant, users grin' upgrade.

 

That said, London hard fork isn't perfect. In 2023, L2 congestion forced a mainnet return, Gas hit over 100 gwei, stalling two transactions—but such cases are rarer now. Overall, benefits far outweigh drawbacks; my 300U loss back then has been recouped via ETH gains and staking yields, even multiplied dozens of times.

I'm no ETH zealot; wallet still holds 10% BTC, 10% SOL for safety, but ETH position's always the highest. Not sentiment—it's the deflation logic, mature ecosystem, and 2021 London hard fork foundation that make holding long-term feel secure.