BASEFEE opcode

EIP 3198, BASEFEE opcode. Adds an opcode that gives the EVM access to the block's base fee.

Official external source only
Design paper
Official source

Record

Authors: Abdelhamid Bakhta , Vitalik Buterin
Date: 2021
Publisher: Abdelhamid Bakhta , Vitalik Buterin
Version: Source cited by the 2021 study. The study is the reading. This page does not add a second essay.
Document ID: BLC-STUDY-0333
DOI: None recorded
Last reviewed: 1 October 2026
Licence: No licence recorded. Rights status under review.

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Direct answer

EIP 3198, BASEFEE opcode. Adds an opcode that gives the EVM access to the block's base fee.

Where to read

Official source — EIP 3198
Blockchain Lab study, the canonical readingOriginal commentary. Not a transcription of the paper.

Metadata and commentary only. The reading is the study page.

Full text

Full text is not published on this page. Public availability is not a licence to republish a document. Blockchain Lab has not recorded a licence that permits an HTML transcription, a training set, or a retrieval corpus of the paper. Text on this page is Blockchain Lab's own wording, or a pointer to a study that is also Blockchain Lab's wording.

What changed

Status in the source: Final. A reading of the public specification, not a copy of it and not a certification.

Relationships

Canonical readingEIP 3198 study
Related paperEIP-4844
Related paperPlasma
Related paperArbitrum

Cite this record

These citations point at the source document. They are not a licence to copy it.

Author–date

Bakhta, A., & Buterin, V. (2021). BASEFEE opcode. Abdelhamid Bakhta , Vitalik Buterin. https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-3198

BibTeX

@techreport{eip31982021,
  title = {BASEFEE opcode},
  author = {Abdelhamid Bakhta , Vitalik Buterin},
  year = {2021},
  institution = {Abdelhamid Bakhta , Vitalik Buterin},
  url = {https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-3198},
  note = {Rights status: Official external source only. Blockchain Lab record: https://blockchainlab.com/research/corpus/papers/eip-3198}
}

RIS

TY  - RPRT
TI  - BASEFEE opcode
AU  - Abdelhamid Bakhta
AU  - Vitalik Buterin
PY  - 2021
PB  - Abdelhamid Bakhta , Vitalik Buterin
UR  - https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-3198
N1  - Rights status: Official external source only
ER  -

CSL-JSON

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  {
    "type": "report",
    "id": "BLC-STUDY-0333",
    "title": "BASEFEE opcode",
    "author": [
      {
        "literal": "Abdelhamid Bakhta"
      },
      {
        "literal": "Vitalik Buterin"
      }
    ],
    "issued": {
      "date-parts": [
        [
          2021
        ]
      ]
    },
    "publisher": "Abdelhamid Bakhta , Vitalik Buterin",
    "URL": "https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-3198",
    "note": "Rights status: Official external source only. Not a licence to republish the paper."
  }
]

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Rights record

Source status: Official source
Use status: Metadata and commentary only. The reading is the study page.
Rights: Official external source only
Training and retrieval: Not permitted from this site. There is no rights-cleared full text to retrieve or to train on.

Rights and licensing Corrections