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Add EIP: Remove SELFDESTRUCT Burn#11590

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chfast wants to merge 11 commits intoethereum:masterfrom
ipsilon:chfast/remove-selfdestruct-burn-eip
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Add EIP: Remove SELFDESTRUCT Burn#11590
chfast wants to merge 11 commits intoethereum:masterfrom
ipsilon:chfast/remove-selfdestruct-burn-eip

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@chfast chfast commented May 1, 2026

This is a small follow-up to EIP-6780.

EIP-6780 already removed the more common SELFDESTRUCT burn behavior, but it left one last corner case: contracts created in the same transaction can still burn ETH, either by selfdestruct(self) or in a case where they receive ETH again later in the same transaction and then get deleted at finalization.

The problem is that this special case is basically unused, but it still forces special handling in clients, specs, and tests.

I checked mainnet usage with a full replay up to about block 24.95M. The result is:

  • 54 pre-Cancun real self-burns,
  • 2 post-Cancun real burns through the remaining same-tx path,
  • 58 post-Cancun broken-burn attempts, all from one contract, all attempting to burn 1 wei, and all already no-ops under EIP-6780,
  • 0 deferred finalization burns.

So the actual remaining burn behavior is extremely rare, and the only notable post-Cancun activity besides the 2 real burns is one contract repeatedly probing the already-broken path.

The idea here is simple: remove the last path where SELFDESTRUCT can silently destroy ETH, instead of keeping this odd special case forever.

As a side effect, this also removes the last EVM mechanism by which ETH can leave total supply.

chfast and others added 11 commits May 1, 2026 11:23
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Both lists in the Specification section now use lowercase comma
fragments completing the lead-in clause.
Three HTML-comment notes flagging awkward phrasing in the Motivation
section for follow-up.
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
@chfast chfast requested a review from eth-bot as a code owner May 1, 2026 11:38
@github-actions github-actions Bot added c-new Creates a brand new proposal s-draft This EIP is a Draft t-core labels May 1, 2026
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eth-bot commented May 1, 2026

File EIPS/eip-draft_remove_selfdestruct_burn.md

Requires 1 more reviewers from @g11tech, @jochem-brouwer, @lightclient, @samwilsn

@eth-bot eth-bot added e-consensus Waiting on editor consensus e-review Waiting on editor to review labels May 1, 2026
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github-actions Bot commented May 1, 2026

The commit d9cd187 (as a parent of 037d91d) contains errors.
Please inspect the Run Summary for details.

@github-actions github-actions Bot added the w-ci Waiting on CI to pass label May 1, 2026
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number 8246

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c-new Creates a brand new proposal e-consensus Waiting on editor consensus e-review Waiting on editor to review s-draft This EIP is a Draft t-core w-ci Waiting on CI to pass

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