Ethereum's EIP-1559 upgrade (the London hard fork, August 2021) made the network permanently destroy a portion of every transaction fee instead of paying it to miners or validators.
TRUE. EIP-1559 activated with the London hard fork on August 5, 2021 (block 12,965,000). It introduced a "base fee" per transaction that is burned (removed from circulation entirely) while only a separate, optional tip goes to the block producer. Source: Consensys: What is EIP-1559?
Under EIP-1559, the base fee can change by at most 12.5% from one block to the next, moving up when blocks run over half full and down when they run under.
TRUE. The base fee is algorithmic, not set by miners or bidders: if a block is 100% full the base fee rises by 12.5%; at 50% full (the target) it stays flat; at 0% full it falls by 12.5%. Source: Alchemy: The Developer EIP-1559 Prep Kit
EIP-1559 eliminated gas fees on Ethereum.
FALSE. This was the lie. It's an easy mistake given the other two facts: "burning fees" and a capped, more predictable base fee both sound like fees were done away with. They weren't: every transaction still pays a base fee (now burned rather than paid to a miner) plus an optional priority tip to get included faster. EIP-1559 changed who receives the fee and how predictably it moves, not whether a fee exists. Source: Consensys: What is EIP-1559?