Ethereum, Bitcoin users reignite scalability debate as gas fees surge

10 months ago

A caller spike successful transaction fees connected Ethereum and Bitcoin appears to person reignited the statement astir solutions for scalability and the relation of furniture 2s.

Over the past 24 hours, cryptocurrency users began sharing screenshots showing double, occasionally triple-digit transaction fees connected Ethereum and Bitcoin.

One screenshot showed state fees were arsenic precocious arsenic $220 for a high-priority transaction connected Ethereum portion different screenshots showed figures astir the $100 mark.

Bitcoin users meanwhile, reported fees that were astir $10 for high-priority transactions. While this is comparatively low, the mean Bitcoin (BTC) transaction outgo has hovered astir $1 implicit the past 3 months, according to BitInfoCharts. BTC fees haven’t been this precocious since May.

— POWELLY (@MPowelly01) November 9, 2023

At the clip of writing, a transaction from an Ethereum blistery wallet comes with a web outgo of $45.65 for a $300 transportation connected decentralized speech Uniswap, according to a trial transaction conducted by Cointelegraph.

Network outgo connected Ethereum blistery wallet Rabby Wallet. Source: Rabby Wallet

The emergence successful state fees person prompted proponents of Solana and different blockchains to flaunt however overmuch cheaper transactions are connected those respective chains.

One X (formerly Twitter) user, “Bobby Apelrod” noted that Solana lone charges $55-60 per infinitesimal for each Solana users, portion each “poor Ethereum user” had to wage that overmuch for a azygous transaction.

Lol $SOL charged lone 1.2 Sol ($55-$60) per min successful TOTAL fees for the ENTIRE SOYLANA PLANET

while the median state interest connected $ETH spiked to 160+ gwei, charging each mediocre ethereum idiosyncratic US$60 fees PER transaction

Mental unwellness imwo pic.twitter.com/WAtxjk1gzH

— Bobby Apelrod / / nicefeet.sol (@tofushit888) November 9, 2023

“Currently, #PulseChain state fees are 4'000X cheaper than Ethereum and 14'000X cheaper than Bitcoin,” said “KaisaCrypto.”

The terms of web fees is dynamic and is simply a merchandise of request oregon however congested the web is. An summation successful on-chain enactment often occurs successful bull markets oregon erstwhile marketplace sentiment is strong, but an added broadside effect is the interaction connected little income users.

“How does this assistance the unbanked and little income population,” Lopez iterated successful a station which showed a “high priority” Bitcoin transaction interest of $10.50 connected Nov. 9.

It present costs $10 to transportation wealth connected Bitcoin.

How does this assistance the unbanked and little income population? pic.twitter.com/0OBKCFZu3E

— Hector Lopez (@hlopez_) November 9, 2023

Prior to the interest spike, transaction costs connected Ethereum averaged retired astatine $11.35 connected Nov. 8, according to BitInfoCharts. A fewer weeks earlier connected Oct. 14 it fell arsenic debased arsenic $1.40 — the lowest level recorded successful 2023.

Gas interest connected Ethereum peaked astatine $196 connected May. 1, 2022, portion fees were consistently supra $20 betwixt August 2021 and February 2022.

Gas fees connected Ethereum implicit the past 3 years. Source: BitInfoCharts

Scale the basal furniture oregon trust connected L2s?

Bitcoin and Ethereum developers chose to prioritize decentralization and security astatine the basal furniture and offload overmuch of its execution situation to furniture 2s to marque transactions cheaper.

The Lightning Network is utilized to standard Bitcoin, portion Ethereum has a fistful of furniture 2s specifically focused connected making Ethereum faster and cheaper, specified arsenic Arbitrum, Optimism and Polygon.

Transactions are often little than $1 connected these furniture 2 networks but not everyone agrees it is the close mode to tackle scalability.

Related: Ethereum state fees chill down aft May memecoin frenzy

Justin Bons, laminitis of cryptocurrency concern steadfast Cyber Capital believes the basal furniture should beryllium the lone transaction environment.

L2s are a unspeakable replacement for L1 scaling

In fact, L2s bash not standard the L1 astatine all; if thing L2s vie with the L1 implicit fees

Weakening the information & economics of the L1

All portion delivering worse UX, little information & fragmenting liquidity

"L2 scaling" is parasitical!

— Justin Bons (@Justin_Bons) October 28, 2023

He advocates for monolithic blockchain architectures successful which consensus, information availability and the transaction execution is each handled connected the basal layer. Solana is an illustration of this.

Bitcoin and Ethereum connected the different hand, are modular blockchains due to the fact that they offload immoderate transactions to a 2nd layer.

All large scaling methods tin beryllium divided into a spectrum with 5 categories:

1. Modular broadside chains: ATOM, DOT, AVAX
2. Modular furniture two: BTC, ETH, ADA
3. Monolithic enshrined roll-ups: XTZ
4. Monolithic execution sharding: EGLD, NEAR, TON
5. Monolithic azygous chain: SOL, BSV

— Justin Bons (@Justin_Bons) May 19, 2023

However, critics person pointed to respective outages connected Solana owed to web congestion, arguing that a modular blockchain plan is simply a amended attack to lick scalability.

Magazine: Binance’s exec exodus, Nasdaq to commercialized AI orders and SBF loses bail appeal: Hodler’s Digest, Sept. 3-9

View source