Category: Gas

Categories
Ethereum Gas

Ethereum Gas Fees Sink Below $3, Its Lowest Level in 10 Months

Ethereum gas fees are really low in the past few weeks, singing below US$3 per transaction, according to recent data by market intelligence firm Santiment.

ETH Gas Fees Reach July 2021 Levels

Gas fees on the Ethereum have been at their lowest levels since July 2021, when fees would cost around $3 to $5 per transaction for a few days. As such, gas fees have been declining since mid-February of 2022.

Santiment said that low gas fees correlate to lower network activity. A median-size transaction can reach a high of just $4 in gas fees. This is a notable drop considering five months ago we were used to seeing three or four-digit transactions costing 20, 50, and even 100 USD in gas fees.

Source: Santiment

Santiment also tapped into DAI, an Ethereum-backed and second-largest stablecoin in the crypto by market, saying that DAI’s currently velocity supports the notion of market participants having “little interest to do anything.”

Gas fees for NFT sales on OpenSea are also significantly lower —the cost of an OpenSea sale could reach a maximum of $10.63, and $10.20 on the lower end. Gas fees on Ethereum-linked protocols such as Uniswap are also on the same level.

Layer-2 Solutions Battling For Lower Transaction Fees

Before reaching these levels, Ethereum layer-2 solutions were already offering cheap gas prices. Over a month ago, Arbitrum, Ethereum’s largest rollup solution introduced Nitro, a major update that seeks to reduce gas fees by half on the Arbitrum network.

Meanwhile, StarkNet, another rollup solution announced lower gas fees through the use of Zero-Knowledge rollups, making transaction costs 100x lower than Layer-1s

Categories
Blockchain Ethereum Ethereum Name Service Gas

Vitalik Buterin: ETH L2 Fees Must Be Under $0.05 to be ‘Truly Acceptable’

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes gas fees on Ethereum layer-2s should be less than 10 cents in order to be “truly acceptable”.

The comment came as a response to a Twitter post from “Bankless” podcast host Ryan Sean Adams, who shared a screenshot of eight layer-2 protocols and their average transaction gas fees:

Layer-2s are protocols built on top of an existing blockchain. Since L2s are connected to a main chain – in this case, Ethereum – they inherit its security properties. So far, most layer-2s are designed to aid the Ethereum network with certain setbacks, such as scalability and throughput.

A layer-2 solution takes transactions out of the Ethereum network to process them in a secondary chain, in what is known as off-chain activity. This secondary chain provides high throughput and cheaper transaction fees while the mainchain provides security.

Currently, the cheapest ETH L2 solution is Metis Network, which has gas fees of US$0.02. However, swapping tokens costs $0.15, and bigger fees may be applied depending on the order.

‘Danksharding’ the Ethereum Network

With his mention of danksharding (aka EIP-4844), Buterin was referring to a new sharding model proposed for Ethereum that seeks to simplify previous sharding designs. This proposal will theoretically scale the Ethereum network by adding a new type of transaction dubbed the “blob-carrying transaction”, which carries an additional 125KB worth of data.

Most members of crypto Twitter agreed with the idea that the biggest stepping stone for Ethereum is transaction costs. While danksharding can help scale the network, ETH 2.0 has been delayed again – this time, the sharding might occur somewhere between the end of 2022 or early 2023.

Recently, the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) hit a milestone by surpassing one million domain names created, causing the ENS token to surge 86 percent in value shortly after the announcement.

Categories
Banking Coinbase Crypto News Crypto Wallets Ethereum Gas MetaMask Payments Stablecoins

MetaMask iOS Update Allows Users to Buy Crypto Using a Credit Card

MetaMask now allows iPhone and Apple Pay users to buy crypto using a debit or credit card through its mobile application, eliminating the need to transfer Ethereum from a centralised exchange such as Coinbase into the app.

And in response to popular demand, MetaMask has also introduced the Apple Dark Mode feature, which will automatically open in the app as long as a user’s iPhone operating system has dark mode enabled.

Daily Deposit Limit of 400 USD

Users can now deploy their Visas and Mastercards stored in Apple Pay to buy ETH and deposit a daily maximum of US$400 into their wallets, thanks to the Wyre API (MetaMask uses two payment gateways, Wyre and Transak, to support debit card and credit card transactions).

Gas fees are also said to be lower, and some transactions may even be gasless if done on a private blockchain or if a project pays for the gas on the user’s behalf. (When completing an ETH purchase, MetaMask discloses that it does not profit from gas fees.)

Buy Stablecoins and Make Bank Transfers in 60+ Currencies

Via Transak, users have been able to buy stablecoins such as USDT, USDC and DAI on the Ethereum mainnet in MetaMask for some time now, but the latest update also allows them to make bank transfers and use credit/debit cards to buy crypto using more than 60 global currencies.

Exact payment methods and fees vary depending on the location. Earlier this month, OpenSea and Metamask blocked users from countries including Iran and Venezuela after both platforms cited compliance issues. It was later confirmed that Ethereum’s Infura cut off users to separatist areas in Ukraine, accidentally blocking Venezuelan users as well.

Just this week, the EU Parliament announced its intention to extend checks to cover privately managed unhosted wallets, including MetaMask, despite fears that such rules could prove unenforceable.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Gas

ETH Layer 2 Service StarkNet Goes Live, Promises 100x Cheaper Gas Fees

Cheaper gas at last, and it’s all thanks to ZK-rollups. StarkNet’s most advanced Layer-2 validity rollup promises higher throughput and lower gas fees, up to 100 times lower than Layer-1s.

StarkNet’s employment of Zero-Knowledge rollups (ZK-rollups) and validity proofs could be the answer to solving the highly problematic scaling issues faced by the Ethereum network, without compromising on security.

Transaction Costs Down, Confirmation Rates Up

ZK-rollups are a favourable scaling solution for Ethereum because they drastically reduce transaction costs while speeding up the time it takes for transactions to be confirmed. The way they do this is by bundling, or “rolling up” transactions together for processing off-chain. Once verified, they are moved back on-chain and recorded as a single transaction. This reduces the number of transactions needed to be written to the blockchain in order to verify a single block, therefore significantly reducing the cost.

Unlike optimistic rollups, ZK-rollups use “validity proofs”. Validity rollups are much faster because they instantly prove transactions. This greatly speeds up the transactions per second (TPS) rate and makes the network run much faster. StarkNet transactions are estimated to reduce energy consumption anywhere between 200 to 200,000 times that of alternative chains.

Alchemy’s Integration of StarkNet

StarkNet and Alchemy are both pioneering the Web3 future, addressing two of the biggest challenges facing permissionless blockchains: StarkNet is tackling scalability, as Alchemy provides a complete platform for developers that reduces the complexity and costs of building on blockchain.

Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder and president of StarkNet

StarkWare announced on Twitter that its layer-2 StarkNet has now been integrated by leading blockchain development platform Alchemy. The partnership will allow Web3 developers to build decentralised apps (dApps) using the Alchemy suite and utilise StarkNet’s cutting-edge ZK-rollup technology.

StarkNet has its own open-source browser wallet and Chrome extension, Argent X. Other platforms are also integrating StarkNet; last month, for example, Opera browser launched its own Ethereum Layer-2 web wallet powered by StarkNet.

Categories
Crypto News DeFi Ethereum Gas Waves

BRISE DeFi Token Soars 120% as Bitgert Offers Business DeFi Products

As the overall crypto market continues to trend downward, the top-ranked cryptocurrencies have tumbled. Ethereum is one that has completely destabilised amid the current bear market, but as its price plummets another DeFi token has soared 120 percent – Bitgert (BRISE).

Bitgert has been doing well amid a tumultuous market, as is evident from its skyrocketing price and fast-growing market cap, fast approaching US$800 million, which has many wondering why this project in particular is doing so well.

Why is BRISE Soaring?

The short answer is the launch of the Bitgert BRC20 blockchain. As a zero gas fee blockchain, Bitgert is addressing current concerns regarding the network’s high gas fees – a problem Ethereum in particular deals with – and investors are excited by this. The gas fee associated with the Bitgert chain is only US$0.0000000000001. BRC20 has also overtaken Solana to become the fastest chain available after hitting an impressive 100,000 transactions per second (TPS), way faster than Solana’s 65,000 TPS.

These features ensure that Bitgert BRC20 is the most powerful chain in the crypto space as of now, and its anticipated mass adoption has prompted investors, including crypto whales, to buy more BRISE, which adds to its bullish trend. The team is bringing in hundreds of products and projects on the BRC20 blockchain to increase chain adoption. The Bitgert Startup Studio will also be the first program that will bring hundreds of projects to the ecosystem.

DeFi Does Well Amid Bearish Market

As the overall crypto market remains bearish, some DeFi projects seem to be beating the bear. Earlier in the week, Tornado Cash Token (TORN) surged 94 percent following protocol updates. WAVES saw similar surges when it shot up 120 percent in just a week following an announcement of a partnership with Allbridge, which will connect Waves with other popular blockchain networks.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum Gas Markets NFTs

Ethereum Gas Prices Have Significantly Decreased from January Peak

Ethereum (ETH) gas prices have decreased by a significant 72 percent since their peak in January. This decrease in demand stems from the price dropping below US$3,000 yet again.

At the beginning of January, gas prices jumped due to the surging volume for NFTs but have since decreased following a bearish price drop below US$3,000. The movement can be mainly attributed to the overall crypto market downturn, following negative macro sentiments, but most of all due to the threat of war in Ukraine. Although ETH has seen significant price drops, there is no lack of positive development surrounding the ecosystem.

Earlier this year, high ETH gas prices and rising network congestion forced developers to build on layer 2 solutions.

Gas trends. Source: Delphi Digital

The TVL (total locked value) in DeFi (decentralised finance) remains above US$200 billion, despite recent market downturns from US$250 billion in November 2021. Levels correlate with ETH’s all-time high market value of US$4,878 on November 10.

As previously mentioned, sentiments surrounding the ETH ecosystem have not dissipated. That KPMG in Canada has added ETH to its balance sheet shows there is a clear recognition of ETH as an investment asset, even for risk-averse enterprises.

Small Ether Holders Increasing

Adding to ETH’s success is the fact that Ethereum adoption is not only limited to crypto whales and big players. According to data, the number of addresses holding between 0.1 and 1 ETH is at an all-time high. In the span of a year, the number of these addresses increased by 98 percent and at the moment they hold 1.78 million ETH collectively – up 4.54 percent in one month.

At the other end of the argument, the NFT market has slowed down since reaching its peak levels in January 2022. Although this year has seen record-breaking NFT market activity, market data suggests that the number of sales is down from almost 64,000 sales per day in mid-January to 24,000 by the end of last week.

Since the price of ether dipped below US$3,000, the demand to make transactions on the ETH blockchain has remained relatively low. And as the demand for transactions declines, so too the market price of blockspace. According to data, transaction fees are officially at their lowest since July 28, 2021.

Categories
Ethereum Gas NFTs

Crypto Project Uses Whole Ethereum Blocks and Turns Them into NFTs

A new crypto project called VanityBlocks is dedicating whole Ethereum blocks for the single purpose of turning them into NFTs. The project is using the blocks to mint NFTs that will be forever tied to that specific block.

The first Genesis NFT was created on January 16 in block 14017777. The transaction to create the NFT took up the entire block, costing around 5.31 ether, or US$16,600 at the time of writing.

A more recent mint took place on January 31 for block 14114114, costing over 3.42 ETH (about US$10,700) in transaction fees. To date, VanityBlocks only has minted these two blocks, available on OpenSea.

The NFT on block 14114114. Source: OpenSea

OpenSea has, however, also recently experienced problems when an update left some creators unable to mint new NFTs.

Second NFT Sold for Twice the Price

The second of the NFTs has already been sold to an eager buyer for 7 ETH (about US$21,000) on the same day it was minted. To put in perspective the magnitude of using up an entire Ethereum block, one block can hold between a few to several hundred transactions depending on the size of each transaction.

Transactions on the Ethereum network are designed to cost more if they contain more code, a method used to deter spam. In this particular case, the code was designed to keep performing more operations until it hit a certain amount of gas used. As a result, the transaction for each NFT maxed out the 20 million gas limit, meaning that no other transactions could fit in each block:

The only transaction in each block is the one minting the NFT, and the NFTs show the same image of a pair of eyes on a black background.

In the NFT metadata, it contains the block number it was mined in. The concept is that each NFT represents the block it was mined in, making it represent a part of the Ethereum blockchain.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Ethereum Gas NFTs

Australian Open Metaverse Winning Shot ‘AO Art Ball’ NFT Soars 4,000%

The singles champions at this year’s Australian Open (AO), Ash Barty and Rafael Nadal, pocketed a cool A$2.875 million each for two weeks’ work – but they weren’t the only big winners of the tennis world’s first Grand Slam of the season, completed last weekend.

Fans attending matches in the metaverse had the chance to buy an AO Art Ball non-fungible token (NFT) linked to a specific spot on centre court that marked the winning shot of both the men’s and women’s championships, along with all other finals matches in the tournament.

At no point did we anticipate we’d sell out the public drop in three minutes. As a result, we’ve set the bar extremely high for what NFTs can become in the future.

Ridley Palmer, metaverse and NFT project manager, Tennis Australia

The NFTs were released via a public drop where users could pay to mint an AO Art Ball from the 6,776 available. Fans could therefore literally buy a piece of the action via an NFT that gave them “property” rights to a 19cm x 19cm square of Melbourne Park’s Rod Laver Arena. They stood to win big should the last bounce of the ball fall into their square on the deciding point in any final.

Nadal’s NFT Surges 4000%

The price of bids for the NFT marking where men’s champion Rafael Nadal’s winning shot landed surged more than 4,000 percent during the tournament final, while the AO Art Ball NFTs generally have recorded US$4.4 million (A$6m) in trading volume since early January, according to OpenSea data.

Mens Final – Nadal’s winning shot

Nadal’s AO Art Ball NFT, meanwhile, has yet to change hands – meaning its expected value has escalated from around US$700 (A$981) to US$8,438 (A$11,836) in ether. The latest offer is worth 3.2 ETH, almost 4,168 percent above the floor price.

Barty’s NFT More Than Triples in Value

The day before, on January 29, Ash Barty became the first Australian to win a home Grand Slam in 44 years in taking the women’s title.

Two days later, offers on the AO Art Ball for Barty’s victory shot were coming in at least 1,230 percent above the floor price. That’s more than three times the original price paid, according to OpenSea and Etherscan data. The original minter sold the piece for 0.298 ETH, then worth about US$780 (A$1,107). But the value placed on it by bidders has reached as high as 1.3 ETH, or US$3,632 (A$5,094).

Womens Final – Barty’s winning shot

Keep in mind, though, that high gas fees for transactions on the Ethereum network are additional to the price of minting an NFT.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum Gas NFTs

Ethereum Layer 2 NFT Marketplaces Aiming to Reduce Gas Fees

With non-fungible tokens (NFTs) still steadily on the rise, gas prices and network congestion have continued to be an issue, pushing developers to build on Layer 2 solutions.

The Problem with Layer 1 Solutions

One of the common problems with NFT marketplaces built on Layer 1 (L1) solutions is that they have high gas fees and during periods of high congestion, transactions can also take longer to process. When more complex transactions are processed from DeFi, NFT marketplaces, and other applications, TPS (transactions per second) rates decline rapidly and as a result gas costs go up.

Because of these challenges, Layer 2 (L2) solutions, or ‘side-chains’, become a possible answer to the problem.

The Argent Layer 2 Solution

Argent X is an L2 built on StarkNet which aims to reduce gas fees by using zk-rollup (zero-knowledge-rollup) technology. This mechanism brings gas fees down to the minimum because it batches transactions, which are then verified off-chain using an on-chain verifier. This ease means a batch can be sent to Layer 1 and verified in a smart contract for frictionless transfers between L1 and L2.

Since its inception, StarkNet has settled over 50 million transactions and US$250 billion since the summer of 2020. By allowing developers to build on their platform they could save potential customers a pretty penny in gas fees.

Argent is crypto’s iPhone moment – highly secure with a user experience that rivals the best traditional finance apps.

Wouter Kampmann , head of engineering, MakerDAO

According to StarkNet’s official blog, “StarkNet allows any dApp to achieve unlimited scale for its computation, without compromising Ethereum’s composability and security, thanks to its reliance on the safest and most scalable cryptographic proof system — ZK-STARK.”

After its Alpha launch on December 29, StarkNet has encouraged developers to start building, though also stating that it has yet to be audited and that users should be aware it is in the Alpha stage.

Buy Crypto on Layer 2 for Only a $1 Fee

The Argent platform that uses StarkNet can give users “up to 100X cheaper fees than Ethereum thanks to zkSync’s [a rollup technology] Layer 2 network. With near-instant speed.”

The platform can also use a card, bank transfer or Apple Pay, with very low fees.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum Fan Tokens Gas NFTs

Matrix Resurrections NFT Site Crashes Amid Drop, Users Left Fuming

After thousands of fans lined up on November 30 to buy The Matrix Resurrections movie on Nifty, they were left disappointed when the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace crashed during the sale due to overwhelming demand ahead of the action/sci-fi movie’s release later this month.

Furious Fans Left in Limbo Overnight

Warner Bros announced last month that it would mint a set of 100,000 NFTs of Matrix-inspired avatars at US$50 each on Nifty. In anticipation of the launch, hundreds of thousands of fans were lined up on the marketplace to buy the NFTs, but within just an hour of the site opening, the company had to pause the sale as systems were overloaded.

Sale Restarted But Crashes Again

Nifty briefly restarted the sale but again had to pause it, leaving furious users in limbo overnight. By December 1, more than 330,000 fans were still waiting in the queue to buy the collectibles.

The marketplace conceded that the launch of the Matrix avatars did not go “the way we had hoped it would”, but said on Twitter “even as the queue continues to be paused, we want to assure you all of a few things – we’re very actively working on a solution, along with our partners”.

Demand More Than Nifty Could Handle

The chaos surrounding the launch proved that the initial demand for the Matrix avatars was more than Nifty could handle. However, the marketplace recommended that users still in line to buy the collectibles add their email addresses to the “please notify me when it is my turn” field on the website, “so that you’ll know specifically when you have made it to the front of the line”.

Nifty’s customer-support site added: “Due to such high traffic, there may be a delay with the Matrix Avatar NFTs appearing in your account. Please allow some additional time (up to eight hours) to determine if your NFTs have arrived successfully.”

Naturally, users were not entirely happy with Nifty’s response to the crash:

Nifty responded by saying the company plans “to make it up to fans and give all Nifty’s users who queued yesterday for a Matrix Avatar a free ‘glitch in the Matrix’ NFT”.

On the evening of December 1, Nifty issued a statement and said it had reopened the purchase queue for the Matrix NFTS after completing an audit of its platform. After about an hour, the platform said it had officially sold out.

NFT Madness Causes Pandemonium on Marketplaces

The Matrix NFT sale is not the first launch to have overloaded and crashed a system. In September, Time magazine announced a new collection of NFTs offering “unlimited access” to its website throughout 2023. Within minutes, all 4,676 tokens tied to the digital artworks had sold out. The rush clogged the Ethereum blockchain and consequently sent gas fees through the roof, causing such chaos that buyers spent almost four times as much on transaction fees as they did on the NFTs themselves.