Vitalik Buterin: ETH Layer-2 Fees Must Get to $0.05 to be Acceptable

Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, has recently opined that the gas fee charged on Layer-2 solutions has to be reasonably low to be acceptable.

Buterin made his statement in reply to a tweet by the popular crypto proponent and investor, Ryan Sean Adams, who posted a list of gas fees required to bridge tokens to the Ethereum network using various Layer-2 protocols. 

For the longest time, the Ethereum network is notorious for its highly exorbitant gas fees and low scalability. Demand for block space on the Ethereum mainnet had witnessed a massive surge in recent months, and the gas fees have skyrocketed, denying many users access to some of the most coveted Ethereum-based DeFi and NFT protocols.

To reduce fees, several network participants have resorted to using Ethereum Layer-2 networks. These scaling solutions work side-by-side with the mainnet.

Based on the list, the gas fees required were all below $1, with the lowest being Metis Network at $0.02 and the highest being Arbitrum One at $0.85.

Although Ryan Adams pointed out that he believes these rates are low, Buterin is convinced that they are not low enough. He noted that the gas fees charged by these L2 networks need to be below $0.05 to be truly acceptable.

Buterin, however, admitted that the L2s are increasingly making progress in that aspect, adding that the newly proposed proto-danksharding would help accelerate the move. This new sharding design introduces significant simplification compared to the previous designs.

He said, “Needs to get under $0.05 to be truly acceptable IMO. But we’re definitely making great progress, and even proto-danksharding may be enough to get us there for a while!”

The Ethereum Merge Delayed Yet Again

Ethereum has been making conscious efforts to boost its network efficiency and scalability exponentially. Hence, its move from the proof-of-work (PoW) to the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

Over the past few years, the transition process has seen notable progress, but it is yet to be completed. Last month, the network disclosed that the final upgrade, dubbed the Ethereum Merge, has been delayed yet again.