Gas fees, the payments made by users to perform a transaction on the Ethereum network, have been a consistent hurdle for most Ethereum users since the network’s inception. While they are necessary for the network to function, the exorbitant level of its gas fees have been a turn-off for many.
A year ago, Ethereum proposed a network transition to proof of stake, which is more energy efficient than the current proof of work model, and would theoretically lead to a reduction in the network’s gas prices.
Gas Prices Reduce Despite Delays to PoS Transition
As the Kintsugi Testnet went live on December 20th, Ethereum revealed that the PoS transition will be delayed until June 2022. However, while the PoS transition has been delayed, gas fees on the network are already dropping.
Sponsored
There has been a steady drop in the level of Ethereum’s gas fees, which has now reached its lowest level of the past six months.Â
In the last seven weeks, the Ethereum network has seen a 67% drop in the average price of transaction fees – from $62 on November 9th, to $20.61 on December 27th.
The average transaction fees on the Ethereum Network in 2021
On December 27th, metrics show that the average fee spent on the Ethereum network is now $20.61, or 0.0051 Ether per transaction.Â
Sponsored
To add to this, the median ether fee has also declined by 70% in the same period. On November 9th, the median ether fee, which was previously $34.28 per transaction, is now 0.0032 ETH or $10.43.
The median transaction fees on the Ethereum Network in 2021
On the Flipside
- Layer 2 solutions still provide a cheaper alternative, with Loopring boasting fees of as little as $0.16 per ether transfer, and Polygon Hermez charging $0.25.
Why You Should Care
The drastic reduction in Ethereum’s gas fees on the Ethereum network proves that the problem can be solved when the network eventually migrates to a PoS consensus mechanism.
