The Ethereum Foundation clarified Wednesday that the Merge will not lower onchain fees because the much-anticipated transition from proof-of work (PoW), to proof-of–stake (PoW), is only 29 days away. According to the Ethereum Foundation’s Merge update, the Ethereum network has printed some of its lowest onchain fees in the past month since 2020.
Ethereum Foundation clarifies that ‘Gas fees are a product of network demand’ — The merger does not significantly change any parameters that directly influence network capacity or throughput.
The Ethereum Foundation wants people to know that although The Merge will move from PoW to PoS, it is false to assume that fees will drop. This statement was added to The Merge’s summary and definition hosted on .ethereum.org.
This page has been updated a few times. The last update was on August 16, 2022. The Ethereum developers are expected meet on August 18, 20,22.
The website’s summary now explains that gas fees are a function of network demand relative the network’s ability. The Merge does away with proof-of work and transitions to proof-of stake for consensus. However, it does not change any parameters that directly affect network throughput or capacity.
Transaction fees on Ethereum won’t change following The Merge. Users who wish to pay lower fees will need to use layer two (L2) scaling solutions, and wait for further Ethereum upgrades. The Merge will see Ethereum implement The Surge and The Verge as well as The Purge and The Splurge.
The Surge is designed to improve scaling by leveraging zero knowledge rollups via Sharding techniques. The Verge transition to Ethereum will use Verkle tree to attain statelessness through the Merkle proof update. Although fees won’t be reduced immediately, Ethereum’s onchain charges have been at their lowest rates ever since 2020.
The average network fee at the moment of writing, August 17, is 0.0012ether or $2.28 per transaction. Etherscan.io’s gas tracker shows a lower fee of 22 gwei, or $0.85 per transaction.
Opensea Marketplace sales are $2.90 and Uniswap Swaps are $7.47. On Wednesday, $2.19 is charged for transferring ERC20 like tethers ( USDT ) to another account. The lowest L2 fees can be found on Loopring or Zksync, as they cost $0.04 to $0.06 per ether.
