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Vitalik Buterin Proposes New EIP To Tackle Ethereum's Sky-High Gas Fees (cryptonews.com) 65

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin has put forward a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) that aims to tackle the network's gas fee problems by adding a limit on the total transaction calldata, which would, in turn, reduce transaction gas cost. From a report: Since Ethereum can only process 15 transactions per second, gas fees tend to spike at times of network congestion. On November 9, the average transaction network fee reached USD 62 per transaction. As of now, Ethereum transactions cost around USD 44, according to BitInfoCharts.

After highlighting concerns regarding the transaction fees on the Ethereum network, Buterin suggested the new EIP-4488, saying that it would "decrease transaction calldata gas cost, and add a limit of how much total transaction calldata can be in a block." In other words, EIP-4488 would limit the total transaction calldata, where data from external calls to functions are stored, before reducing the calldata gas cost to remove the possibility of breaking the network.

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Vitalik Buterin Proposes New EIP To Tackle Ethereum's Sky-High Gas Fees

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  • Is this a bad joke? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jschultz410 ( 583092 ) on Monday November 29, 2021 @11:22AM (#62029961)

    "Since Ethereum can only process 15 transactions per second ..."

    This is the alleged future of finance?

    • Layer 2s like Loopring have already done 500+ TPS with current theoretical max in the 10s of thousands.
      • by Graymalkin ( 13732 ) * on Monday November 29, 2021 @12:09PM (#62030143)

        Oh wow, the whole network could possibly do...as many transactions as a single old IBM mainframe. That's not in any way impressive. Not only is the whole network slower than an old mainframe (at best) it burns orders of magnitude more power for that shit performance.

        I swear cryptocurrency is the fucking Wimp Lo is finance. "I'm bleeding, that makes me the winner!"

        • It burns power for security not throughput. You could drop the power requirements to a single raspi to mine the blocks with 0 change to transactional throughput. Inefficiency is traded for security and decentralization. If that is a viable tradeoff... Idk time will tell. The only way to get the efficiency of something like Visa is to replicate what exists with the current banking/card provider layers where the blockchains preform a similar function as the banking network and throughput is handled by a s
        • Oh wow, the whole network could possibly do...as many transactions as a single old IBM mainframe.

          Except it can't. I hate crypto as much as the next person but if they could scale it to 10s of thousands TPS then that would very easily outdo the entire global capacity of both Visa and Mastercard combined. And they certainly aren't running a single old IBM mainframe.

          The finance world moves much slower than people think.

          • Note that crypto compares it's "theoretical" layer 2 solutions to actual daily Visa volume. Entirely different metrics. Credit card companies can always scale much more quickly and efficiently than crypto.

            • Oh absolutely they can scale, but ultimately the question is do they need to? Personally I think the 10s of thousands of TPS claim is bullshit even on a theoretical basis, but on a purely financial one if they can scale there then it would be a capable means of conducting a transaction at a scale required for a currency.

              They won't because crypto is nothing but bulllshit and has many other problems related to being a currency beyond just TPS.

      • Either blockchain works or it doesn't. In the world of de-centralization, with eth all you get are 15 tps. Another layer of centralized/bureaucracy is not innovation. You don't get any of the so-called benefits of crypto unless it's codified on the blockchain.

    • Unlike regular banking, I believe the Ethereum is doing the math on a central location, they call it "one central book" or something like that. This would be akin to all bank transfers going via only one server. That would also put some strain on that. With the huge size of the chains and the math required, ethereum averages like 13-15 transactions per second on a good day.

      It makes sense that any single scarce resource in the chain would drive up the cost of that resource. But if this is a weakness or not,

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        And more realistically, they need to be able to do millions of transactions per seconds and bring cost down to 1 cent or so per transactions if they want to be a "currency" used globally.

        Obviously, this thing is a toy and of tiny size compared to actual financial transaction systems.

        • And more realistically, they need to be able to do millions of transactions per seconds and bring cost down to 1 cent or so per transactions if they want to be a "currency" used globally.

          Obviously, this thing is a toy and of tiny size compared to actual financial transaction systems.

          ...then why are you worried enough about it to bother shitposting?

          • Because it is hilarious that people are getting so worked up over the "promise" of this kind of system.

          • by gweihir ( 88907 )

            And more realistically, they need to be able to do millions of transactions per seconds and bring cost down to 1 cent or so per transactions if they want to be a "currency" used globally.

            Obviously, this thing is a toy and of tiny size compared to actual financial transaction systems.

            ...then why are you worried enough about it to bother shitposting?

            Making fun of idiots is its own reward. What makes you think I am "worried" about crypto-morons?

        • Minor quibble; they only need to bring the cost down to 1-2% of the transaction total. That's where most credit card transaction fees are hovering and society as a whole has been okay with that level of fee. At this point, you're paying it even if you pay cash because most retailers have long since built it into the prices.

          • by rgmoore ( 133276 )

            Credit cards don't charge 1-2% per transaction just for the service of carrying out the transaction; the credit card companies are also managing the risk of fraud. If my card is stolen, I can report it, get a new card issued, and any fraudulent transactions with the stolen card are eaten by the card company. If someone gets hold of my card number, I have only to report the fraudulent transactions and they don't get held against me. When Ethereum can make the same kind of guarantees, they can get away wit

            • Also, this 1-2% charge not only covers the fraud risk, but the entire infrastructure the payment processing system is using. Visa is a completely solvent, self-contained technological ecosystem. Unlike crypto, which is a parasite on networks it neither subsidizes nor controls.

          • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

            The debit system here charges something like 15 cents a transaction, which most banks absorb anyway. Credit cards charge a percent or two in exchange for extending credit.

            Crypto "currencies" don't extend credit. Why would you pay them credit card fees for debit card services?

          • by gweihir ( 88907 )

            Minor quibble; they only need to bring the cost down to 1-2% of the transaction total. That's where most credit card transaction fees are hovering and society as a whole has been okay with that level of fee. At this point, you're paying it even if you pay cash because most retailers have long since built it into the prices.

            For manual shopping, maybe. But there are a lot of other financial transfers a "currency" needs to support.

    • "Since Ethereum can only process 15 transactions per second ..."

      This is the alleged future of finance?

      Don't knock it, it's a lot more than Bitcoin!

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      "Since Ethereum can only process 15 transactions per second ..."

      This is the alleged future of finance?

      Obviously not. Note that Bitcoin is not much better. Performance on the level of a small test-bed is not suitable for global anything or future anything. I would think they need to bring speed up by 4 to 6 order of magnitude and cost down by the same amount to make this actually useful in a finance-tech context. That probably means scrapping the whole thing because it cannot be done.

      • --This is the alleged future of finance?

        Obviously not. Note that Bitcoin is not much better. Performance on the level of a small test-bed is not suitable for global anything or future anything. I would think they need to bring speed up by 4 to 6 order of magnitude and cost down by the same amount to make this actually useful in a finance-tech context. That probably means scrapping the whole thing because it cannot be done.

        This is why we have Cardano [cardano.org]. Designed right from the start.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by ewibble ( 1655195 )

        what do you mean bitcoin has a worse transaction rate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] of between 3.3 and 7 transactions per second

        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          what do you mean bitcoin has a worse transaction rate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] of between 3.3 and 7 transactions per second

          Urgh. Thanks for the reference. Calling this a "problem" is massively too friendly. I would call it a show-stopper.

    • by splutty ( 43475 )

      You should probably stop thinking of 'crypto currency' as a viable financial alternative, and instead just think of it as an investment opportunity into a pyramid scheme.

    • Cardano can handle 2 million TSP.
      • Cardano can handle 2 million TSP.

        You crypto morons never actually do any research do you? You just regurgitate whatever bullshit you heard someone else say.

        Cardano can handle ~250 tps supposedly. Quote short of 2 million

        https://www.analyticssteps.com... [analyticssteps.com]

    • "Since Ethereum can only process 15 transactions per second ..."

      This is the alleged future of finance?

      But because this gating factor just filters out legitimate uses, leaving ransomware operators and money launderers, it is the future of crime.

    • Ask again in 4 years.
    • by hawk ( 1151 )

      No.

      It comes from using IEE-488.

      But it means you get easy access to old Comodore PET peripherals, and old HP lab equipment . . . :)

      hawk

  • What I want to know is, who is profiting from this. Someone seems to be getting rich at the expense of people using Ethereum. If VIsa tried to charge these kinds of fees for a transaction, the world would go up in flames.
    • by rask22 ( 144831 )

      Part goes to the miners and part is burned. It should be noted that gas fees are mostly a bidding based system, the people bidding the most get their transactions included first (again, mostly). Prices go down if people refuse to pay the high fees.

      • by ELCouz ( 1338259 )
        Correction,,, Only tips (optional) goes to miners ... ALL gas fees are burned. Read EIP-1559.
        • So you are saying that the money is basically thrown away. This is a highly inflationary, since it means that every transaction reduces the money supply and also appears totally unnecessary.
          • You got that backwards. It's deflationary. Consumer prices go down. Holders value goes up. But the term you used, refers to consumers.

            That's basically the point. It's not really unnecessary, it just is. We have to chose how we want our currencies to work. In this case, holding the currency isn't suppose to "hurt" your which is effectively the exact opposite of any other currency where there is the classic idea that "under the bed" is the worst way to save your money.

            This gets even more complicated when we l

  • Automated Clearing House (ACH) is what banks use for things like payroll direct deposits and other transfers between individual bank accounts. Typical costs for a business are quoted above for single transactions. Large batches of transactions can go a lot lower.

    This is why economic use of crypto is mostly limited to shady activity. You are paying extra to obscure what you are doing from authorities. Financial speculation is separate from economic uses like buying products. In that case the fees are li

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      _That_ expensive? Typical cost in Europe (within a country) is more around 1 cent or so per transfer, I think.

      • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        The US has ridiculously high transaction fees, and a pretty creaky system for performing them in the first place.

        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          Fascinating. Apparently there are not enough incentives to fix things in the US.

          • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

            Why would you cooperate with your competitors so you can all charge less money?

            • by gweihir ( 88907 )

              Why would you cooperate with your competitors so you can all charge less money?

              Well, in the US the answer must be "patriotism". For the rest of the world it is "common sense".

              • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

                In most of the rest of the world it's governments telling banks to not be shitheads. Americans have been sufficiently brainwashed that governments can never do anything right that they resist any such action.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      Let's say you have a supply chain where you are making a $1000 shoes and you want to assure your customers their limited edition shoes are genuine. So you develop a block-chain solution and you decide Ethereum is good enough. You develop a DApp and you bulk the tracking data for the product in batches of 100 shoes. Now you have transactions that costs something like $0.62 per each pair of shoes and you need to do that transaction 3-4 times per each pair. You now have essentially a record of of their authent

  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Monday November 29, 2021 @12:09PM (#62030141)

    This is the performance I would expect from a small academic test-bed, not from something intended to operate globally. This type of network performance is obviously a bad joke. The coste per transaction is also obviously a bad joke, at something like 50'000 times or more of what an interbak-transfer costs.

    • Yeah but at least you're not paying money to the man.

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Yeah but at least you're not paying money to the man.

        You still are, just "the man" is different.

        • Uah, somehow I wrote something longer and then when I deleted it I removed the /s from the end of my post.

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Well, maybe I am a sellout but I rather pay next to nothing to the man instead of a lot to some shadowy miner in the background.

        • Uah, somehow I wrote something longer and then when I shortened my post I accidentally removed the /s from the end. I wasn't being serious. I actually fully agree with you ... this time ;-)

          • by gweihir ( 88907 )

            Uah, somehow I wrote something longer and then when I shortened my post I accidentally removed the /s from the end. I wasn't being serious. I actually fully agree with you ... this time ;-)

            Thanks ;-)

    • It's a gambling app, not a financial app like they claim.

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        It's a gambling app, not a financial app like they claim.

        True. But the level of ridiculousness of the claim that this is a "currency" is really astounding.

    • I pay $30 for a wire transfer, just saying. Yes they both are way too high.
  • Is all you need to know about scalabilty

  • It's funny how this story comes out right after this story [slashdot.org] was posted (shameless self plug).

    I mean, what are the odds when an attempt by the crypto crowd to buy an expensive item fails and people find out to get their money refunded will cost an arm and a leg, that suddenly the same crypto group will announce they are trying to find ways to reduce the costs associated with using it?
  • Man, this crypto stuff is so much better than the banking system! So much better!

  • Man, i cannot wait for this web3 thing to become a reality!

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