Credit card providers charge merchants a cut of the payments they accept, called interchange fees or swipe fees. With two major card providers aiming to elevate rates, could crypto become an alternative? “Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are planning to raise swipe fees for some types of credit-card purchases in April,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, adding: “Though invisible to consumers, they [interchange fees] are glaring to merchants, which often end up paying fees of about 2% of their customers’ credit-card purchases. The fees are set by the card networks, such as Visa and Mastercard. Merchants pay them …
Ethereum fees are at record levels, but even so, one Uniswap user paid well over the going rate with a gas fee of $36,000 for a single transaction. Crypto Twitter has been flooded with complaints about the unsustainable fees for using the Ethereum network, but the rates only exacerbated one decentralized finance user’s fat-fingered mistake. The exorbitant transaction was tweeted by the co-founder and chief technology officer of Groundhog Network, Andrew Redden, who confirmed it was Uniswap-related. Presenting: The most expensive approve https://t.co/WQvgjZWFug — Andrew Redden ️ (@androolloyd) February 23, 2021 The ludicrous fee turned out to be a typing …
Prominent crypto influencer Lark Davis, or “The Crypto Lark,” has warned that Ethereum’s competitors will continue to syphon away users should Eth2 fail to launch soon amid ever-increasing gas fees. Despite predicting five-figure Ether prices in 2021, Davis’ Feb. 19 video, Davis asserts Ethereum’s skyrocketing fees has meant that only “rich investors” can afford to the network, prompting smaller users to switch to competitors like Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Davis noted BSC is currently enjoying a surge in popularity, with volumes for BSC-based DApps catching up to their Ethereum-based rivals. Describing the current gas fees prices as “totally loco,” Davis …
Users can send cryptocurrencies virtually anywhere globally via the blockchains on which they are based. By sending crypto assets, however, fees are incurred. Transactions may take longer for certain assets, depending on their related blockchains. Certain crypto wallets and platforms give users the option to choose a transaction fee. Higher fees typically result in faster transactions. Over the years, however, some asset holders have put their coin or token values into the wrong fields, resulting in exorbitant, albeit accidental, fee payments. For example, a holder might intend to send 12 Bitcoin (BTC) at a fee of 0.01 BTC, although they …
An Ethereum-based project has been forced to cease development due to rising gas prices, as the cost of transacting on the blockchain continues to push new highs. The official Twitter account for social media token project Unite announced on Feb. 10 that the project was no longer in active development, adding that the original idea for the project had been rendered unfeasible by the recent gas price spike. The average cost of using Ethereum increased 35,600% since January 2020: “We are unfortunately no longer actively developing Unite. Gas prices mean the original idea for Unite isn't feasible and after several …
According to analysis by Mark “Murch” Erhardt of Chaincode Labs, 88% of all Bitcoin transaction inputs pay higher fees than are necessary. Erhardt bases his conclusion on data showing just 12% of transaction inputs use the SegWit format, which is less fee intensive than transacting with legacy inputs. Erhardt believes that a reliance on legacy transaction fees keeps Bitcoin blocks smaller than they could otherwise be, contributing to a seemingly growing backlog of unconfirmed transactions. A clogged up Bitcoin mempool containing 107 blocks worth of transactions at one point yesterday serves as a reminder that it is possible to save …
The number of transactions waiting to be confirmed in the Bitcoin mempool surged briefly above 125,000 today. This represents the equivalent of roughly 149 megabytes worth of data waiting to be added to the blockchain, which is enough to fill at least 107 upcoming blocks. Although smaller than the spike that saw a 143,000+ transaction backlog on Dec. 17, 2020, the increasingly cluttered mempool is emboldening Bitcoin’s critics while providing forks with talking points about the speed and cost of cryptocurrency transactions. Over past 3 months, the daily average Bitcoin transaction fee has varied between $2.18 and $17.20; makes buying …
Face-to-face transactions are starting to seem quaintly archaic as many countries continue or even expand lockdowns due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since the start of the crisis in early 2020, digital transactions have surged, particularly in e-commerce and digital banking. In contrast with face-to-face transactions, such as a direct payment of cash in exchange for a product or service, digital financial transactions typically require an intermediary, such as a credit card agency, payments processor or bank. This intermediary slows the process and, naturally, adds a cost to the transaction. Distributed ledger technology is taking on a greater role in …
Ethereum and DeFi proponent Ryan Sean Adams has drawn attention to how high gas fees relative to the current Ether price could actually be a bullish sign. Citing this week’s Grayscale research paper ‘Valuing Ethereum’ the Bankless commentator claimed that Ethereum is “actually getting cheaper” from a price to sale ratio aspect. Here's what's crazy... From a P/S perspective ETH is actually getting *cheaper* pic.twitter.com/xyz9yuVCyZ — Ryan Sean Adams - rsa.eth (@RyanSAdams) February 4, 2021 A price to sales ratio (P/S) is usually calculated by taking a company's market capitalization and dividing it by revenue from sales. In this case, …
Staking infrastructure provider Staked said it had learned “an expensive lesson” after 75 of its Eth2 validators were slashed on Feb. 4 from the staking pool as punishment for producing competing blocks. In a statement, Staked took the blame for the “technical issue” and said its customers would be “fully compensated”. The company will pay the penalty of 18 ETH, which is around $29,000 at current prices. An unanticipated reaction to configuration changes caused several nodes managed by Staked to restart in error, leading them to incorrectly sign a second version of a previously-signed block. This introduced the potential for …
Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid has temporarily disabled Ether (ETH) withdrawals as the altcoin hits new all-time highs. According to a Feb. 4 announcement, Liquid has halted withdrawals for ETH and some ERC-20 tokens due to a massive spike in transaction costs, or gas fees. “Service will be resumed once gas fees return to normal levels. All other crypto currencies are operating as per normal,” Liquid said. On Feb. 4, ETH price posted another high of above $1,600, following propelled growth of nearly 20% over the past seven days. The growing price has been steadily driving transaction costs higher, hitting new …
Ethereum’s gas fees are again spiking to record highs, rendering many decentralized finance protocols unusable for casual investors. After increasing roughly 20% in the last 24 hours, average Ethereum transaction fees are now sitting at a record $17.67. With many DeFi projects requiring the execution of complex smart contracts, there are reports fees associated with using protocols requiring complicated transactions now exceed $1,000. Amid the chaos, Twitter-user “Olive Allen” reported estimated gas fees of nearly $5,000 to accept a bid on Rarible. Almost 5k is the price to accept a bid on @rariblecom now!! Is it because of ETH high …