Ethereum is seeing a startling reversal of its promises of reduced fees. Despite the highly touted Dencun upgrade, intended to democratize access to economic data, an unexpected feature suddenly spikes costs. Crypto developers are racing to understand the ramifications of this new boiling fever. The precious asset of the blockchain could well turn against it.
A viral and disruptive functionality
Everything changed last Wednesday with the launch of Ethscriptions by developer Middlemarch. Indeed, this protocol allows users to directly write multimedia content into Ethereum “blobs”. Blobs, introduced by Dencun, are economic data packets intended to streamline crypto transactions. However, users jumped on this opportunity so quickly that the famous free blobs have now become a rare commodity.
The statistics illustrate a virtual tidal wave without equivalent on Ethereum. Thus, in the space of just a few days, more than 4,500 “ BlobScriptions » were created by users. In addition, on Wednesday, no less than 41% of the new blobs generated were dedicated to these registrations. Crypto users seem fascinated by the idea of immortalizing random texts and images on the blockchain, reminiscent of the beginnings of Bitcoin Ordinals inscriptions.
Exorbitant crypto fees on the horizon?
Although the creator of Ethscriptions has recommended the use of its official protocol, the registration frenzy seems unstoppable for now. As a result, after remaining virtually free for two weeks, blob fees exploded dramatically. So, in just one day, they jumped from a tiny gwei to more than 500 gwei, the equivalent of about 18 dollars!
If the first effects are concentrated on blobs, the Ethereum crypto ecosystem as a whole could feel the backlash of this surge. Indeed, an increase in the number of missed slots was already observed on Wednesday afternoon. Although the causes remain debated, many experts fear an impact on base layer transactions.
New unexplored lands
This unexpected situation raises multiple questions about the future of crypto. First of all, is this a simple ephemeral spike due to novelty or a lasting trend that will take hold? In the latter case, this could compromise one of Dencun's main ambitions. Indeed, the upgrade is expected to greatly reduce transaction costs on Layer 2 (L2) networks.
Since its release two weeks ago, Dencun has effectively made it possible to begin the transition to affordable L2s, so hoped for by Ethereum users. However, if BlobScriptions continue to clog up the low-cost channels, this advantage could prove short-lived. Worse still, this would annihilate one of the main attractions touted by Ethereum's crypto developers.
However, even if the BlobScriptions frenzy proves temporary, the damage is already notable. For example, blob fees currently hover around 35 gwei, or $1.20, according to the data CoinBrain. Although significantly lower than the peak of 585 gwei, this amount remains far from the symbolic rate of one gwei ($0.01) in force before the craze.
In short, the sudden emergence of BlobScriptions completely relaunches the debate on the real capabilities of Ethereum to offer crypto transactions at a lower cost. If this wave continues, it could call into question the benefits promised by Dencun. But also, to plunge the blockchain back into an uncertain future. A new, potentially unstable era thus seems to be opening before the astounded eyes of developers. Ethereum will have to demonstrate extreme agility to get through this delicate period of questioning.
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