It should be noted that transactions on the main Bitcoin and Etherium networks are really inconvenient right now. Specifically, at the end of yesterday, the average transfer fee in the BTC blockchain was the equivalent of $1.44.

Graph of the average fee on the Bitcoin network

At the same time in the same Eth, you had to pay $3.08 per transaction.

Graph of the average fee in the Etherium network

Of course, spending a few dollars per transaction is too much, and some users simply can not afford to spend so much money on a daily basis. However, the situation will improve over time, says Buterin.

When cryptocurrencies become even more popular

Vitalik noted the “serious work” in the development of so-called rollups or rollups. To recap, rollups are a scalability solution for Ethereum that involves a transaction in an external chain on the second layer, that is, outside of the core Ethereum first layer network. Rollups are currently being improved by the developers of a second-tier platform called Optimism, which is working to reduce the size and cost of the data in transactions.

Etherium creator Vitalik Buterin

Here’s a cue from the creator of Etherium.

So, as of today with rollups, commissions are usually somewhere around $0.25 and sometimes $0.10. In the future, with all the efficiency improvements, transaction costs could come down to $0.05 or even $0.02. This is much cheaper, much more affordable and a complete game changer.

It is important to note that the familiar Solana network already allows transfers for the equivalent of tenths and hundredths of one cent. The reason for this is a different consensus mechanism, a different network infrastructure and other distinctive features focused on maximum performance.

For the sake of clarity, here is a graph of the number of transactions per second that Solana can handle today. We are talking about thousands of transfers per second.

Graph of the number of transactions that Solana handles per second

According to Cointelegraph’s sources, Buterin also mentioned the upward trend in the value of cryptotransactions in Bitcoin, although the cryptocurrency was originally created by Satoshi Nakamoto as a “peer-to-peer electronic money system” at all. Until 2013, Bitcoin could indeed be considered as such, but then fees began to increase dramatically, making BTC almost unusable for regular payments.

Commissions in the Bitcoin network over the last year

However, all is not lost yet: Etherium and Bitcoin can regain their status as a convenient means of payment, Vitalik believes. This problem is being solved by developers who are working on improving second-tier solutions like Lightning Network or the same rollups.

Read also: Commissions on the Etherium network won't fall after the blockchain moves to Proof-of-Stake. But why?

Aside from solving the problem of high commissions, there’s more positive news: according to analysts at platform Messari, the total amount of investment inflows into the crypto industry in the first half of the year has already surpassed that of the entire previous year. As it turns out, even the severe collapse of Bitcoin and altcoins has not shaken big investors’ faith in digital assets, which means there will be plenty of resources for further blockchain improvements.

Various funds and organisations raised more than $35.9 billion in investments in the first six months of 2022, according to CryptoPotato. At the same time, only $19 billion was raised in the whole of 2021. This year, investors have been focusing more on start-ups, meaning that the main consideration is the potential of the industry going forward.

Dynamics of fundraising in different areas of the crypto market in the first half of the year

This trend is well reflected in the fact that Etherium lost its lead in NFT-based fundraising in the first half of the year, as other new ecosystems “pulled” some of the funding. In addition, Ethereum-based projects received just $1.1 billion in investment, markedly less than other network-based projects combined – $2.9 billion.

Recently, NFTs based on the already mentioned Solana have been in notable demand, thanks in part to low fees. This is also evident in the growing popularity of trading platform Magic Eden, which raised $130 million in June this year and acquired a total valuation of $1.6 billion.

On the other hand, Eth-based DeFi protocols continued to dominate fundraising in the same period, with shares of 56 percent and 82 percent of investors’ capital going to the ETH ecosystem in the first and second quarters respectively. The report also notes the high popularity of exchanges and asset management platforms.


We believe Bitcoin is unlikely to become a full-fledged means of payment. This is not only because of slow and expensive transactions, but also because of the limited maximum supply of BTC in the amount of 21 million coins. With that in mind, users are not interested in spending bitcoins and prefer to save and hoard them, because over time, the price of an asset with a limited supply usually goes up. In any case, this is not a problem, as there are other cryptocurrency networks for regular transactions, and BTC and ETH could well turn into digital gold.