Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum (ETH), warns that Ethereum may become less secure due to high fees. Buterin once again supported the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, which aims to renew the network’s existing wage model. According to Buterin, Ethereum’s increase in transaction fees is one of the reasons why this is important.
Transaction fee revenue is now nearing half as high as block reward revenue. This actually risks making ethereum *less* secure because of https://t.co/Dase8SL30z. Fee market reform (ie. EIP 1559) fixes this; another reason why that EIP is important. pic.twitter.com/eqU3tAMh67
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 21, 2020
“The Last Puzzle”
The proposal introduced by Ethereum developer Eric Conner in April 2019 would burn most of the ETH at every transaction fee. This can be done by introducing a minimum fee called “BASEFEE” that adjusts the cost of transactions according to the level of network congestion.
Wallets will no longer have to guess gas charges, but will still be an option for users to pay miners “tip” to verify their transactions faster.
David Hoffman, RealT Platform COO, described EIP 1559 as the “end puzzle” of the cryptocurrency’s monetary policy in his blog post last year. If the offer is applied, Hoffman expects Ethereum to be safer.
“In addition to the Ethereum shortage today, Ethereum’s security is secured tomorrow.”
Skyrocketing Ethereum Fees
Ethereum’s transaction fees have increased fivefold over the past week since April, exceeding 50 Gwei. They are now approaching 50 percent of Ethereum’s block reward revenue. This could undermine the security of the network unless green light is given to EIP 1559, according to an article published by Princeton researchers.
