Vitalik Buterin says ETH Layer-2 fees need to reach $0.05 to be acceptable

Ethereum (ETH) founder Vitalik Buterin said the gas cost levied on Layer-2 solutions must be significantly lower before they can be “acceptable.”

Vitalik commented in response to a tweet by Ryan Sean Adams — a well-known crypto investor — showing a list of gas prices needed to connect tokens to the Ethereum network through different Layer-2 protocols. Adams claimed the fees are not expensive.

Needs to get under $0.05 to be truly acceptable imo. But we’re definitely making great progress, and even proto-danksharding may be enough to get us there for a while!

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) May 3, 2022

According to the list, the needed gas prices were all less than $1, with Metis Network (METIS) having the lowest at $0.02 and Arbitrum One having the most at $0.85.

Even though Ryan Adams feels these rates are low, Buterin believes they are not low enough. He pointed out that the gas prices imposed by these L2 networks must be less than $0.05 to be considered acceptable.

For a long time, the Ethereum network has occasionally suffered from astronomically high gas prices and limited scalability whenever the network experiences a high volume of transactions. One user recently spent $44,000 in gas fees trying to mint Bored Ape ‘Otherside’ NFTs.

During periods of high demand, gas fees tend to soar, limiting many users’ access to some of the most desirable Ethereum-based Defi and NFT protocols. Several network members have resorted to utilizing Ethereum Layer-2 networks to save costs. These scaling solutions operate alongside the mainchain to validate transactions, reducing the strain on the main blockchain.

Buterin acknowledged that the L2s are making progress in this area and that the recently suggested proto-danksharding will help speed up the process. In comparison to earlier sharding systems, this new one simplifies significantly.