With regard to the future of cryptocurrency, critics who are bothered by erratic gas prices, whether on Ethereum or elsewhere, are misguided.
Whether or whether Ethereum’s gas prices are too high has been a major topic of discussion throughout its history. Rollups have contributed to the exceptionally low fees it has this year, with the exception of the Aug. 4-5 crash, when they were unnecessarily raised. Which one is it then?
The unexpected response is that everything went according to plan.
You would anticipate periodic surges in the behavior of a wholesale market during periods of high demand. Those who view these developments as worrisome are not seeing the future of cryptocurrency correctly.
To recap, the modular scaling concept is predicated on the notion that blockchains are the suppliers of a rare resource known as secure block space rather than networks that handle activities. Securing safe block space is constantly auctioned off to the highest bidder, with the winner being whoever needs it the most, just like any other scarce asset (such land, oil, or power). This will probably be a layer 2 or a whale, or a wholesale buyer.
The ideology of monolithic chains is closer to that of networks, seeking to provide equal services to all customers. This is not feasible since blockchains are not merely networks in the same sense that the internet is. It’s not a huge concern if an email or video feed is delayed.
Envision a scenario where the post office assessed the same fee for an overnight shipment and a second-class post card.
This would not be feasible as everyone would choose the overnight package, even for non-urgent packages. Maintaining a pricing strategy where supply is always less than demand requires continuous capacity addition to keep costs from rising.
On a modular chain, however, this is less significant. The reason why individual users continue to trade on L1 is to have the highest level of security. That only makes sense when they are transacting with big orders. A trading company conducting a $5 million swap is unaffected if gas prices drop to 500 gwei. It hardly affects their earnings.
Rollups and other wholesale providers are the other participants on such an L1.