Ethereum can be expensive. Why do people still use it?

Summary

Ethereum remains the most widely used smart contract blockchain despite gas fees that regularly outstrip the value of the transactions they accompany. With over 200 million unique addresses and more than a million daily transactions, the network's popularity is precisely what strains its capacity and drives fees higher during periods of congestion, prompting many users to ask why they don't simply switch to lower-cost alternatives like Solana or Cardano.

Understanding gas fees requires looking at how Ethereum prices block space: transactions compete for limited capacity, and users who want faster confirmation must outbid others attempting to use the network at the same time. This dynamic ties directly into the blockchain's proof-of-work consensus mechanism and its ongoing migration toward proof-of-stake, both of which carry implications for decentralisation, security, and validator economics.

Beyond the technical mechanics, Ethereum's staying power rests on factors that go beyond cost, including its depth of decentralisation compared to rivals, the scale of its DeFi and NFT ecosystem spanning thousands of applications, and continued investment in scaling solutions such as rollups, sidechains, and sharding. Weighing these trade-offs helps explain why so many developers, collectors, and institutions keep transacting on Ethereum even as gas prices climb.

For anyone new to crypto or reconsidering where to transact, the decision comes down to balancing network effects and security guarantees against the price of admission.

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