Gas-Free Transactions: The Next Revolution in Web3 Technology

One of the biggest problems faced in crypto and DeFi to this day is their factor of scalability. Specifically, the aspect of network gas fees, is enough to drive many new users away from the web3 space. Luckily for us, there are solutions being discovered that may eventually render gas fees a thing of the past for the average user!

What are Gas Fees

If you are new to crypto, the concept of gas fees may be somewhat daunting, although their purpose is quite simple. Validating transactions in DeFi requires validators to consume computing energy. Gas fees are the payments made by users of the blockchain as compensation for the computing energy which was required to process the transaction.

Whenever network traffic is high, it requires more energy to process transactions, so the gas fee becomes higher. When the network is slow, it takes much less energy to process transactions, therefore the gas fees become lower. As cryptocurrency becomes more mainstream, a problem arises in its scalability: gas fees continue to increase, therefore it perpetually becomes more expensive to process transactions on DeFi blockchains.

The Root of the Problem

The elephant question in the room is how to effectively decrease or eliminate gas fees, although it’s not quite that simple. Scalability in blockchain powered cryptocurrencies can only be achieved in layer-1 by either sacrificing its decentralization or security. This is known as the blockchain trilemma.

The Blockchain Trilemma

The blockchain trilemma is a concept which was proposed by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, which states that any blockchain powered technology is governed by three aspects:

• Decentralization

• Scalability

• Security

The blockchain trilemma states that any blockchain creator must sacrifice one of these three aspects within the layer one protocol of said blockchain technology in order for it to function. If Scalability and security are the most important aspects of a blockchain technology, then the processors used to validate the blockchain would need to be powerful, and would need to be monitored by a tight-knit governing body, such as a tech company. This would of course mean that this hypothetical blockchain technology would be completely centralized and controllable by small number of individuals.

The same goes for the other two possible combinations of aspects within the blockchain trilemma. One aspect must always be sacrificed, or the system will simply stop working once it grows beyond its means.

Possible Solutions

Even with advancements such as Ethereum 2.0 coming fourth, many experts still believe that the answer lies in layer-2 scaling solutions, rather than the network itself. A layer-2 scaling solution is another program which runs on top of the blockchain, and is designed to assist layer-1 by improving its validation time and energy consumption by validating transactions more securely, while simultaneously using less energy. Essentially, they can “batch” transactions, much in the same way that the Algorand blockchain utilizes atomic transfers at layer-1 to keep transactions cost effective. In a batch transaction, the blockchain is capable of processing 1000 transactions for the cost of one.

Conclusion

Although there is still quite a lot of work to be done when it comes to eliminating gas fees altogether, there has been some significant improvements over the last few years. Sooner than later its not impossible to think that gas fees will be so negligible that web3 DeFi projects will become more mainstream than ever before! Because of projects such as this, it is clear that we are living in one of the most technologically exciting times in history!

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