<img src="https://cryptoslate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ethereum-blobscription.jpg” />
ethereum blob transaction fees witnessed an unprecedented surge yesterday with the debut of “BlobScriptions”.
Blobs represent a novel transaction type that alleviates layer 2 fees on the ethereum network and were introduced via the Dencun upgrade. Since its inception, the minimum gas price for a Blob to secure inclusion in an ethereum block has remained at one WEI, approximately $0.01.
However, this fee saw a surprising increase of over 10,000% yesterday, reaching almost $300, following the introduction of BlobScriptions by Ethscriptions.
As of press time, average Blob fees have dropped to approximately $6.57, or 13.97 gwei, according to Dune Analytics. panel curated by Dragonfly analyst Hildobby.
What are BlobScriptions?
BlobScriptions, similar to bitcoin inscriptions, allow network users to inscribe nft-like assets, including images, text, and tokens, to ethereum blobs.
Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, saying:
“ethereum created a special place with reduced fees to encourage specific types of transactions (blobs), then people started putting jpgs there.”
Ahead of its launch, Tom Lehman, the founder of Ethscriptions who operates under the pseudonym “Middlemarch” on X, urged The community took the opportunity to “write something big” on the network, highlighting that “Blobs are essentially free right now.”
At press time, over 1,000 blob signups were signed up in the last 4 hours, according to data of Dune Analysis.
In particular, the rise of these assets has caused significant congestion in blob transactions, resulting in fierce competition for space within ethereum blocks. Consequently, the number of outstanding blobs in a block has skyrocketed by more than 3,700%, with blob space utilization at 100%, according to Ethernow. data.
What does this mean for the network?
Various stakeholders have different opinions on how BlobScriptions could affect the functioning of ethereum.
A developer, Daniel, opined that the proliferation of these assets could trigger an increase in layer 2 network transaction fees.
According to:
“ethereum is already very congested, so don't play with blob inscriptions, which will cause an increase in layer 2 transaction fees. Several bytes of data take up 128 kb of storage space, wasting a lot of on-chain resources ”.
However, Christine Kim, a researcher at Galaxy Digital, explained that the current trend is unsustainable. She saying:
“Blob fees increase exponentially due to (BlobScriptions), eventually making it uneconomical to continue spamming blob space with inscriptions, leaving blob space again available for economically valuable activities like l2 DA.”
