Any Ethereum user who has interacted with this network in recent months knows firsthand the high fees for transfers and swaps.
For example, when we analyzed the Uniswap decentralized cryptocurrency exchange in detail, the cost of exchanging a cryptocurrency reached $ 30. Well, in January of this year, the indicator even exceeded $ 100 at the local peak of network congestion. While only the developers can fix the situation, some tricks can still help save money when using the ETH blockchain. Here’s how to do it.
By tradition, let’s start with an explanation. The technical capabilities of the Ethereum network – as well as Bitcoin – are limited. This means that they can only handle a certain number of transactions per second. Accordingly, when there are too many people willing to make a transfer, the size of the transaction fees grows. The logic here is simple: due to the auction model, the transaction for which the user has paid more money will be carried out first. Recall that we are talking about the cost of the so-called gas – a unit of payment for interaction with the cryptocurrency network.
Dealing with the problem of high commissions is difficult, but really, and the developers are really working on it. In particular, it will remain in the past after Ethereum’s transition to version 2.0, which, due to a different consensus mechanism – that is, a way of agreeing on the current version of the blockchain and adding blocks – will be able to cope with a significantly larger number of transfers.
Also, some projects are now implementing so-called second-level solutions. Their peculiarity is to move several user transactions outside the main blockchain and enter the final result of transfers into it. Thus, network resources are significantly saved, and users pay less.
However, you can save money without it. The simplest trick is to avoid making transactions at certain times of the day when the network is in high demand. New research by analysts from Flipside Crypto shows that the Ethereum blockchain exhibits well-defined congestion patterns that an experienced user can use to save on gas bills, Cointelegraph reports. Recall, we wrote in more detail about the mechanism for calculating commissions in Ether in this article.
We have checked the current data: now you need to pay 73 gwea for a quick transaction per unit of gas. This is quite a lot, because recently in the mornings this figure has been at the level of 50-60 gvei. Obviously, users reacted to changes in cryptocurrency rates and began to carry out transfers. This usually happens due to panic amid a market crash, when people rush to sell an asset that can allegedly bring them losses.
However, this is still less than it often happens during the day and in the evenings.
How to save money on transfers in Ethereum?
Analysts at Flipside Crypto have calculated the average online commission starting January 1, 2020. According to the chart published by him, on average, the Ethereum blockchain is busiest from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm Moscow time, which roughly corresponds to the early trading session in the United States. This is most likely not a coincidence, since at this time Europe and the US are fully awake and working.
This means that they are actively carrying out transfers, which loads the network and affects the amount of commissions.
In contrast, the least busy period is between 00:00 and 02:00 Moscow time. This also makes sense: then the working day in the United States comes to an end, Europe prepares for bed, and in Asia it is still very early morning. This information is useful to wait out periods of high activity or send a transaction with a lower fee, knowing that it will be confirmed over time. The latter technique is important only for low-priority transactions such as a simple token transfer, but it is not suitable for working with DeFi protocols, since speed is important here.
In addition to just waiting and working at certain times of the day, some tricks can also help to significantly reduce the cost of gas. The Chi Gas token, for example, reduces the total amount of gas consumed by a particular transaction. It acts as a storage mechanism for discounts – users have to release Chi when gas is cheap and use it when network charges go up. However, this method will be too complicated for beginners.
From personal experience, we can cancel that by using the cryptocurrency network at a certain time, you can really save money. If you need to conduct a non-urgent transaction or exchange of coins, you can do this early in the morning or closer to the night. Thus, you will be able to get at least a 50% discount on the cost of the operation compared to the afternoon.
We believe that this method can be actively used. Yet many people trade and exchange coins at their own convenience. This means that even if the majority learns about the «cheap» time periods, it still will not significantly change the situation.
