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Vitalik emphasizes that transaction fees need to be less than $0.05, how much does it currently cost for L2 transactions? How to achieve cross-chain transactions?

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Vitalik emphasizes that transaction fees need to be less than $0.05, how much does it currently cost for L2 transactions? How to achieve cross-chain transactions?

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently emphasized on Twitter that Layer 2 transaction fees on Ethereum need to decrease to $0.05 to be truly accepted. He was responding to a screenshot shared by Ryan Sean Adams, founder of seven Layer 2 solutions L2.

According to data from DeFi Llama and L2Beat, these seven Layer 2 solutions are ranked by TVL from largest to smallest as follows:

  • Arbitrum One | TVL: $1.98 billion
  • Optimism Op | TVL: $460 million
  • Loopring LRC | TVL: $287 million
  • Metis Network METIS | TVL: $173 million
  • ZKSync | TVL: $95.57 million
  • Boba Network BOBA | TVL: $59.28 million
  • Polygon Hermez | TVL: $468,000

Ryan Sean Adams' screenshot on 5/3 (below) ranked by transaction fees, coinciding with Ethereum experiencing an epic gas fee spike due to the Otherside land auction, where he pointed out that Ethereum fees were "not that expensive."

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Vitalik responded:

The fees need to drop to $0.05 to truly be accepted, but Ethereum has definitely made significant progress in this regard, with the scaling solution Proto-danksharding EIP-4844 perhaps already being sufficient as a temporary solution for us.

Actually, Vitalik had expressed a similar view back in 2017, and when reflecting on his past views earlier this year, he reiterated this point and emphasized:

The cost of every transaction on the global monetary internet should not exceed 5 cents, but that 2017 goal is still a goal. This is why Ethereum has spent a lot of time researching scalability.

Note: The "transactions" in the title refer to Transfer on the blockchain rather than Swap.

It can be expected that a significant amount of future activities on Ethereum by users may be executed through Layer 2, and this article summarises the asset transfer methods of the aforementioned Layer 2 solutions.

Arbitrum One

Metamask website will continue to update and add precise information about other networks. Please refer to this or Chainlist, and L2 official documentation. Begin by adding networks to the Metamask wallet:

  • Network Name: Arb1
  • Chain ID: 42161
  • Currency Symbol: ETH
  • RPC Endpoint URL: https://arb1.arbitrum.io/rpc
  • Block Explorer: https://arbiscan.io/

Transferring from Arbitrum to Ethereum mainnet requires seven days, and the asset transfer methods are as follows:

  1. Official Cross-chain Bridge: Directly cross-chain deposit via Metamask wallet
  2. Multichain: Intuitive interface, similar to DEX token exchange
  3. Celer cBridge
  4. Synapse Protocol
  5. imToken
  6. Binance Exchange
  7. Bybit Exchange
  8. CRYPTO.COM
  9. KuCoin
  10. MEXC
  11. OKX
  12. FTX

Optimism Op

Add network:

  • Network Name: Optimism
  • Chain ID: 10
  • Currency Symbol: ETH
  • RPC Endpoint URL: mainnet.optimism.io
  • Block Explorer: https://www.optimism.io/

If you want to withdraw from Ethereum using the official cross-chain bridge, it takes seven days, while using third-party cross-chain bridges takes only about 20 minutes. However, Optimism does not bear any responsibility for third-party bridges. Asset transfer methods:

  1. Official Cross-chain Bridge
  2. Multichain
  3. Celer cBridge
  4. Synapse Protocol
  5. Hop protocol
  6. Connext
  7. Across
  8. Layerswap
  9. Binance Exchange
  10. Coinbase
  11. CRYPTO.COM
  12. KuCoin
  13. Huobi
  14. FTX

Loopring LRC

To use Loopring L2 exchange, simply enable the L2 wallet on Loopring website using Metamask, requiring a minimum deposit of 0.002288 ETH as activation fee.

Metis Network METIS

Add network via Chainlist or Metamask wallet:

  • Network Name: Metis Andromeda Mainnet
  • Chain ID: 1088
  • Currency Symbol: METIS
  • RPC Endpoint URL: https://andromeda.metis.io/?owner=1088
  • Block Explorer: https://andromeda-explorer.metis.io

Withdrawal through official Metis bridge takes about eight days, while third-party bridge protocols take approximately 3 to 20 minutes. Currently, it has not gained exchange support for its network. Asset transfer methods:

  1. Official Cross-chain Bridge
  2. Multichain
  3. BoringDao
  4. Relay Chain
  5. Poly Network
  6. Celer cBridge
  7. Synapse Protocol

ZKSync

ZKSync does not require adding a new network. Click on the Ethereum wallet on the official website and connect with MetaMask, then choose the Mainnet in the lower right corner.

You can transfer assets via official or the following cross-chain bridges:

  1. ZigZag
  2. Connext
  3. LayerSwap
  4. Celer cBridge
  5. OKX
  6. Orbiter.finance
  7. Bybit Exchange

Boba Network BOBA

Add the network via official website, Chainlist, or Metamask wallet:

The official Fast Bridge will be faster than the "Bridge" but charges an additional 0.1% fee. Other transfer methods are as follows:

  1. Multichain
  2. Celer cBridge
  3. Synapse Protocol

Polygon Hermez

Hermez Network is an Ethereum ZK Rollup scaling solution, acquired by Polygon for $250 million in August last year, merging HEZ and MATIC tokens, and renaming the protocol to "Polygon Hermez."

No need to add a new network for Hermez. Deposit and withdraw can be done through the official wallet and MetaMask.

The above Layer 2 solutions only Metis Network $0.02 and Loopring $0.07 are closest to Vitalik's vision of transferring below $0.05, while other L2 transfer fees are above $0.1. Moreover, Metis and Loopring have a TVL of around $200 million, much lower than the highest adoption Arbitrum One at $1.9 billion.

Vitalik recently stated in an interview that his personal influence over Ethereum is diminishing, indicating a continuous increase in decentralization, making it harder to push forward the developments he wants. He said:

For these developers, the projects I want to promote must work very hard to address everyone's concerns before they can proceed. Assuming I have enough control, EIP-4488 would have been deployed on Ethereum. This brings about a significant technical change, prompting L2 cost reductions in the short term.

Previously, The Block research team expected the rise of L2 coins ecosystem, with no news yet from Arbitrum, while Optimism has already launched its coin. However, the market focus seems to be heavily on NFTs and GameFi related areas.