More than 1 million ETH transactions were not processed in May
3 min read
The Ethereum network experienced a high number of unprocessed transactions in May. According to data from Blockchain Block Explorer, the network failed to run more than 1.2 million last month.
More specifically, there were 1,228,131 transactions that Ethreum did not process between May 1 and May 31. There was an increase of 200 thousand in relation to the month of April. As a result, the current number represents 2% of all failed transactions in the network’s history.
A transaction can be rejected for a number of reasons. In this sense, the wrong sender may try to send an improper transaction, for example. Another case occurs when someone tries to send funds that are negative or with insufficient fees.
According to Vitalik Buterin, the implementation of The Merge tends to reduce these losses. And indeed, ETH will implement a new testing phase on June 8th.
Fees and more than 3 Ether of losses
Beforehand, the main problem with ETH is fees. While costs have dropped in recent days, the price of a transaction is a constant issue.
These problems affect the network especially at times of high demand. For example, when the long-awaited collection of NFTs Otherdeed was released at the end of April. Due to strong demand, the fees for sending a transaction on ETH reached almost US$475.
Source: Ycharts.
In ETH, fees are called gas and have an abstract unit called gwei. The minimum transaction fee is always 21K gas, but the cost in terms of ETH/GWEI may vary depending on network demand.
The 1.2 million failed transactions referenced had non-zero transaction fees, meaning they were paid. But as the user can choose the rate he wants to pay, it is possible that the amounts were too low. In the first three days of May alone, more than 83,000 transactions were accepted.
Unfortunately, users do not get the fees paid back if the transaction fails. That way, whoever sends the transactions ends up losing the fees. In just five of these more than 1.2 million failed transactions, more than 3 Ether (ETH) were lost.
The Merge can cut spending
Vitalik Buterin, creator of ETH, claims that transaction costs will decrease significantly after the The Merge, update that will change the network mining algorithm. The move to Proof of Stake (PoS) is expected to streamline fees and allow for cheaper transactions.
In this sense, the Ropsten testnet is already preparing a change. It will be ETH’s first public testnet for transitioning from proof of work (POW) to POS. The expectation is that Merge will be implemented on the mainnet by August of this year.
ETH lead developer Tim Beiko shared the news on Twitter on Tuesday night (31).
“Roapsten, ETH’s oldest testnet, is moving into proof-of-stake! A new Beacon chain was launched today and Merge is expected around June 8th on the network,” said Beiko.
It is worth noting that June 8 is the date scheduled for the launch of the PoS at Roapsten. Next, the team plans to track PoS testing and performance on the network. If all goes as planned, the change should take place without further delays.
