Scroll slashes fees by 75%, but will that be enough to draw new users?

Scroll, an Ethereum layer 2 network, enabled “blobs,” a key feature of the recent Ethereum Dencun upgrade, on its blockchain on Monday, dropping transaction fees on the network by around 75%.

In the hours leading up to the upgrade, the median transaction fee on the network was about $0.62, and now it is around $0.15.

Like with other layer 2 blockchains, lower fees may spur more activity. In line with that, Scroll introduced a points programme, dubbed Session Zero, to entice users to deposit on the blockchain.

In this programme, users receive Scroll Marks for bridging Ether or wstETH via Scroll’s native bridge or for bridging STONE using LayerZero. Users earn additional Marks by holding these assets on Scroll.

It’s expected that the Marks will convert to tokens at a later date, although that hasn’t been confirmed by the Scroll team.

Since Session Zero launched on April 17, the total value of crypto assets on the blockchain has surged $36 million to a record $195 million, and the amount of stablecoins deposited has risen by 8%, or around $3 million.

Despite the gains, however, other metrics such as active addresses and transaction counts have fallen.

Active addresses have declined by about 4%, and daily transactions have decreased by roughly 10%.

This trend — rising asset values alongside falling user engagement — may be the result of high transaction fees. While users were initially eager to earn Scroll Marks, the prohibitively expensive fees may have deterred more activity.

The much lower transaction fees may alter that pattern, although Scroll still remains the second-most expensive layer 2 network in terms of median transaction fees.

It is still early, however, and fees may drop further as the network evolves.

Dencun upgrade

Dencun was a series of nine Ethereum Improvement Proposals, or EIPs. The most important was EIP-4844, which dramatically cuts the cost of transacting on layer 2 networks.

EIP-4844 introduced blobs, which are a unique transaction format that segregates layer 2 network transactions from standard network activity on the Ethereum mainnet, reducing congestion and transaction fees.

Scroll is the one of the last major Ethereum layer 2 blockchains to enable blobs since the Dencun upgrade went live on March 13.

Scroll had been waiting for its Bernouli upgrade to go live.

The two new features enabled by this upgrade are blobs, and SHA2-256, which is designed to improve security and efficiency for dapps on the blockchain.

Ryan Celaj is a data correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at ryan@dlnews.com.