Compare Fees on Cosmos with other chains
Introduction
- In this Analysis, You will read about fees on popular chains. I analyzed Fees on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Osmosis, Flow, Near, Algorand and Cosmos.
- I went through these chains and analyzed these parameters:
- Transactions
- Average daily Fees in USD
- Average daily/hourly Fees and transactions per block
- Average daily fees for 1M US dollars transfers
- Total, daily median/max fees in USD
- Top 10 user transactions and Fees
- Top 10 users Max/median/average Fees
Analyzed by Hess - Reading Time Almost 15 min.
Full Analysis
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ALL CODES AND CONTENTS WERE WRITTEN BY HESS.
Ethereum
- Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. Ethereum was conceived in 2013 by programmer Vitalik Buterin
Algorand
- Algorand (ALGO) is both a digital currency and blockchain platform. The Algorand platform is designed to process many transactions quickly, similar to major payment processors like Mastercard or Visa. In addition, Algorand can host other cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based projects, making it a direct competitor to Ethereum. ALGO, the platform's native currency, is used to secure the Algorand blockchain and pay processing fees for Algorand-based transactions
Near
- NEAR is the native token of the NEAR Protocol, a highly scalable blockchain network that provides a developer-friendly, decentralized application platform. NEAR tokens are used to pay network fees and can be staked to enhance network security.
Flow
- Flow is a blockchain platform that originally was designed for gaming purposes, but has expanded since its launch in 2020. The flow blockchain enables fast, low-cost transactions and supports smart contracts. It powers blockchain applications including NBA Top Shot, a non-fungible token (NFT) offering.
Polygon
- Polygon is an Indian blockchain platform. It aims to create a multi-chain blockchain ecosystem compatible with Ethereum. As with Ethereum, it uses a Proof of Stake consensus model. Polygon's native token is named MATIC. Polygon is used by Decentralized application, including DeFi, DAOs, and NFTs.
Optimism
- Optimism is a fast, stable, and scalable L2 blockchain built by Ethereum developers, for Ethereum developers. Built as a minimal extension to existing Ethereum software, Optimism's EVM-equivalent architecture scales your Ethereum apps without surprises.
Arbitrum
- The Arbitrum network is a layer-2 functionality, developed by the New York-based company Offchain Labs, which seeks to solve the congestion that the Ethereum network has been experiencing by improving how smart contracts are validated.
Osmosis
- Osmosis is a DEX protocol, which means it uses smart contracts to determine the price of digital assets, to produce liquidity via a peer-to-peer (P2P) methodology, and to exact trades between users. This approach to an exchange platform is known as an AMM — a DEX protocol that prices crypto assets in liquidity pools
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Transactions and Fees
- Let’s examine transactions on these chains. Polygon has the highest number of transactions in comparison to other chains. In the last 60 days, Nearly 172M transactions were on Polygon. This is a vast number and considerably different from other chains. After Polygon, Algorand, with 68M transactions, is the second top chain. With 64M transactions, Ethereum is the third top chain. Ethereum and Flow chains had similar transactions in the last 60 days. Both had almost 64-61M transactions in 60 days.
- Among these chains, Cosmos had the lowest number of transactions. Cosmos had only 2.8M transactions. After Cosmosis, Osmosis, with 9.8M transactions and Near with 28MM transactions, are the following places. Arbitrum is between these chains, with around 37M transactions in 60 days.
We have already, Examined the total transactions on these chains. Now it’s time to examine the total fees per chain.
- All crypto users know Ethereum has the highest transaction fees compared to other chains. In the last 60 days, Users spent nearly 186M US dollars for fees on the Ethereum chain. Ethereum has a huge difference from other chains. We can not compare Ethereum with other chains.
- Interestingly, Polygon, with a huge number of transactions (Almost 150M), is not a top chain based on transaction fees.
- The polygon chain with 3.9M US dollars is the top second chain compared to other chains. After Polygon, I can see other Layer2 chains. Optimism and Arbitrum. These chains are next, with 2.7M and 1.8M US dollars.
- Flow and Osmosis had the lowest fees in comparison to other chains. We already know that Flow had nearly 61M transactions in the last 60 days.
- After Flow and Osmosis, Near, Algorand and Cosmos had the lowest fees with 104K, 84K, and 24K US dollars. However, Near and Cosmos had the lowest number of transactions too.
- Overall, Ethereum, with around 186M transactions, had the highest volume of fees.
With average and median volume, We can better understand fees on different chains. I analyzed the average, Median, and max fees in USD per chain in these three charts. I should mention that due to the token prices, All parameters decreased over the last 60 days.
Median:
- Ethereum had the highest median fees in comparison to other chains. The daily median fee on Ethereum was 0.7-1.3 US dollars.
- The next places are Layer2 chains like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon. Optimism median fees were much higher than Arbitrum and Polygon. The daily median fees on Optimism were 0.1-0.08, while Polygon median fees were 0.005-0.01.
- Flow, Osmosis, and Algorand had the lowest daily median fees compared to other chains.
- The median fee on Cosmos was 0.020-0.026 US dollars.
Max:
- Max fees were interesting. The highest fee is paid by an Ethereum user. That user paid almost 157K US dollars for a transaction on October 10.
- Almost all chain’s max fees are paid in that time. The highest amount of Fees paid by Optimism users was 453 US dollars.
- We all know Polygon is one of the chains with lower transaction fees. But In November, A user paid 488 US dollars for the Fee!
- The highest fee paid on Cosmos was 11.8 US dollars.
Average:
- Ethereum had the highest daily average fees in USD, like the other two parameters. Ethereum users are paid almost 2-7 US dollars for transactions.
- Optimism and Arbitrum had the highest average fee after Ethereum.
- The average daily fees in USD on Cosmos were higher than on Polygon. Only in the middle of November did the average fees on Cosmos decrease and became after Polygon.
- Flow, Algorand, and Osmosis had the lowest average. Numbers were too low.
- Average Fees on Near didn’t change over time.
Fees Per block
The average daily number of transactions per block on Polygon and Ethereum was higher than on other chains. Interestingly, Arbitrum had the lowest average number of transactions per block. After Arbitrum, Near and Cosmos had the lowest average number of transactions per block in the last 60 days.
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Ethereum has the highest average fees per block in comparison to other chains. Ethereum differs greatly from other chains based on average daily fees per block.
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Ethereum's average fee per block is 360-1.1K US dollars. The second Top chain was Polygon. Polygon average fees per block were 0.8-10 US dollars.
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Cosmos had a higher average fee per block than Optimism and Arbitrum, and after Ethereum and Polygon, is in third place with 0.09-0.19.
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Optimism and Arbitrum were the next top chains. Optimism and Arbitrum fees per Block were 0.1-0.5 US dollars.
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All other chains had lower than 1$ fees per block.
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For a Shor time, in the first days of November, The average fees per block increased.
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Compare Top 10 Users Per chain
I extracted the Top 10 users based on total paid Fees per chain.
- Ethereum's Top users are on the top list. After Ethereum, Polygon's Top Users paid more than other top 10 users.
- The Top User paid 1.3M US dollars on Ethereum, which was the highest Fee compared to other chains.
- Interestingly, Two Users are in the Top 10 users in two chains.
- Flow and Osmosis's Top 10 users paid the lowest fees compared to other chains.
- Following those chains, Cosmos and Algorand's top 10 users are in the following places.
The highest average fee per block was on the Ethereum chain. Also, Ethereum has the highest average number of transactions per block.
Polygon had the second-highest average transactions per block. The other two layers, Arbitrum, and Optimism, had the lowest hourly number of transactions per block.
After These chains, Cosmos had the lowest average hourly number of transactions per block.
- The average hourly fees in USD on Ethereum per block had the highest amount. The average hourly fees in USD had so many ups and downs. For example, On Ethereum, The average hourly fee on Ethereum increased by 1K US dollars in one hour.
- After Ethereum, Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum were in the next places. However, In some hours, Cosmos took their places.
- Like previous parameters, Flow, Osmosis, and Algorand had the lowest hourly fees per block.
Top Users Per Chain
- In order to understand each chain better, I analyzed each chain separately. You will read these parameters for each chain:
- Total Number of transactions
- Total Fees in USD
- Average Fee in USD
- Max Fee in USD
- Total Number of transactions and Fees per Top 10 users based on total Fees
- Max/Median/Average Fees of Top 10 users
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What is Fee?
- The blockchain fee is a cryptocurrency transaction fee that is charged to users when performing crypto transactions. The fee is collected in order to process the transaction on the network. You need to pay the blockchain fee to ensure your cryptocurrency transfers arrive in a timely manner.
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What is Cosmos?
- The Cosmos Network is a decentralized network of independent, scalable, and interoperable blockchains, creating the foundation for a new token economy.