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Anyone else think Ethereum is difficult to use these days?

Yeah, theres a bunch of cool stuff on Ethereum meme tokens, NFTs, DeFi, degens its all there. But over the years as the blockchain evolved, it has become more expensive and more complicated as in, an already complex technology for users has become even moreso.

Not only do users need to understand crypto basics like wallets, irreversible transactions and addresses, they also now have to contend with getting to know different chains. You cant just send Ethereum chain ETH to Optimism chain ETH, or Optimism chain ETH to Polygon chain ETH, unless of course you use a bridge which means that this system might be getting a little complex for many users.

Ethereum is becoming a multilayered lasagna-like system whereby complexity and fees are pushing people to the margins, causing interoperability and security concerns.

I wouldnt say theres anyone in particular to blame for this; its an ecosystem problem as a whole. When Ethereum launched almost 10 years ago, nobody was using it. At that time, any usage at all was welcomed.

Now, its 2024 and there is usage. But theres also expensive layer-1 fees. Average transaction fees on the layer-1 Ethereum blockchain are at $0.94. If a user wants to interact with a smart contract, like a DEX, fees are averaging $4.70.

Some might say, Well, maybe its time to examine fees themselves. Problem is, fees are what secure the network. If validators were not being incentivized by staking and reaping fees, what would be the point?

Okay, yeah, but theres the layer-2 options, right? There are. And Arbitrum and Optimism have both transaction and smart contract fees at less than $0.02. Were securing the bottom layer, enabling lower fees on the second.

But as a Coinbase report from late last year noted, there are so many of these layer-2s that fragmentation now exists between all of these different chains. And mainstream users, aka those who could enable mass adoption, want financial apps that dont make things complicated.

The point is clearly that Ethereum is just one big-ass financial experiment. I actually wrote about this way back in 2016, about Ethereum being a fintech sandbox.

And it has been one. When I wrote that piece, ICOs were only slowly gaining traction, DEXs were in their infancy and there wasnt even an NFT token standard yet just Plain Jane ERC-20s.

Read more from our opinion section: BlackRock clearly wants to take crypto seriously. Too bad its forever silly.

Times have certainly changed. Ethereums world computer concept, the idea that people could build programmable monetary systems on a verifiable blockchain, has been a success. The Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM, is a standard for smart contract development even outside the Ethereum ecosystem.

Then, theres the 2022 move to the proof-of-stake model, which to Ethereums credit, was pulled off with remarkable execution.

Yet Ive heard of people working on Ethereum layer-3 projects now. Thats an abstraction of two layers can anyone come up with something comparable for so many layers in technology? Maybe the OSI model? It has seven layers. But its used for data in networking, all running at the same speed. And theres no fees. Its just categorizing data.

Okay, well, blockchains are just data. So then we arrive back at the fee conundrum. But blockchains are decentralized, so there has to be some incentive to support the network, right?

Fees secure the Ethereum network, rent the computing power to do things and also limit spam. With that in mind, I suppose there have to be fees in the system Im not proposing some grand, new fee-less Ethereum design, thats for the Vitalik Buterins of the world.

There are rollups, and thats promising because they can batch process transactions off of Ethereum while lowering fees with the same level of security. Or maybe some smart startup can somehow increase interoperability instead of reducing it by having users dig through layers like a Stouffers Italiano.

I just am not convinced of the feasibility and long-term viability of so many bridges, some of which have been compromised. It feels like too many vulnerabilities in the margins. Perhaps a standardization of bridges is needed, and many wallets do warn users about interacting with bad smart contracts, so some safeguarding is happening.

But Im still trying to coincide my recent experiences with Ethereum as something

Very.

Lasagna-like.

Tasty for the taste buds as a food, yes.

But isnt it a bit complex for people to use as a blockchain? People want apps that offer free flow of money, not restrictive layers. Hopefully, Ethereum can evolve past this lasagna stage.

Daniel Cawrey has been involved full-time in the crypto space since 2013, including as an editor at CoinDesk. He is author of 2020s Mastering Blockchain and 2023s Understanding Crypto books, both available on Amazon.

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Ethereum is too hard to use - Blockworks