The Ethereum network set a new throughput record yesterday, processing over a half million transactions in less than a 24 hour period.
With all the news attention being focused on Bitcoin, the Chinese ICO ban, and Ripple’s lawsuit woes, Ethereum has quietly continued to grow in number of users and computational power.
Fees unchanged
While the network usage has risen exponentially, transaction fees have remained the same. Most transactions can be completed for around $0.70, substantially less than fees on many other networks. The transactions seem to be flowing from mining, exchange trading, and ICO investment payments.
The network will likely continue to see increasing volume as the Metropolis hard fork comes online in coming months. The first half of the fork, Byzantium, is scheduled to be brought online starting September 18th.
While the volume increases are encouraging for Ethereum investors, they do point to the fact that the Blockchain must implement scaling solutions in the near future. As the throughput continues to increase, these scaling solutions will become increasingly critical for maintaining service to users.