- Buterin shares personal experiences of payment issues on Ethereum network
- Outliers still exist despite recent enhancements, according to Buterin
- Transaction speed and UI issues continue to pose challenges for users
In a new blog post, Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin detailed the ongoing need to enhance the namesake network to support ETH as a payment method.
During his visit to an Argentine coffee shop in 2021, Buterin tried to pay for tea for himself and his friends but was required to pay 0.01 ETH (about $40 at the time) because that was the minimum deposit required for the proprietor’s exchange account.
In another case, Buterin described how, in 2022, he attempted to pay for tea at a different location, but two separate transactions failed due to the need for “additional gas to conduct the transfer” and a UI issue in his mobile wallet.
According to Buterin, despite recent enhancements, outliers continue to exist on the Ethereum network.
He wrote,
If you send a transaction at the same time as when many others are sending transactions and the base fee is spiking up, you risk the base fee going too high and your transaction not getting accepted.
Buterin added that even experts could be confused at how to speed up transactions in such cases.
Even worse, wallet UIs suck at showing this. There are no big red flashing alerts, and very little clear indication of what you’re supposed to do to solve this problem
In other news, Lark Davis, a crypto educator and investor, indicated that US Treasury Secretary Jannet Yellen will not outlaw the cryptocurrency business but will instead impose harsher restrictions that all crypto dealers and investors must follow in the country. She believes that the new laws will bring stability and confidence to the cryptocurrency markets, which will be advantageous to the industry’s long-term growth.
