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The fees that Ethereum users pay for using the network are now more than what the network spends on maintaining. Token analyst data published by Ankit Chipluncar say that Uncle Block miners received 2020 Ethereum (ETH) in March 20.400.
In the same month, the total sum of the money users and smart contracts commissions sent is equal to 26.100 ETH. Since February 2019, user commissions have always been less than the uncle block rewards.
However, in March 2020, the situation has undergone a serious change. It is worth noting that this change in correlation presumably occurred after the big sell-off on March 13th. Otherwise called "Bloody Friday", March 13 was the day Bitcoin lost 40% of its price in 24 hours. And Ethereum and other traditional currencies followed the trend.
What is the Uncle Reward?
The Uncle Block Reward is a fraction of the reward of a real block paid to the little miners who send the blocks a little later than the big miners. This is possible thanks to the high competition between miners and the slow Internet speed in some regions.
In the Bitcoin blockchain, only one block goes online every 10 minutes, even though two miners produce 2 blocks simultaneously. In Ethereum, by contrast, there are several blocks in production. There are basic blocks (main chain), stale blocks (or uncle blocks) and Forked blocks (Orphan).
The network pays a fraction of the block reward to people who send stale blocks to keep them in mining, and a slightly higher sum to the miners of the Forked blocks. The stale and forked blocks are the alternatives to the blocks accepted by the default network every 15 seconds. All types of blocks are usually extracted simultaneously.
What is the difference between uncle blocks and orphan blocks?
After the network reorganization, the orphan blocks are disappearing while the uncles remain. In addition, Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin said it is useful to refer to uncle blocks: "Ethereum stale blocks can be included in the chain again as" uncle ", where they receive up to 75% of their reward in basic blocks.
This mechanism was originally introduced to reduce centralization pressures, lowering the advantage that well-connected miners have over others, but it also has several collateral benefits, one of which is that stale blocks are tracked all the time in a database. easy access: the blockchain itself. ”
Smart contracts send more commissions than basic users
Ankit also notes that since January 2019 smart contracts have been paying more and more commissions than individuals. According to the analyzes made, with the basic transactions, in March people paid 2,700 ETH as commissions. Smart contracts (sometimes operating without direct human involvement) sent 23,400 ETH of Ethereum TX commissions over the same period.
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