It seems to me this madness has already ended. it's January 2021. At the end of 2017 it was the same, then a decline, calm in cryptocurrency, we are now waiting for 2023. Until that time, I think it will be possible to send cheaply.
It seems like so. The "De-Fi" hype may be over, resulting in reduced fees for everyone. Still, ETH network fees are above $1, limiting people's ability to interact with smart contracts on a daily basis. To be able to enjoy sub $1 fees, the network needs to scale by adopting new upgrades as soon as possible. Now that we're close from obtaining the full benefits of ETH 2.0, it should only be a matter of time before ETH becomes great again. Full PoS (Proof of Stake) and Sharding will make ETH as good as it was in its early days. ETH's main selling point was 14 second block times and ridiculously low fees. That made it reach the top to the point where it's the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world. If it wants to stay that way, the team is going to need to implement network upgrades in the least time possible to beat the competition. Otherwise, alternatives like TRON, EOS, and Polkadot will reduce ETH's market dominance.
Nonetheless, I believe that ETH's high network fees may not last for long. If you still want to transact cheaply on the Blockchain, you're going to need to wait until network activity reduces to a minimum. Setting a low "gas" fee will do the trick. The only downside is that you're going to have to have a lot longer before your transaction is settled on-chain. But at least, this is better than waiting hours and paying fees well above $5 on the Bitcoin blockchain. With scaling solutions on the way (both on-chain and off-chain), high fees on the Ethereum blockchain will become a thing of the past. Just my thoughts
