Why is the Gas price to send ETH so astronomically high nowadays. I've been reading threads here where people are complaining about high gas prices. Why the transaction cost is set so high? Wasnt ETH supposed to provide us with a faster and cheaper alternative than traditional banking?
Transaction fees on ethereum network used to be very cheap and very affordable for users to pay. But it became a problem with the introduction of stuffs like token sales in 2017 - 2018 and defi in late 2019 till date. These new ventures meant there was an influx of new users joining the network to participate in these projects resulting in more transactions in the backlog. When this happens, some people are willing to increase their chances of skipping the line and getting their transactions confirmed first before others. With time, people kept increasing their fees until it got too high. Now, it's just like if you don't want to pay those fees, then you're not ready to get your transactions confirm. It's a norm until pos goes live.