Ethereum's Layer 2 scaling solution, Polygon, experienced a massive surge in transaction fees last week. Gas prices on Polygon spiked over 1,000% to a peak of 10 cents per transaction. This was far above the normal sub-1 cent fees on the network.
The surge was attributed to a flurry of activity around the minting of a token called POLS, which is modeled after the Ordinals NFT protocol on Ethereum mainnet. The rush to mint POLS NFTs on Polygon congested the network and shot up gas fees for all users.
Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal expressed surprise at the event, admitting the team did not anticipate this level of activity around POLS at launch. Congestion was exacerbated by speculators looking to flip the NFTs quickly. Fees returned to normal levels once the initial minting settled down.
The incident highlights Polygon's victim of its own success. As a popular Layer 2, heavy usage can occasionally spike gas prices. However, Polygon maintains significant cost advantages over Ethereum mainnet even during peak congestion. The network continues to gain traction among developers thanks to its scalability and robust tooling.
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