Gas Fees and Unconfirmed Transactions in Ethereum: A Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Focus

Abstract

The Ethereum blockchain has confronted challenges related to unconfirmed transactions and high costs for adding transactions to blocks since its inception when it adopted the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus. On the 15th of September 2022, a notable transition occurred within the Ethereum network as it formally embraced a new consensus mechanism known as proof-of-stake (PoS). Numerous studies have investigated the issue of unconfirmed transactions and high fees when Ethereum operated under the PoW consensus. In contrast to other studies, this research examines unconfirmed transactions and the costs associated with mining under the new PoS consensus. In this study, data was gathered over a three-week period, from December 1st to December 21st, 2023. The analysis of this dataset reveals that despite the transition to the new PoS system, both the costs and the number of unconfirmed transactions remain significantly higher than the expectations that were set regarding the adoption of PoS.