Gini Transaction Fees

Why Do Cryptocurrencies Need Transaction Fees? Virtually all cryptocurrencies have transaction fees because all blockchains and Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) require significant network, storage, and electricity resources to run efficiently and securely. Gini is one of the least expensive cryptocurrency networks (e.g., Bitcoin and Ethereum are at least an order of magnitude more expensive), but the laws of physics still affect the Gini Network like any other network.

Transaction Fees Deter Criminal Behavior. Transaction fees are an important deterrent to numerous types of network attacks and criminal behavior. Contrary to what some crypto teams may claim, "a simple proof-of-work hash" is not enough to protect a network because it's trivial for a hacker's bot army, large corporation, or national government to execute numerous types of large-scale attacks against any zero-fee cryptocurrency network. In fact, if there is no cost to attacking a network or engaging in criminal behavior, then there's simply no meaningful mechanism to discourage malicious and criminal behavior. Transaction fees make it very expensive to execute large-scale attacks, which dramatically reduces the possibility of such attacks occurring.

Cryptocurrency Ecosystems Need Resources to Grow and Innovate. Large-scale ecosystem development and adoption is highly dependent upon a cryptocurrency system being able to grow and offer new features over time. Who will pay for those features to be developed? Who will pay the human resources that are required to ensure the network is operating securely and efficiently for all the stakeholders to benefit from the system? Without some kind of fee-based fundraising mechanism, the ecosystem's growth will be too slow (or non-existent) and the project team's working capital will be too small to maintain the staff resources that are required to manage all the real-world threats and demands on the network.

Zero-Fee Cryptocurrency Networks Are a Fantasy. As a result of all those real-world realities, no matter what a cryptocurrency team may claim, a "zero-fee" network is a fantasy. At best, it might work at a very small scale, but the Gini team knows from decades of experience managing multiple payment networks and many thousands of merchants across numerous network technology stacks that every large-scale network requires significant resources to operate securely and efficiently. That's why Gini transactions are supported by small transaction fees.

Gini Transaction Fees. We are still developing Gini's precise transaction fee structure, but you can be sure Gini transaction fees will be far lower than Bitcoin's and Ethereum's transaction fees. We will update this article when the Gini transaction fee structure is finalized.