A groundbreaking method called “BlobScriptions” has taken the Ethereum blockchain by storm, causing a surge in Blob fees. BlobScriptions were introduced on March 27 through the Ethscriptions protocol, allowing users to inscribe various data directly onto “blobs.” These blobs were introduced to the Ethereum network as part of the Dencun upgrade on March 13.
Shortly after the introduction of BlobScriptions, the gas fees for Blobs skyrocketed, reaching as high as 585 gwei (approximately $18), according to data from Ultrasound.money. This was a significant increase compared to the average gas price of one wei, equivalent to a fraction of $0.01, before BlobScriptions.
However, Blob fees have since decreased significantly from their peak. As of now, blob fees are running at 35.8 gwei (equivalent to $1.20) according to Coinbrain conversion data. Meanwhile, users have made over 4,500 inscriptions on blobs since BlobScriptions were introduced, as reported by Dune Analytics.
In a post on March 27, Ethscriptions founder Tom Lehman, also known as Middlemarch, acknowledged the rising cost of “blobspace” and encouraged users to mint BlobScriptions through the official blobscription protocol.
Similar to the early days of Bitcoin Ordinals, Ethereum users are now opting to mint small pieces of text and random assortments of images on blobs. Recent activity on blobscription.io shows hundreds of new images added in just a few hours.
It’s important to note that blob data is only stored on Ethereum nodes for about 18 days. After that period, BlobScriptions data will be removed from the network. However, Lehman assured users that the Ethscriptions indexer would store the data indefinitely.
Blobs were introduced as part of Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade through EIP-4844, a core feature focused on reducing transaction costs on layer-2 networks. Following the upgrade, transaction fees on Ethereum L2s significantly decreased. For example, swap fees on Arbitrum plummeted from around $1.25 to below $0.02, and Polygon fees experienced a similar decrease.
To celebrate the reduced fees associated with blobs, an Ethereum developer managed to mint the entire script of the Bee Movie on an Ethereum blob within 15 minutes of the upgrade going live, all for less than $13 in ETH gas fees.