Why Low Fees Become a Trap

The intuition seems right—lower fees should mean better efficiency. But in blockchain networks, the opposite often rings true. When block space gets cheap, something unexpected happens: it fills up with noise.

Bot spam, MEV extraction schemes, and low-value transactions crowd out genuine economic activity. The network becomes congested not by real demand, but by artificial clutter. This is the Jevons Paradox applied to crypto: cheaper resources simply attract more wasteful consumption.

Higher L1 fees operate as a quality filter. They're not friction—they're selection. When settlement costs something meaningful, only transactions with real economic substance get prioritized. This creates a natural hierarchy: serious operations stay on-chain, spam gets priced out.

The math is simple: expensive networks attract valuable activity. Cheap networks attract everyone, including machines programmed to exploit every inefficiency. The premium isn't a bug. It's the feature that keeps the network worth using.