In defense of Ethereum and its fatness: a discussion of ETH's value capture potential

[vbuterin]

I agree the “zero-fee” fad is stupid, though the economic reasons why are a little more subtle:

Against replacing transaction fees with deposits

There’s a popular trend among some new blockchains to have literally zero transaction fees, instead relying on a mechanism where accounts are rate-limited based on their balance - that is, there is a global constant (or possibly dynamically adjusting value) k such that if you have N coins, you can make at most N * k transactions per day (or alternatively, make transactions that spend at most N * k gas per day). This has the marketing benefit that it allows you to claim you have “free transactio…