Offchain Labs: Ethereum L2 needs to introduce "responsive pricing" to achieve large-scale scaling.

Edward Felten, co-founder of Offchain Labs, stated at EthCC 2026 that Ethereum's Layer 2 (L2) network needs to introduce "responsive pricing" to support billions of users and reduce fee volatility caused by network congestion. Felten pointed out that although EIP-1559 reformed the fee mechanism, current gas price volatility remains the primary means of preventing network overload, and this volatility is not conducive to mainstream user acceptance. Responsive pricing can process more transactions at lower gas prices without exceeding network capacity. Fee instability has long been considered a key obstacle to mass adoption, especially compared to the more predictable cost structure of traditional financial systems. The current industry focus has shifted from simply increasing throughput to how to make fees more predictable while accurately reflecting congestion costs. Notably, Arbitrum One pioneered a dynamic pricing mechanism in January of this year as its first practical exploration of balancing fee stability and network security. (Cointelegraph)