Currently the largest gas guzzler to clog the Ethereum network is the Mint contract below. Supposedly there are users purposely causing high gas prices using this function. Why would anyone do this besides trying to harm the network to make users use another network? But the real question is how much does it actually cost to clog the Ethereum network to cause $100-$300 gas fees with the current value of $2000/eth today?
The cost for an adversary to intentionally increase the gas fee on the Ethereum network depends on several factors, including the current gas price, the complexity of the token Mint contract you shared, and the number of transactions the adversary wants to include in the network. Although there are Gas Tips and additional features added to the fee calculation in later versions of Ethereum, the basic calculations would look as below:
To estimate the cost, we need to consider the following:
Gas Price: The gas price is denoted in Gwei (a denomination of Ether). Let's assume the current gas price is 50 Gwei (0.00000005 ETH).
Gas Limit: Each block on the Ethereum network has a gas limit, which determines the maximum amount of gas that can be included in a block. The gas limit is typically around 15 million.
Gas Fee Calculation: The gas fee is calculated by multiplying the gas used by the gas price. The gas used depends on the complexity of the contract and the operations performed.
Given these considerations, we can estimate the cost for an adversary to increase the gas fee:
Determine the Gas Usage: Analyze the token Mint contract to determine its gas usage. To get a reliable value, you can look at the gas consumed per transaction for the particular smart contract on EtherScan by looking at the Ethereum trace history, and make your calculations.
Calculate the Required Gas: Let's assume the token Mint contract requires X gas per transaction. To increase the gas fee to $100, we can calculate the required gas price:
Required Gas Price = Desired Fee / Gas Used
Required Gas Price = $100 / X gas
