It did not significantly expand the network's capacity to handle more transactions per second.
The adoption of Flashbots helped move much of the "bidding" for transaction priority off-chain.
While the Merge improved Ethereum's energy efficiency by 99%, fee reduction is being addressed through . This phase of the roadmap focuses on "sharding" and "data blobs" (EIP-4844), which specifically aim to make Layer 2 transactions even cheaper and increase overall network throughput. It did not significantly expand the network's capacity
In 2022, Ethereum transaction fees (gas) experienced a significant and sustained drop, reaching their lowest levels in years. Contrary to popular belief, Why the Merge Didn't Lower Fees The Merge was a consensus change. It replaced miners with validators to secure the network.
This prevented failed transactions and "bidding wars" from artificially inflating gas prices on the public mempool. Looking Ahead This phase of the roadmap focuses on "sharding"
Optimised smart contracts (like ERC-721A) reduced the gas required for minting.
Fees are determined by how many users are competing for limited block space. It replaced miners with validators to secure the network
The frenetic "gas wars" caused by high-profile NFT drops cooled down as the market matured.
