There are countless problems created with the state of high fees in many of the dominant blockchains. Bitcoin is becoming worthless for transactions, and nobody is using Ethereum either unless this is for many thousands of dollars transactions for DeFi purposes.
Lately, we witness a decline in Ethereum fees, still, $5 to move a token is just too much to ask for, when in the first half of 2020 we were moving ERC20 tokens and NFTs for $0.01.
This is greed and it never ends well. For Ethereum that somehow wanted to become a platform including everything, this is over. It can select just DeFi, or just NFT, but it can't move on with everything.
Ethereum changed between DApps, Gambling platforms, Blockchain gaming, NFTs, and DeFi. It can't maintain everything. Blockchain games, gambling, and Dapps are over and NFTs will be next as the hype ends.
(*Edit: NFTs are fine and I love seeing them on Wax, or Bitcoin Cash SPL. This comment was about NFTs in Ethereum.)
But it becomes even worse when we try using those projects building on Ethereum and it just generates disappointment.
So, I've transferred $20 of Ethereum to my Enjin wallet, just because I had this NFT in my wallet and wanted to sell.
In previous years there were many projects giving away NFTs in the form of ERC721 tokens. I used to scan some of those and had this NFT in an old mobile wallet for years.
I've checked the lowest price and action on this NFT, and I could list it for 30 ENJ ($37.5) hoping that someone will buy it in the following one-two weeks. I knew there would be a cost to move ETH in the wallet, a cost to list the token, and a cost to transfer the ENJ received on an exchange to sell and profit from this.
I wasn't expecting $20-25 since the fees are lower lately.
I checked the fees and at 30gwei the cost should have been about $12 to send ETH, sell the NFT on the Enjin market and send the Enjin again to an exchange.
What I've found was quite illogical, since after sending $25 of ETH in my Enjin wallet, it still wasn't enough to list the asset on this platform's exchange. I also have more NFTs in that wallet and their total value is more than $300. I can't sell anything, since the cost of listing these assets is forbidding using the Enjin services.
$25 Ethereum is not enough to cover the fees to list an NFT that is worth $30! This is not looking good at all and Enjin is now completely out of my list.
I'm very disappointed with Ethereum for far too long and I consider it a platform that has very limited room for improvement no matter the announcements of upgrades. It could easily take 10 years for Ethereum 2.0 to completely roll out and still, fees could be a huge problem.
More than that I am completely disappointed with Enjin and while I was supporting it, I will not again as this is not a practical approach to gaming.
Enjin is supposed to be a platform that will encourage blockchain game development, yet it missed the point completely. If these guys think that a gamer will be paying $40 fees for each transaction they are very mistaken.
I've traded at OpenSea a lot. I had gathered various NFTs since 2018 and managed to sell almost all of them at great prices. OpenSea also has fees, but there is a reasonable approach. You connect your Metamask, pay a signup fee (depending on the mining fees it varies between $20-100) and after that, you can list any NFT you have in your wallet without paying any fee. The buyer will pay for the fee and the ETH will reach your wallet without any reduction.
I wasn't happy with the Ethereum fees on OpenSea either, and that platform grabs a fee from the transaction too, but at least it wasn't this demanding and you could afford profit with a wallet full of NFTs. But for Enjin, this is a no-no. You have to pay extravagant listing fees for each token you decide to sell.
Enjin was supposed to be the platform for game devs and there had been some games that had some potential. However, nobody was playing these games and everyone that tested them felt like caught in some elaborate scam game that was going to milk as much as possible from the users.
My mistake was not having transferred these Enjin NFT tokens in a non-custodial wallet when ETH fees were low. Enjin wallet gives a secret phrase but somehow this phrase is not applicable on Metamask or MyEtherWallet. I don't know if I'm missing something, if anyone knows how to recover an Enjin phrase on these wallets I would be glad to know. This is another reason I'm not going to touch Enjin again.
The plan now with these NFTs is to wait until perhaps fees are as low as 1 gwei in the Ethereum blockchain, as doing anything else using Enjin is not going to be worthy of time and fees. Currently, if I try selling those NFTs I will have to pay $100 more in fees than I would profit from selling. Moreover, the fact that you don't sell for ETH but for Enjin, which probably is the reason for doubling the fees, as well as the lowest fees setting (which doesn't indicate gwei price).
I don't understand how this wallet/platform keeps working like that, it is just a huge mistake getting involved after this terrible experience.
If there is an Enjin wallet user that disagrees and thinks I've been unfair with my judgment we can debate this, although all the above feels quite absurd to me and it will be very difficult to change my mind.
Lead Image: Screenshot from the "Oindrasdain" NFT in my Enjin Wallet.
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I have installed enjin wallet before i guess that was for the giveaway or drops, but never used it so I unsintalled it. Never use opensea either as my NFTs are held on my atomic acct .. But planning to explore opensea next time. Am still a noob in this cryptoworld and still have many things to explore..