Degen Chain, a recent addition to the Ethereum ecosystem, has achieved the highest transaction per second (TPS) count among layer-3 networks in the past 24 hours. According to L2BEAT, Degen’s TPS count has increased by 62% to reach 35.7 TPS, surpassing the blockchain it was built on, Base, which recorded 29.7 TPS. The top five Ethereum-based blockchains in terms of TPS include Arbitrum One, Ethereum, and zkSync Era.
Degen Chain has processed a remarkable 3.08 million transactions within the 24-hour timeframe, calculated by multiplying its TPS count by the number of seconds in a day (86,400). However, despite this impressive figure, the trading volume on Degen Chain during the same period has amounted to only $819,600. This places Degen Chain at the 35th position out of 44 tracked blockchains on CoinGecko. Consequently, the average value per transaction on Degen Chain is a mere $0.27, significantly lower compared to Ethereum and Base, which recorded $1,867 and $170 respectively.
While TPS is commonly used to evaluate a blockchain’s scalability, industry experts argue that it is an imperfect metric as it fails to consider the computational size of each transaction. Steven Goldfeder, a founder at Offchain Labs, likens TPS to counting the number of bills in one’s wallet without considering the denominations. This critique highlights the limitations of solely relying on TPS as a measure of a blockchain’s performance.
Degen Chain operates on the Degen (DEGEN) token, which initially served as a tipping token for users on Degen’s channel on Farcaster, a decentralized social media platform. This innovative use case has contributed to the memecoin’s growing social value, according to Thomas Tang, a vice president of investments at Ryze Labs. Tang explains that the widespread adoption of DEGEN among users has led to the development of a layer 3 blockchain.
Degen Chain currently has a total locked value of $4.1 million, while the DEGEN token, which is only three months old, boasts a market capitalization of $326 million. The blockchain is considered an ultra-low-cost, application-specific layer 3 solution, built with Arbitrum Orbit and leveraging the settlement layer of Base. This makes Degen Chain a promising platform for future applications on layer 3 blockchains.
In conclusion, while TPS remains a commonly used metric to assess blockchain scalability, it is important to consider its limitations. Degen Chain’s significant TPS count and growing social value demonstrate its potential as an innovative layer 3 blockchain within the Ethereum ecosystem.