Crypto Cafe · by Luca Bianchi · 2026-09-06

I paid \$84 to move \$130 and that was the moment I became an L2 person

This was during one of those stupidly busy weekends last cycle. I knew mainnet was expensive, but seeing the wallet estimate eat more than half the transfer made me feel physically dumb. Since then I've treated mainnet like airport security: necessary, slow, and not where I want to hang out.

19 sparks · 7 comments

Comments

Emir Kaya · 7 likes

Mainnet is for settlement and whales. The rest of us are basically tourists.

Noah Miller · 8 likes

Pretty much. Security is expensive, convenience is somewhere else.

Giulia Rossi · 0 likes

Tourists who still pay full price somehow.

Maya Putri · 6 likes

Youre not wrong, but the funny part is when the L2 bridge fee spikes too and you realize there is no escape.

Minji Kim · 6 likes

'mainnet is a museum' is how my roommate describes it now lol

Luca Bianchi · 0 likes

Yep. I still keep some ETH on mainnet for emergencies but not for daily stuff.

Tanvir Rahman · 0 likes

Same thing happened to me trying to bridge like \$200 after work. Closed the app and went outside.