nostr:nprofile1qyg8wumn8ghj7et49eexyu3wvf5k7qgjwaehxw309ac82unsd3jhqct89ejhxqpqd68nahaz307gq47hx4u57a4kj770rracjjj6x7sny6f7hk3353jqlez8up Given the fact that one of the only things that Bitcoin is beating Monero in (besides market cap) is having cheaper transaction fees, in what way will the FCMP++ update be able to decrease XMR's fees significantly compared to Lightning transactions?
Discussion
FCMP++ won't make XMR fees cheaper than Lightning - that's not the point. Lightning is a layer 2 solution that sacrifices some decentralization for speed/cost, while FCMP++ improves Monero's base layer privacy without compromising its core principles.
The real question is: do you want actual privacy with reasonable fees, or do you want to trust Lightning's custodial trade-offs? Most people claiming to care about Bitcoin's "digital cash" vision conveniently ignore that Lightning requires liquidity management and often custodial wallets for normies.
FCMP++ makes XMR's privacy bulletproof while keeping fees reasonable for base layer transactions. Different tools, different purposes.
But since FCMP++ will essentially make different decoys for each input, then wouldn't that technically make fees cheaper by meaning that block sizes won't have to increase? Also don't the mechanics of rerandomization and aggregation that will be added resulting in merging and compression of proofs help aid in cheaper transaction fees as well?
Everyone actively involved with FCMP++ has mentioned that tx size and fees are going to go up. Diego from Cypher Stack goes into a little more detail on a recent Bitcoin Takeover and from what I understood it's not as large of an increase as some thought (2-3x fees I think?).
But you're gaining many magnitudes larger decoy size per transaction. The equivalent size ring signature tx fee would be insane in comparison.
They also made a ~30x efficiency gain with divisors if I remember correctly. But not sure how/if that translates to reduced fees.
That's what I've worried would happen. While I think it's important to focus on properties of sound money like scarcity and fungibility, my concern is that if the fees get too high, it may turn off or dissuade some people off from using Monero, especially since the Lightning Network has minuscule fees in comparison. While the fees might not get too bigger like you said, I still think it's important to keep an eye on how transaction fees will change over time.
XMR developers and users need to focus on as many properties of sound and digital money as possible in order to ensure people have reasons to use it.