Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, which operate on a traditional fee market, Cardano employs a system of fixed and predictable fees. These fees, while not exorbitant, are set at a level that effectively deters spam attacks. On the other hand, Solana’s extremely low transaction fees are a double-edged sword. While they make transactions affordable, they also lead to a high failure rate - currently, about 75% of user transactions do not go through. The network is flooded with transactions generated by bots.
Besides transaction fees, the network layer plays a crucial role in preventing spam transactions. Cardano node employs mem-pool and its protocol is architected in a demand-driven manner. This design allows each node, and every peer linked to it, to regulate the data arrival rate and the amount of outstanding data. On the other hand, Solana does not utilize a mem-pool, instead, all transactions are directed straight to the next validators. This article will elucidate why spamming Solana is relatively easy while doing so with Cardano is challenging.
This article was prepared by Cardanians with support from Cexplorer.
Read the article: https://cexplorer.io/article/transaction-fees-and-network-architecture-as-spam-protection