As of December 2023, every user transaction on the Solana network incurs an average cost of $129, of which Solana holders collectively shoulder 99.99%. Math and sources inside.

Sources:

SOL Marketcap: $46,409,297,276 (coingecko.com) Solana inflation schedule: 5.589% (solanacompass.com/tokenomics) Solana cumulative non-voting transactions in December: ~1.6M (dune.com/web3academypro/solana) Average non-voting transaction fee cost = 0.000076373 SOL / $0.0083 (solanacompass.com/statistics/fees) Date: December 29, 2023 (29 days)

Math:

($46,409,297,276*5.589%) / 365 days in a year = $7,106,344.18 of SOL issued daily to validators and stakers 1.6M / 29 days = 55,172 average daily transactions $7,106,344 daily inflation / 55,172 daily transactions = $128.80 per transaction in December 2023.

By incorporating an average user transaction fee of $0.0083, the total cost per transaction with SOL bumps up to $128.81, with SOL holders bearing nearly the entire transaction cost (99.99%!).

The common perception of Solana as an economical choice, due to its sub-penny transaction fees, appears paradoxical. However, as explained by Solana Compass, Solana’s inflation model essentially requires non-stakers to compensate stakers for their role in maintaining network security through SOL delegation.

This highlights an important lesson for SOL holders: actively staking is crucial. Otherwise, they inadvertently contribute to a subsidy that benefits users and validators, amounting to an astounding $8 million daily, or ~$129 per transaction.