Ethereum vs Stellar: Payment Costs

Gas fee market: Fees are determined by network demand and transaction complexity (e.g., smart contract calls). This creates a predictable cost model for high-value transactions where security is paramount. It matters for enterprise settlements, DeFi arbitrage, and NFT mints where the value transferred justifies the fee. Average simple transfer cost: ~$1-5.

High fees fund immense security. Ethereum's ~$500B+ market cap and Proof-of-Stake consensus with ~$100B+ staked ETH make it the most secure settlement layer. You pay for censorship resistance and finality. This is critical for institutional payments, cross-chain bridge anchoring, and regulatory-grade compliance where failure is not an option.

Protocol-mandated fee: A fixed minimum fee of 0.00001 XLM (~$0.000001) per operation, with no bidding wars. This enables true microtransactions and high-volume payment rails. It matters for remittances, micropayments for content, and high-frequency treasury operations where cost-per-transaction must be negligible.

Native asset issuance and compliance tools. Stellar's protocol includes built-in features for anchors (fiat gateways) and regulated assets with optional KYC/AML flags. Combined with low fees, this creates an optimal stack for cross-border fiat settlements, stablecoin payments (like USDC), and tokenized real-world assets where regulatory integration is required.

Deep liquidity and programmability: Access to $50B+ in DeFi TVL and thousands of dApps (Uniswap, Aave). Payments can be seamlessly integrated with lending, trading, and smart contract logic. This matters for complex payment rails requiring conditional logic or multi-step financial operations.

Cost-prohibitive for micropayments: Base layer fees average $2-$10+ and can spike above $50 during congestion. For a simple $100 transfer, fees can consume 2-10% of the value. This is a dealbreaker for high-volume, low-value payment streams where cost predictability is critical.

Built for low-cost payments: Fixed fee of 0.00001 XLM (~$0.000001). A $1M cross-border transfer costs fractions of a penny. This matters for remittances, micropayments, and businesses requiring high throughput (1,000-3,000 TPS) with guaranteed low cost.

Specialized for asset issuance and simple logic: Uses Stellar Smart Contracts (SSC), which are less expressive than Ethereum's EVM. Complex DeFi composability (like flash loans) is not natively supported. This is a limitation for programmable payments needing advanced on-chain automation or integration with a vast dApp ecosystem.

Deepest DeFi ecosystem: Access to $50B+ in on-chain liquidity via protocols like Uniswap and Aave. This enables complex payment logic (e.g., streaming payroll, automated treasury management) that can interact with thousands of other smart contracts. Essential for payments integrated into a broader financial application stack.

Cost-prohibitive for micropayments: Base layer fees average $1-$10+ and can spike above $50 during congestion. A simple USDC transfer costs the same as a complex swap. This makes Ethereum L1 unsuitable for high-volume, low-value payment flows without relying on Layer 2 solutions.

Fixed, minimal fee schedule: Every transaction costs a flat 0.00001 XLM (fraction of a cent), with no gas auctions or volatility. This enables cost-effective micropayments and high-volume settlement (e.g., remittances, batch payouts) with perfectly predictable operational expenses.

Restricted programmability: Stellar uses simple, deterministic smart contracts (Stellar Smart Contracts) rather than a Turing-complete EVM. This limits complex payment logic (e.g., conditional escrow, automated market makers). Best for straightforward asset issuance and transfer, not complex DeFi integrations.