Sure looks like it. Also the cost for transfer is skyhigh from what it usually is, Gwei 70-100 or thereabaout.

Vitalik is already talking about this problem and they of this so he is working on that issue to resolve this problem and give a nice solution there. So that I also think in future this network will get improved and it will keep continue to grow.

Be patience, sharding and casper update is on the way. You should not feel worried about that because it will be back after the dapps hype will be over. I guess there are some persons created a lot of spam transaction too. This makes the priority standard in the ethereum network has been increasing a lot.

Has Ethereum network get congestions due to massive ICO and bounty payments.
It sounds a bit ridiculous!

Sharding and Casper to come. Don't worry.

BANKEX has launched the beta version of BANKEX Plasma, the first realization of a Plasma blockchain originally envisioned by Vitalik Buterin for the main Ethereum network. During its first month in beta, BANKEX Plasma has reached a capacity of 22k simultaneous transactions per second without sharding at a cost of less than 0,5  cent (half cent) per transaction. The protocol currently has replication in 3 data centers, can verify client software for integration capacity and provides instant liquidity for users. The high speed protocol is fully operational, but will undergo additional stress testing in beta.

BANKEX Plasma is a new scalability solution for the Ethereum network. The speed issue is crucial to scaling the Ethereum network. In its current state, the Ethereum network can handle about 22 transactions per second. While this is faster than Bitcoin, which handles up to 7 transactions per second, it is not comparable with the VISA processing network that can work with more than 20,000 transactions per second. In order to be compatible with traditional banking systems supporting the global economy, blockchain developers have been working to increase the capacity of a blockchain based processing system for stable, high speed cryptocurrency transactions. BANKEX Plasma is the first such protocol to have met or surpassed the speed of VISA processing.

“At the moment, the actual speed of Plasma has reached 22,000  transactions per second,” said BANKEX creator of BANKEX Plasma Alex Vlasov. “Having reached this speed, the transaction rate has ceased to be our priority and the focus has shifted to finalization of the smart contract for servicing the Plasma operation and the client application that verifies the volume of transactions in real time.”

The technical realization of a Plasma protocol with such speed makes its implementation possible among corporate clients, including stock exchanges. Exchanges could offer inner transactions free of charge while offering a higher level of security while maintaining the trust to Ethereum. The BANKEX Plasma B2B solution, called Plasma Enterprise, has the potential to open a new chapter in the history of the Ethereum blockchain as its applications are relevant to a wide range of fields and businesses that require high speed, high volume transactions.

BANKEX Plasma will run in beta for at least the next 6 months to undergo further stress testing for capacity and resolving residual technical issues. Moreover, at the moment there are no counterparties with enough cryptocurrency traffic to independently verify even 5k transactions, let alone the 22k transactions that BANKEX Plasma will need to verify.

BANKEX Plasma is an implementation of the Ethereum Plasma project originally developed by Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Poon in August 2017. Work on the BANKEX Plasma protocol begun in October 2017 when BANKEX developers introduced their own version of Ethereum Plasma at the ETHWaterloo hackathon. Technically, BANKEX Plasma is an ‘inner blockchain’ of the main Ethereum network.  It is protected by the smart contracts on Ethereum from the misbehaviors of Plasma participants and helps to increase the number of Ethereum transactions per second.

In other words, BANKEX Plasma proposes a slight redistribution of trust. BANKEX Plasma users extend a little more trust to one party, called a Plasma operator, and this enables that Plasma operator to produce blocks at a faster rate. This, in turn, enables faster transaction processing and achieves some additional functionality that can be very useful to the entire network. At the same time, the BANKEX Plasma protocol enables verification of the Plasma operator as a security measure against error or malicious behavior. Users can challenge an operator to demonstrate that its performance is correct and error free. Should a Plasma operator be unable to prove this, users can stop interacting with this party and this minimizes the risks of losing value in unreliable transactions.

The BANKEX Plasma protocol is simple to use. A user makes a transaction request for a particular sum on the Plasma smart-contract in Ethereum. This takes place completely in the Ethereum root network and does not depend on the Plasma blockchain. After this, however, the requested sum is transferred to a smart-contract on the branch Plasma blockchain and is managed by a Plasma operator, accelerating the transaction speed. Running Plasma requires operators to have some basic infrastructure – servers, databases and a volume of ETH to operate a smart contract. The infrastructure requirement means that a Plasma operator will either have charge fees in some form or obtain a grant from the Ethereum Foundation to cover these costs.

Users can send funds to any address in Plasma – this is another distinction between Plasma and state channels, for example Lightning or Raiden. At the same time a user needs to be sure to send funds to what’s called an “externally owned address” – this is an address without code and that has an associated private key.

BANKEX Plasma can be used for more than the transfer for cryptocurrency.  The protocol has several standard transaction modes for different purposes:

• Split: This sends parts of a user’s unspent transactions to other parties (including self);
• Merge: This merges two inputs into a single output to reduce the number of unspent transactions that a client needs to scan and cache;
• Transfer: This transfers output in full;
• Fund and Withdraw: These modes are for depositing and withdrawing ETH from the main network.

BANKEX Plasma will be a key component for tokenization of the real-world assets, as it will enable the transfer of indivisible assets in full from one owner to another in a fast and secure way. BANKEX is the first fintech company to launch a high speed Plasma blockchain that will have a significant impact on the crypto community and one the off-chain world at large.

About BANKEX

BANKEX is a global top-50 fintech company developing the Proof-of-Asset Protocol to bring Bank-as-a-Service (BaaS) product modules and blockchain together for the digitization, tokenization & exchange of assets for the development of a global tokenized ecosystem.  Leading BANKEX technologies include the Proof-of-Asset Protocol for tokenization, the Plasma Protocol, BANKEX Scan, BANKEX Smart Justice, BANKEX Trust Service, and the Solidity Floating Point Library, among others.

For more information, please visit https://bankex.com/en/.

Video presentation

Prolly not tomorrow and prolly not next month. I remember though that some of the ETH guys said we should see some improvements in 2018.

It's ridiculous right now, pending for hours now then network failure. Meanwhile the gas price has been going wild recently. In case, let it run smoothly must overwriting with higher gas, that's kinda expensive. What we can do, Just relax and be patient to solve the congestion over the Ethereum network!

Hello everybody. Today I learned that the network is overloaded because the new exchange gives out coins of 1 to 10 coins for free. My wallet is already full of such coins. I wish everyone good luck.

Hi here is another way to pay with Crypto money in stores, you can use Bitcoins, Ethereum and Minexcoins. The cards can be ordered for about 1 week ....
https://minexpay.com/