How Does the Inclusion of “Zero-Fee” Transactions Affect the Overall Fee Market?

Zero-fee transactions, if permitted, can flood the mempool, potentially crowding out legitimate transactions and making the network unusable. While some protocols allow them, miners are incentivized to ignore them to maximize profit.

If a significant number of transactions are zero-fee, it reduces the overall fee revenue for miners, making the block subsidy a more critical component of their reward.