[21echoes]

4-5% transaction cost (http://blockchain.info/charts/cost-per-transaction-percent) is certainly not "near zero", and in many cases is higher than credit card transaction costs.

just because the current transaction costs are paid with freshly printed money does not mean they dont exist, and as the rate of minting goes down as we near 2080, those transaction costs are going to start coming more and more from the users instead of the mines.