In a vacuum I'd have assumed that attempting to make transaction fees undercut things like credit card processing fees would have been a key design goal of post

In a vacuum I'd have assumed that attempting to make transaction fees undercut things like credit card processing fees would have been a key design goal of post-bitcoin block chains, so it's surprising to me (as someone not terribly invested in keeping up with crypto) to realize that transactions fees can be so high (though in some ways I suppose it's kind of like combining title registration with supermarket checkout more than it is just a transaction). But besides side chains are there other approaches to allowing newer crypto currencies to be highly liquid and handle large volumes of transactions at low cost? This issue seems like it's a recurring problem for crypto.