Ethereum Gas Fees: What You Need to Know

Ethereum is one of the most popular crypto networks with over 1.1 million daily transactions, but how do Ethereum gas fees work?

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Key Takeaways:

• Gas is the unit of measurement for the computing power required to validate activities on the Ethereum network. 
• The total fee you pay for a transaction is derived from the base fee, the required gas, and the priority fee. 
• Gas fees can rise or fall based on factors like congestion and upgrades to the Ethereum network.
• You can reduce your gas fees by timing your transactions, avoiding periods of congestion, or using a layer 2 scaling solution. 

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The Role of Gas in the Ethereum Network

You will have paid a gas fee if you’ve ever sent a transaction, interacted with a Web3 application, participated in staking, or minted an NFT on the Ethereum network. 

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Gas Explained

The Ethereum network operates similarly to a large computer, where processing power is required to fuel activities like running an application and writing data to the blockchain. Gas is the unit of measurement for the computational effort needed when conducting specific activities on the Ethereum network. 

When you conduct a transaction on the Ethereum network, you need to pay for the resources you use in gas. Whether you’re sending an Ethereum transfer or using another ERC-20 token (a crypto created using Ethereum’s infrastructure), you must pay gas fees in Ethereum’s base currency, Ether, otherwise called ETH. 

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It’s common for a website or crypto wallet to display gas fees in gwei. While seeing prices denominated in a strange currency can be daunting, gwei represents one billionth of an ETH. Gwei is used instead of Ether when determining fees, as it’s more human-readable. For example, instead of a transaction costing 0.000000001 ETH, it’s displayed as ‘1 gwei.’ 

When you send a transaction on the Ethereum network, the wallet will usually automatically display gas prices for low, medium, and high-priority transactions. However, you can also manually set a gas fee.

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Benefits of Gas 

Gas plays an essential role in the Ethereum network, keeping it secure and helping to process transactions. Making gas needed to pay for transactions ensures that bad actors cannot compromise the network by overwhelming it with fraudulent transactions. Moreover, using gas to limit the computation the network can perform helps manage Ethereum congestion.

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The Type of Transaction Affects Gas Prices

It’s important to understand that the base fee for an Ethereum transaction will vary depending on the type of transaction you’re conducting. For example, sending ETH is the cheapest, while sending an ERC-20 asset will cost three times as much. Moreover, interacting with Web3 applications like Uniswap will cost extra gas units.

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The Reasons for High Gas Fees

Ethereum’s popularity is the reason why gas fees can get so high. When there is a lot of demand, the network gets congested, and costs rise. People set a higher priority fee so their transaction is validated more quickly, which causes gas fees to increase. 

There are many causes of high demand, including blockchain games like Cryptokitties, dApps like Uniswap, and investors responding to significant price movements.

Although excessive gas fees have plagued Ethereum for several years, the March 13th upgrade to the Ethereum network, known as the Dencun upgrade, has improved scalability, helping to manage and keep gas fees in check. 

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Breaking Down How Gas Fees Are Calculated

Understanding the concept of gas fees is crucial for any investor or developer in the Ethereum space, as is knowing how gas is calculated. 

The fee for sending an Ethereum transaction comprises a base fee (a pre-set transaction fee determined by the Ethereum network), the required units of gas, and a priority fee awarded to the validator that chooses your transaction. Generally, the larger the priority fee you set, the sooner your transaction will be processed. 

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The Cheapest Time to Send Ethereum Transactions 

Gas fees can be expensive, particularly during periods of network congestion. However, you can time your transactions to reduce costs substantially. Saturday and Sunday are usually the cheapest days to send Ethereum transactions, while the early hours (midnight to around 10 am) are the most cost-effective time to transact. 

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Other Techniques to Reduce Ethereum Gas Fees

You can use several additional methods to reduce gas fees when transacting on the Ethereum network. 

• Network Congestion - Events like a sudden price crash or the launch of a new crypto game can cause network congestion. Waiting until temporary congestion subsides is an easy way to reduce costs. 
• Layer 2 Scaling Solutions - Instead of transacting directly on the Ethereum network, you can use a layer 2 scaling solution like Loopring to save on gas.
• Batch Transactions - Bundle multiple transactions into one batch to reduce costs. However, batching transactions can be complex. 

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The Bottom Line

Although they can be annoying, gas fees are critical to the Ethereum ecosystem. Without them, the network would be insecure, permanently congested, and unusable. The recent Dencun upgrade has helped to reduce gas fees, so it’ll be interesting to see if Ethereum can continue to improve its scalability without demand outpacing the network’s capabilities.

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