IntermediateStart here
What is gas?
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 4 min
In short
Gas is the fee you pay to have a blockchain execute work. It depends on how heavy the work is and how busy the network is.
Key points
- Work done × price per unit (congestion)
- Spikes when the network is busy
- Layer 2 cuts it substantially
Definition
The fee paid for computation and storage on a blockchain.
A plain balance transfer and a contract call require very different amounts of computation. Gas is that work multiplied by a unit price, and the price floats with congestion.
For anything not urgent, simply waiting for a quieter period can cut the cost substantially.
Watch out for
- · Gas is often consumed even when a transaction fails