If you have ever used Ethereum to process transactions on the Blockchain, you might have noticed that the gas fee is not cheap. Gas fee is the amount of Ether that you pay to the network for processing your transaction. The gas fee depends on two factors: the gas price and the gas limit.
The gas price is the amount of ether that you are willing to pay for each unit of gas, and the gas limit is the maximum amount of gas that your transaction can consume. The higher the gas price and the gas limit, the higher the gas fee.
Why is the Gas Fee so high on Ethereum Network?
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The main reason is that Ethereum is a popular platform for decentralized applications (dApps) that run on smart contracts. Smart contracts are pieces of code that execute automatically on the blockchain according to predefined rules.
However, smart contracts also consume gas when they are executed, and some of them can be very complex and require a lot of computation. Therefore, when there is a high demand for dApps and smart contracts on Ethereum, the network becomes congested and the gas fee increases.
How To reduce Gas Fee on Ethereum Network
There are a few ways to save on gas fees when using Ethereum. One way is to adjust your gas price and gas limit according to the network conditions. You can use tools like Etherscan or EthGasStation to check the current average gas price and the recommended gas price for fast or slow transactions.
You can also use MetaMask or other wallets that allow you to customize your gas price and gas limit before sending a transaction. However, you should be careful not to set your gas price too low or your gas limit too high, as this might result in your transaction being rejected or stuck in the network.
Another way to reduce the gas fee on Ethereum is to use layer 2 solutions or sidechains. Layer 2 solutions are protocols that run on top of Ethereum and provide faster and cheaper transactions by using different consensus mechanisms or off-chain computation.
Some examples of layer 2 solutions are Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, zkSync, Loopring, and StarkWare. Sidechains are independent blockchains that are compatible with Ethereum and allow users to transfer assets between them.
Some examples of side chains are xDai, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and Fantom. By using layer 2 solutions or sidechains, you can avoid paying high gas fees on the main Ethereum network.
Ethereum gas fee is not cheap because of the high demand for dApps and smart contracts on the platform. However, you can reduce the gas fee by adjusting your gas price and gas limit or by using layer 2 solutions or sidechains. These DApps and smart contracts require a lot of computation and storage, which consume a lot of gas.
Moreover, Ethereum has transitioned to a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, which requires a lot of energy and resources to secure the network. PoW also limits the scalability of Ethereum, as it can only process around 15 transactions per second.
PoS has helped stimulate lower gas fees significantly on the Ethereum network, as it will reduce the need for intensive computation and competition among miners. Ethereum is not cheap, but it is valuable.