Ethereum, the once powerful cryptocurrency giant, is now facing a headache for countless users - high transaction fees . This is not just an occasional surge, but a chronic disease that has long plagued the entire ecosystem. To make a simple transfer on Ethereum, or joining a popular DeFi project, may require a staggering Gas fee, which makes many small transactions meaningless and even discourages a large number of potential users. So, how high is the transaction fee for Ethereum? How is it calculated? What factors will affect its price? More importantly, in the face of such high costs, how should we ordinary users deal with it? This article will thoroughly analyze all aspects of Ethereum transaction fees and provide a series of practical solutions to help you be at ease in the volatile Gas fee market.

The composition and calculation of Ethereum transaction fee

Ethereum's transaction fee is often called the "Gas fee", which is paid in ETH, the native token of the Ethereum network. The calculation of Gas fees may seem complex, but they can actually be simplified into several key elements:

• Gas Limit : This is the maximum amount of gas that a transaction is willing to consume. Different transaction types, such as simple ETH transfer, smart contract interaction or NFT minting, the required Gas Limit will vary.
• Gas Price : This is the price per unit of gas, in Gwei (one billionth of ETH). The higher the Gas Price, the faster the transaction will be packaged by miners.
• Base Fee : The concept introduced after the upgrade of Ethereum EIP-1559. It is dynamically adjusted according to network congestion and will be directly destroyed.
• Priority Fee (Miner Tip) : In order to speed up transactions, users pay additional fees to miners, which can be obtained by miners.

The final fee for a transaction = (Base Fee Priority Fee) * Gas Used . Among them, Gas Used is the actual gas consumed by the transaction, which cannot exceed Gas Limit.

Factors affecting Ethereum transaction fees

The volatility of Ethereum transaction fees is extremely strong, mainly affected by the following core factors:

• Network congestion : This is the most important factor affecting Gas fees. When a large number of users initiate transactions in a short period of time, the network becomes congested and miners tend to prioritize higher transactions with Gas Price, thus pushing up the overall Gas fee.
• Transaction complexity : Smart contract interactions usually consume more computing resources than simple ETH transfers, thus requiring higher Gas Limit, resulting in higher handling fees. For example, transactions in DeFi protocols, minting and trading of NFTs are usually higher.
• Market supply and demand relationship : The overall activity of the cryptocurrency market will also affect Gas fees. When the market is in a bull market or major events occur (such as new NFT projects are launched, DeFi projects are airdropped, etc.), the transaction volume surges, and the gas fees naturally rise.
• Ethereum Upgrade : Major upgrades to the Ethereum network, such as EIP-1559, are designed to improve the way Gas fees are calculated, making them more predictable, and to some extent alleviate the high Gas fees, but they cannot be completely eliminated.
• DApp design : Some decentralized applications (DApps) have low design efficiency, which may result in high gas consumption required for their interactions.

How to deal with the high Ethereum transaction fees?

Faced with the high gas fees, users are not helpless. Here are some practical strategies for dealing with it:

• Choose the right trading time : Ethereum's Gas fee is usually relatively low on weekends or early mornings (UTC time, corresponding to morning Beijing time), because the network activity is low during this period. Avoiding trading during peak hours or major events during business days can effectively save costs.
• Use the Gas fee query tool : There are many websites and applications that provide real-time Gas fee query services, such as Etherscan's Gas Tracker, GasNow, etc. With these tools, you can learn about the Gas Price of your current network and set up a reasonable Gas Price according to your needs.
• Adjust Gas Price : If you don't have particularly high requirements for trading speed, you can try setting a lower Priority Fee. For non-emergency transactions, you can even wait for the Gas fee to drop to a lower level before operating.
• Utilizing Layer 2 expansion solution (Layer 2) : This is the core direction for solving the high gas fees problem of Ethereum in the future. The second-tier solution moves a large number of transactions outside the main chain for processing, and then submits batch results to the main chain, thereby greatly reducing the cost of a single transaction. Currently mainstream second-tier solutions include:
• Optimistic Rollups : Representative projects include Optimism and Arbitrum. They assume that all off-chain transactions are valid and challenged only by fraud proof when fraud is discovered.
• ZK Rollups (zero knowledge summary) : Representative projects include zkSync and StarkWare. They ensure the effectiveness and security of off-chain transactions through complex cryptographic proofs, but the technical implementation is more complex.
• Choose DApps that support other public chains : In order to reduce user costs, many DApps have begun to support other public chains with lower handling fees such as BNB Chain, Polygon, Solana, etc. Before conducting a transaction, you can check whether the DApp supports multiple chains and choose a more economical chain.
• Batch transactions : If multiple transactions are required, consider combining them into one batch transaction (if supported by DApp), which can save some gas fees, as batch transactions usually require only one verification.
• Optimize smart contract interaction : For developers, writing more efficient smart contract code, reducing unnecessary computing and storage operations can reduce gas consumption when users interact with their contracts.

Comparison of cryptocurrency exchange fees

When it comes to buying and selling ETH on the exchange, in addition to the Gas fee on the Ethereum network itself, the exchange will also charge its own transaction fees and withdrawal fees. Understanding the charging standards of different exchanges will help you make smarter choices in asset management.

1. Binance

• The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.
• The transaction fee is usually 0.1% , and you can get a discount when paying with BNB.
• The withdrawal fee is dynamically adjusted according to network congestion.
• Supports trading pairs of multiple cryptocurrencies.
• Provide a wealth of trading products, such as spot, contracts, leverage, etc.

2. OKX (Ou Yi)

• One of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges.
• The transaction fee decreases according to user level and transaction volume, and ordinary users are about 0.08% - 0.1% .
• The withdrawal fee is related to the network situation and usually has a fixed upper limit.
• Supports a wide range of digital asset transactions.
• Provide innovative financial products and DeFi services.

3. Huobi (Huobi)

• An old global cryptocurrency trading platform.
• The spot transaction fee is 0.2% , and you can enjoy discounts when paying with HT.
• Withdrawal fees vary by currency and network.
• Provide professional digital asset trading services.
• Have deep market experience and user base.

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