Gas fees are a common term for the cost that certain blockchain protocol users pay to network validators every time they want to perform a function on the blockchain.
Gas incentivizes network validators to accurately record transactions and behave honestly, ensuring the functioning of the protocol.
While Ethereum and Polygon use the term “gas fee,” other blockchains, such as Solana and Bitcoin, use the term “transaction fee.” The term “gas” comes from the analogy of a transaction fee with the fuel (gas) that a car needs to move.
Gas fees often come as a surprise to blockchain users. On non-custodial services, where transactions occur directly on the blockchain, gas fees can change every minute in a completely unpredictable way. On a custodial platform, transactions occur off the blockchain network and there are no unpredictable gas fees as long as the NFT remains on the platform.
Blockchain gas fees explained
Any activity conducted directly on the blockchain, from executing smart contracts to purchasing non-fungible tokens (NFTs), requires computing power to process and finalize.
This computing power is provided by network validators, a distributed group of individuals who run a special computer program on their computers to verify the authenticity of transactions on the blockchain. Validators purchase, deploy, and maintain their own hardware, ensuring the security and accuracy of transactions on the blockchain network.
Gas fees play a critical role in this, transferring funds from those who need the services of the blockchain network to those who provide the computing power to execute. Gas fees incentivize validators to process transactions accurately and maintain the security of the blockchain ledger.
