Gas Fee
Fee for processing a transaction on the Ethereum network — paid in ETH.
A gas fee is the cost paid to miners or validators for processing a transaction on the Ethereum network. It's measured in "gwei" (1 gwei = 0.000000001 ETH).
Gas prices depend on network congestion — the more users sending transactions simultaneously, the higher the fees. During the NFT and DeFi boom (2021), gas fees reached hundreds of dollars per transaction.
EIP-1559 (2021): Introduced a base fee that is burned + a tip for validators. It reduced cost predictability.
Layer 2 solutions (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base) drastically reduce gas fees — typically 10-100x cheaper than Ethereum mainnet.