Gas Fees

What are Gas Fees?

Gas fees are the costs you pay to execute transactions and smart contracts on the Botanix network. Think of gas as the fuel that powers your transactions—just like your car needs gasoline to run, blockchain transactions need "gas" to be processed by the network.

Every action on Botanix requires computational work from the network's nodes. Gas fees compensate these nodes for the energy and resources they use to process your transactions, ensuring the network remains secure and operational.

Why Do Gas Fees Exist?

• Network Security: Fees prevent spam attacks by making it costly to flood the network with meaningless transactions.

• Resource Allocation: Since computational power is limited, fees help prioritize transactions—those willing to pay more get processed faster.

• Node Compensation: Fees reward the nodes that maintain the network and process transactions, keeping the system running smoothly.

How Gas Works on Botanix

When you make a transaction on Botanix, you're essentially asking the network to perform computational work. Different actions require different amounts of computational resources:

• Simple Transfer: Sending Bitcoin from one address to another requires minimal computation and thus lower gas fees.

• Smart Contract Interactions: Trading on a DEX, lending money, or minting an NFT requires more complex calculations and higher gas fees.

• Contract Deployment: Publishing a new smart contract to the network requires the most computation and typically has the highest gas costs.

Gas Fee Components

Gas fees consist of three main parts:

1. Gas Limit: The maximum amount of computational work you're willing to pay for. Setting this too low means your transaction might fail; setting it too high wastes money but doesn't hurt the transaction.

2. Base Fee: The minimum fee required for your transaction to be included in a block. This fee is automatically determined by network demand and gets burned (removed from circulation).

3. Priority Fee (Tip): An optional extra fee you can pay to miners/validators to prioritize your transaction. Higher priority fees mean faster processing during busy periods.

Total Fee = Gas Limit × (Base Fee + Priority Fee)

Botanix vs Other Networks

One of Botanix's major advantages is significantly lower gas fees compared to Ethereum mainnet:

• Ethereum: Gas fees can range from $5-50+ during busy periods

• Botanix: Gas fees typically cost less than a dollar cent, making microtransactions and frequent DeFi interactions economically viable

This dramatic cost reduction makes Botanix accessible for everyday users and enables new use cases that would be too expensive on Ethereum.

Managing Gas Fees

Here are practical tips for managing your gas costs:

• Check Network Activity: During busy periods, gas fees increase. If possible, transact during quieter times for lower costs.

• Set Appropriate Priority Fees: Most wallets suggest fee levels automatically, but you can often choose between "slow," "standard," and "fast" options based on how quickly you need your transaction processed.

• Batch Transactions: Some applications allow you to combine multiple actions into a single transaction, saving on gas fees.

• Use Gas Estimation Tools: Many interfaces show estimated gas costs before you confirm a transaction.

What Happens if Gas is Too Low?

If you set your gas limit too low, your transaction will fail but you'll still pay the gas fee for the computational work performed before failure. Always use the recommended gas limits or slightly higher to ensure successful transactions.