Customizing fees when sending ETH:
Transactions on Ethereum incur fees that are paid to the network in ETH. This means that you must have a balance of ETH in your wallet in order to execute any type of transaction on the Ethereum network. You can use the Bitcoin.com Wallet to customize the fees you pay for your Ethereum transactions.
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Customizing fees using the Ethereum network in the Bitcoin.com Wallet
When you create a transaction on the Ethereum network using the Bitcoin.com Wallet, you can customize the fee you pay to the Ethereum network. Here's how:
On the "Enter send amount" screen, tap on the "Network fee" icon at the bottom-left. This will open up the network fee settings menu.
Choose from one of the three following options:
'Eco' means you'll pay a lower fee, but your transaction will take longer*
'Fast' strikes the optimal balance between cost and speed
'Fastest' optimizes for speed over cost
Here’s how to customize the transaction fee for Ethereum and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains including Avalanche and Polygon:
Manually customizing fees when using the Ethereum network in the Bitcoin.com Wallet
The Bitcoin.com Wallet constantly monitors the market rate for gas, as well as the current base fee cost, to arrive at the optimal price for each preset mode. However, you also have the option to manually customize your network fee settings for each transaction (see below for an explanation of how 'gas' relates to fees in Ethereum). You can check gas rates using a tool like https://ethgasstation.info/ and set customized fees based on the market rate for gas. Here's how to set customized fees in your wallet:
On the "Enter send amount" screen, tap on the "Network fee" icon at the bottom-left. This will open up the network fee settings menu.
In the network fee settings menu, select "Custom fee options." You'll then be prompted to enter the max base fee and the priority fee, both priced in Gwei, for your transaction.
Ethereum fees in detail
The cost you pay for a transaction on the Ethereum network is two-fold. First, there is the base fee, which is burned (destroyed). Second is the priority fee, or tip, which is paid to network validators. Both of these fees are influenced by market forces, meaning the cost goes up when the network is congested. The total cost for a transaction also depends on its complexity.
Transaction complexity is measured by computational effort, which is delineated in units of "gas." For example, sending ETH from one wallet to another (one of the simplest transactions you can make), may consume up to 21,000 units of gas. One unit of gas is equal to 0.000000001 ETH (10-9 ETH). Note that this denomination of ETH is also known as a giga-wei, or gwei.
Total fees are calculated as follows:
Gas units * (base fee + tip)
Let’s look at an example where Alice sends Bob 1 ETH. Imagine the base fee is 100 gwei and Alice includes a tip of 10 gwei. Using the above formula, we can calculate this as 21,000 * (100 + 10) = 2,310,000 gwei or 0.00231 ETH.
When Alice sends the money, 1.00231 ETH will be deducted from Alice's account. Bob will be credited 1.0000 ETH. The validator will receive the tip of 0.00021 ETH and the base fee of 0.0021 ETH is burned.