Gas
The metered unit of computational work on EVM chains, paid in the native token to run transfers and smart contracts.
Gas measures the work required to execute an EVM transaction. Operations such as storage writes, hashing, contract creation, and external calls each consume gas according to protocol rules.
Transaction fees depend on both gas used and the fee rate paid per gas. Users control the maximum fee they are willing to pay, while wallets estimate gas limits and fee rates from current network conditions.
Gas metering prevents a contract from consuming unlimited resources. If execution exceeds the transaction's gas limit, the chain stops execution, reverts state changes, and charges for gas already spent.
Related terms
4 linkedExplore connected entries beyond the alphabetical index.
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
→The EVM is the deterministic runtime that executes smart contract bytecode on Ethereum and EVM-compatible networks.
Ethereum (ETH)
→Ethereum is a proof-of-stake smart contract blockchain; ETH is its native asset used for gas, staking, and settlement.
Gas Price
→The fee rate paid per unit of gas on EVM chains, usually quoted in gwei and used to price transaction execution.
Gas Limit
→A cap on the gas a transaction or block may consume on EVM chains, limiting execution cost and network load.
All terms and definitions may update as the Cryptionary improves.
