What is Gwei?
Gwei is a small denomination of Ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network. It is commonly used to measure the cost of gas fees for transactions and smart contract executions on the Ethereum blockchain. One Gwei equals one billion wei, which is the smallest unit of Ether, making it a convenient metric for handling small values in Ethereum’s gas system.
When conducting transactions on the Ethereum network, users pay gas fees to compensate miners or validators for processing and verifying the transaction. These fees are typically measured in Gwei because it allows for finer granularity than larger units like Ether. For example, a gas fee of 50 Gwei represents 50 billion wei, and the total transaction cost is calculated by multiplying the Gwei value by the amount of gas used for the operation.
In practice, the cost of transactions in Gwei fluctuates depending on network congestion, as users can set higher Gwei amounts to prioritize their transactions during periods of high activity. Lower Gwei fees may result in slower transaction times.
