Crypto Tip: Ethereum User? Save on Gas Using These Two Tips

Crypto is cool. Moving that BTC transaction trustlessly? Yeah. Nothing quite like getting your first crypto confirmation and value popping up in your wallet.

There is Ethereum too! A dApp that's under your control, censorship-resistant, and whatnot! Neat!

That's before the Gas bummer rubs you the wrong way.

The thing is, using Ethereum right now sucks. Gas prices have been up and down in recent days, spoiling everyone's user experience.

Of course, no one wants to pay over $60 as transaction fees to pay for a cup of coffee.

It gets worse for DeFi folks out there depending on the complexity of the smart contracts. They can end up shelving over $100 in trading fees.

Still, if you can't do it any other way, here's how you can save on Ethereum Gas fees:

1. Use Layer-2 solutions like Optimism and ZK Rollups, or Side Chains like Polygon and xDai. Here's why. These solutions batch transactions off-chain before confirming them on the mainnet. This means higher scalability and negligibly low transaction fees.

2. Opt for dApps that save on Gas. Earlier on, I mentioned that dApps are smart contracts. The more complicated, the higher Gas fees are required. You can, instead of going in blindly, opt for dApps that have Gas-reducing strategies baked in. Some like Balancer v2, Yearn Vault v2, and KeeperDAO, are examples.