What is Gas Optimisation

Gas optimisation is the practice of reducing the computational cost (gas) consumed by Ethereum transactions and smart contracts — lowering transaction fees for users and improving the economic viability of on-chain applications. Gas costs money: every operation the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) executes consumes a predefined amount of gas, multiplied by the current gas price to determine the total fee. UNDERSTANDING GAS COSTS Gas is Ethereum's unit of computational work. Every EVM operation has a fixed gas cost: Simple ETH transfer: 21,000 gas. ERC-20 token transfer: ~65,000 gas. Complex DeFi interaction: 150,000-500,000+ gas. Total fee = Gas Used × (Base Fee + Priority Tip). At 10 gwei base fee and 2 gwei tip: ERC-20 transfer = 65,000 × 12 gwei = 0.00078 ETH (~$2.50 at $3,200/ETH). PRACTICAL GAS SAVING TIPS FOR USERS Time your transactions: Gas prices follow daily patterns — lowest during early UTC morning (weekends especially), highest during US and Asian trading hours. Use Etherscan Gas Tracker or Blocknative for real-time gas recommendations. Use Layer 2 for DeFi: Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base transactions cost $0.01-0.10 — 50-200x cheaper than mainnet. Use native bridge for moving large amounts. Token approvals: Use exact approval amounts rather than unlimited approvals (security + minor gas saving). Batch transactions: Some protocols allow combining multiple actions into one transaction. GAS OPTIMISATION FOR SMART CONTRACT DEVELOPERS Packing storage variables: Solidity stores variables in 32-byte slots. Packing multiple small variables (uint128 + uint128) into one slot saves expensive storage writes. Use mappings over arrays: Mappings are cheaper than arrays for lookups. Events vs storage: Emit events for data that doesn't need on-chain access — events are ~8x cheaper than storage. Short-circuit evaluation: Order conditional checks so the cheapest check runs first. Calldata vs memory: Calldata (for external function parameters) is cheaper than memory. Assembly: Critical path optimisation using inline Yul assembly. KEY GAS TOOLS Etherscan Gas Tracker: Real-time gas price recommendations. Hardhat Gas Reporter: Shows gas consumption per function in smart contracts during testing.

Terms in addition to the Gas Optimisation

Blockchain

A blockchain is a subset of a distributed database. The Bitcoin inventors originally prototyped the system in 2008. This modern database is made up of separate blocks that are connected together in a chronological chain. Blockchains may be used to store a wide range of data types. It has mostly been utilized as a public ledger for bitcoin transactions to date. A peer-to-peer network comprised of independent nodes uses a consensus process to ensure the blockchain's security and legitimacy. Each node in the network keeps a public and immutable copy of the data.

2 Factor Authentication (2FA)

2 Factor Authentication is a security measure with two layers. It is used by the majority of cryptocurrency exchanges. To log in, you must provide not only a password, but also a code obtained, for example, from the Google authenticator.

Airdrop

An airdrop is a method of distributing coins. End users can typically obtain coins for free or in exchange for doing a small task, such as subscribing to a newsletter, sending a tweet, or inviting others via a personal affiliate link. Cryptocurrency airdrops — the act of depositing cryptocurrency into public crypto wallets — are utilized as a marketing, liquidity creation, and network bootstrapping technique for many different types of blockchain initiatives.

Altcoin

Altcoin - "alternative coin" - is any kind of digital currency other than Bitcoin. Since the launch of Bitcoin, the world's first digital currency, many altcoins (as well as supporting blockchains) have been created. Altcoin digital currencies share many similarities to Bitcoin, but consistently and have significant differences. There are about 20,000 altcoins, and this number is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. Altcoins often develop Bitcoin features. Ethereum, currently the most widely used blockchain, supports digital contracts and separate applications where Bitcoin does not. Altcoins are also often created to cater to the needs of different users. The Litecoin blockchain, for example, can process payments quarterly for the duration of Bitcoin.

Cold Storage

Cold storage is the way to store cryptocurrency offline. The word refers to the use of offline wallets that are not connected to the internet. Cold storage is the most secure way to keep cryptocurrencies since an offline currency becomes less likely to be hacked and stolen. Paper wallets, printed renditions of private keys, and offline hardware and software wallets are all examples of cold storage.