Gwei, wei, ethers — What does it mean?
Moving around through different functionalities of web3 world can be at the beginning a very challenging issue.
Moving around through different functionalities of web3 world can be at the beginning a very challenging issue.
Moreover, there are also different kind of units…
Agenda:
- intro,
- units in crypto,
- ethers,
- wei,
- Gwei,
- why use wei/Gwei?
- conclusion.
Units in crypto
Cryptocurrencies are extremely divisible. According to FIAT currencies, there is only a possibility to have 0.01 part of the “coin”. For example one dollar has 100 cents, but 1 cent is just one cent, you can not have 0.1 cent.
Cryptocurrencies are different…
In this material it will be described on the example of Ethereum network, how this native cryptocurrency is divided and what names are attached to each division.
Ethers
It is the transactional token that secures all operations on the Ethereum network, such as transactions, paying fees, ensure stability of PoS consensus model, etc.
All of decentralized platforms, smart contracts run on Ethereum network require computing power, proper equipment, internet, and maintenance.
Ether is literally the payment which users offer to network participants, to have their requested operations executed on the network.
Generally speaking, the “gas” powers the network. Gas is the term the network participants use to refer to the exchange of ether for the work done to verify transactions and secure the blockchain.
Wei
“What Is a Wei? Wei is the smallest denomination of ether — the cryptocurrency coin used on the Ethereum network.”
One wei is equal to 10^-18 ether, more clear statement is:
One ether is equal to 10^18 wei,
1 000 000 000 000 000 000
Gwei
One Gwei is an equivalent of 10^9 wei, so one ether is equal to 10^9 Gwei.
- 1 000 000 000 Gwei
Why use wei/Gwei?
Wei and Gwei are more comfortable than ether in the defining of fees, which are the small piece of one ether. Mentioning fees like tens of Gwei etc. can be understood better than some part of ether, especially if is long way after the comma…
Conclusion
Small units of extremely divisible cryptocurrencies is the real must have. Especially when some basic transactions like fees are paid as a small fraction of one ether.
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