What Is Gas Fees?

Gas fees are the transaction costs required to execute actions on a blockchain network. When you claim an airdrop, swap tokens, stake in a liquidity pool, or interact with a smart contract, the network charges gas fees to process and validate your transaction. These fees go to miners or validators who secure the network.

For airdrop farmers, gas fees directly impact profitability. If you're claiming an airdrop on Ethereum mainnet during high congestion, you might pay $50-200 just to claim tokens worth $100. On Arbitrum or other layer-2 networks, the same transaction costs $0.10-2, making smaller airdrops actually worth claiming. This is why many protocols launch on cheaper chains first—Hyperliquid, Jito, and other new networks offer near-zero gas fees, letting farmers claim and farm without their profits getting wiped out.

Gas fees vary based on network congestion and chain. Ethereum mainnet is expensive but secure. Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon are cheaper alternatives. Some protocols deliberately launch on these chains to maximize airdrop accessibility. When farming yields on Uniswap or other DEXs, you need to calculate if the gas cost to enter and exit positions still leaves you profitable.

Smart farmers monitor gas prices before executing transactions. Tools like Etherscan's gas tracker show real-time costs. During off-peak hours (weekends, late nights UTC), fees drop significantly. Some farmers batch multiple transactions together or wait for layer-2 deployments before farming aggressively. Understanding gas economics separates farmers making money from those burning capital on unnecessary transactions.