GAS—The unit for costing

A price is paid to the node, which spends resources such as memory,

storage, computation, and electricity to execute a smart contract. The price

of a smart contract is calculated by assigning a specific cost to the

statements using the node’s memory or disk storage for storing a statement

by a unit called gas.

An exchange rate is used to convert the gas into Ether, and infinite loops are

avoided by stopping the execution when completed or when the specified

gas limit to be used is reached.

The repeated execution of a set of statements without proceeding further

and getting stuck because of the programmer’s carelessness can be

prevented by the program of the smart contract. On account of a

programmer’s mistake, it makes no sense for a node to get stuck in

execution as some gas is used with every repetition, and as a result, any

infinite loop should be made finite.

The rising ETH gas fees—an issue leading to the

rise of Layer 2 protocols—polygon

Congestion is the primary cause of higher gas fees; however, on Ethereum,

the traffic of transactions varies throughout the day. At times, you may see

lower gas fees for the same transaction that was costing you more ETH a

few hours ago. While still maintaining the same security measures and

decentralization as the mainnet, Layer 2 is a term used for solutions created

to help scale an application by processing transactions off of the Ethereum

mainnet (layer 1). Layer 2 solutions increase throughput (transaction speed)

and reduce gas fees. Immutable X, Polygon, and Polkadot are popular

examples of Ethereum Layer 2 solutions.

As the Layer 2 solutions allow for scalability and increased throughput

while still holding the integrity of the Ethereum blockchain, allowing for

complete decentralization, transparency, and security while also reducing

the carbon footprint (less gas means less energy used, which equates to less

carbon) they are important.

Although the Ethereum blockchain is the most widely used blockchain and

arguably the most secure, that does not mean it does not come with some