#web3 # [[Epistemic status]] #shower-thought # Related - [[Computing/Proof of stake]] - [[Computing/Ethereum]] - [[Computing/Web3/Ethereum 2.0]] - [[Computing/Cryptocurrency]] - [[Computing/Solidity]] # Gas fee are government taxes In [[Web 3.0]], gas fee are comparable to government taxes on traditional transactions. Gas fees are small payments made in cryptocurrency for the use of a blockchain network, such as Ethereum, to process transactions or execute smart contracts. They act as an incentive for the network’s miners to validate and process transactions by compensating them for their energy and computational resources in a [[Proof of work]] scheme. Gas fees are determined by factors such as the demand for network resources, network congestion, and the complexity of the transaction being executed. Higher gas fees are typically required for faster transaction processing times or for higher-priority transactions. Therefore, while gas fees are not strictly equivalent to government taxes, they do serve a similar function of compensating parties for the use of a shared resource or service. In a sense, they represent a community-driven and decentralized approach to managing the costs and incentives of network operations.