What Exactly Is Gas

There seems to be a lot confusion & questions around Ethereum & Gas – and rightfully so. Blockchain veterans & enthusiasts alike can be thrown off by the terminology. Moreover, people often wonder “why” Ethereum chose this route. Why not keep it simple – like Bitcoin?

There are good answers to these questions. But before we dive into the “why & how” of Gas – let’s briefly go over “what” Gas is.

Contrary to popular belief – Gas is not a sub currency of Ether. Gas is more so an “internal” token within the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine). It is used by Ethereum to place a relative cost on each operation within a Smart Contract.

For example, a contract can have the following types of operations and associated costs