Dashboard Parameters

result_count

The ==amount of timeframes== to go back from the last completed one.

A value of 30 would mean 30 previous days/weeks/months, depending on the timeframe parameter.

max_entries_per_timeframe

Used to specify the ==amount of results to include for each timeframe== (additionally to “Other”).

A value of 5 means the top 5 single gas guzzlers are results plus the sum of all remaining ones as “Other” => Total 6 results.

timeframe

This is used to set the ==granularity on the x-axis== of most graphs below.

Transaction Fees

Gas VS Transaction fees

In order to not have the network experience congestion gas cannot be offered for free. Instead there must be a real cost attached to users wanting to obtain gas.

While some chains use a constant conversion rate, Near uses a dynamic approach that is based on the network load. The fuller blocks become the more expensive gas gets (base fee).

The network always tries to aim for 50% of the block gas limit to be used. If the usage exceeds 50% the base fee is increased, if its below 50% then the base fee is lowered.

The fee for gas is paid in the form of NEAR tokens, this mechanism is actually the main purpose for each blockchains native currency. (ETH uses a very similar system)

Transaction fees cannot be used to compare the complexity of transactions but only for seeing how much priority a certain type of transaction has over others in the network (if its important users will pay a higher base fee for the transaction). In many cases gas and fee will result in very similar results but during peak times they will look drastically different from each others.

Gas Used

What is Gas?

Gas is a artificial unit used by blockchains to express computation complexity.

Each supported operation by the underlying virtual machine used for execution has a gas value attached to it. (See image right / below for a few operations)

When submitting a transaction to the Near network you have to specify a gas limit (limiting computation complexity for nodes)

which can then be used for pricing of those gas units as well as prioritization of transactions.

Gas can be used to compare how much time nodes spent processing the transactions using the gas. It is not directly comparable to transaction fees (more below!)

Near Protocol

Near is a layer1 blockchain.

While many aspects are similar to what we all know its main selling points are relatively unique in the space:

• Sharded architecture
  • Transactions can be processed in parallel on several shards allowing for a massive throughput
• Webassembly as smart contract language
  • Instead of creating its own bytecode Near built on a common standard used in the web
  • Many low & high level languages have compiler support for webassembly giving massive freedom to developers
    • C#, Rust, C++ and many more
  • It also allows for emulation of a solidity VM, one project doing this is aurora

What have we found?

• Differences in the tx_fee and gas graphs are small
  • As expected as differences will only show in short peaks
• Aurora uses BY FAR the most gas of all services available on Near
  • Hovering somewhere between 50% and 80% of ALL the gas used on Near
  • This makes a lot of sense as many contracts are writting in solidity and its easier to use the well tested ones instead of creating new ones
  • The gas absolute gas usage of aurora varies a lot between timeframes. You can often see 90% gains or drops from one timeframe to the next.
• app.nearcrowd.near is the only other contract that is constantly visible on the charts
  • While “only” making up 5% - 10% of ALL gas used its absolute amount of gas is not fluctuating much