Gas

The unit of computational work required to execute a transaction, paid for in the chain's native token.

Gas measures the computational work required to execute a transaction or smart contract call. Users pay gas fees in the chain's native token (ETH on Ethereum, SOL on Solana). Gas pricing has two parts: gas units (how much work) and gas price (how much per unit of work), with the price floating based on network demand.

EIP-1559 changed Ethereum's gas market in 2021 by introducing a base fee that's burned (removed from supply) plus a priority tip to validators. This made gas pricing more predictable and gave ETH a deflationary component during high-usage periods.