Introduction to GasHawks:
Understanding why GasHawk needs to exist: Ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves for the peculiar phenomenon that has perplexed and perplexed many in the realm of Ethereum: the dreaded High Ethereum gas fees! It’s like attending a fancy gala and being handed a bill for a diamond-encrusted hors d’oeuvre that costs more than your annual salary – talk about a staggering expense!
Picture this: you’re on the blockchain highway, eager to execute your smart contract, or indulge in the exhilarating world of non-fungible tokens. But suddenly, you come face to face with a digital toll booth demanding a sum that could rival the GDP of a small nation. It’s as if you stumbled upon the unicorn of all fees, a majestic creature that greedily devours your precious ether with a flick of its magical horn.
To put it into perspective, these gas fees can make the most opulent luxury purchases seem like loose change. Remember that time you splurged on a cup of artisanal coffee? Well, the Ethereum gas fees would scoff at such trifling matters and promptly demand an equivalent sum for a single transaction. It’s like paying the rent on a penthouse suite just to send a digital “hello” to your friend across the world.
Oh, and let’s not forget the artistic realm of NFTs. Did you think buying a painting by a renowned artist was a monumental investment? Think again! Acquiring and minting an NFT on Ethereum could require you to part ways with a small fortune as if the artwork came with its own invisible golden frame and an army of price-tagging fairies.
In this bizarre ecosystem, gas fees can soar higher than a SpaceX rocket. It’s a fascinating dance between supply and demand, where network congestion resembles a digital traffic jam on the information superhighway. It’s as if Ethereum miners have transformed into financial sorcerers, conjuring fees from thin air and turning digital interactions into grand spectacles
GasHawk: The game-changer
A cost-saving tool designed to optimize Ethereum gas fees by strategically submitting transactions during periods of low gas prices. With GasHawk, users can experience significant savings, with average cost reductions ranging from 25% to 30%.
1. Transaction Buffering with GasHawk
GasHawk serves as a reliable buffer for Ethereum transactions, strategically forwarding them to the Ethereum network when gas prices are low. Instead of directly submitting transactions, GasHawk users leverage the GasHawk RPC proxy, facilitating submission through popular tools like MetaMask or the provided Software Development Kit (SDK) or their RESTful API.
2. Submission Strategy and GasHawk’s Gas Fee Awareness
One might wonder: how does GasHawk determine the optimal time to submit a transaction and save on gas fees? GasHawk leverages historical data, possesses knowledge of the effects of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-1559, and factors in other relevant data to formulate an effective submission strategy. By analyzing past trends and understanding the dynamics of gas prices, GasHawk optimizes transaction submission to mitigate excessive costs.
3. Trusting GasHawk: Security and User Control
To foster trust, GasHawk ensures that it only receives signed transactions from users, with no possibility of altering their contents without re-signing using the user’s private key. This mechanism ensures that transaction integrity is maintained, offering users peace of mind when utilizing the platform.
4. Flashbots Integration for MEV Susceptible Transactions
For transactions susceptible to Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) and frontrunning, GasHawk provides an additional option: Flashbots Protect. By enabling this feature in user settings, GasHawk routes transactions through Flashbots, keeping them private until a Flashbots-enabled validator processes them. It’s important to note that incentivizing validators with a higher priority fee (e.g., 3-5 Gwei) is recommended to reduce the time between GasHawk’s decision to submit the transaction and its inclusion.
5. GasHawk vs. Manual Gas Price Setting
While users can manually set low values for maxBaseFeePerGas, GasHawk offers distinct advantages. By allowing GasHawk to handle gas price selection, users enjoy predictable waiting times and substantial savings. Instead of the guesswork involved in manually setting gas prices and waiting for the desired price point to be reached, GasHawk empowers users to define their desired waiting period while it selects an optimal gas price, often achieving lower fees than anticipated.
USPs of GasHawk:
Using GasHawk offers several benefits, freeing users from cumbersome tasks and uncertainties:
- No more laborious number crunching and guessing to determine the appropriate gas price.
- No more concerns about choosing the right gas price for optimal transaction efficiency.
- No more extended periods stuck in the mempool or requiring manual gas price adjustments.
- No more transaction backlogs due to unexpected delays.
- Select your desired deadline.
- Enjoy significant cost savings.
“Don’t wake yourself up at night in order to get cheaper TX”
These features result from extensive development and fine-tuning by the GasHawk team, designed to enhance the Ethereum user experience.
6. Setting Transaction Deadlines
Each account (corresponding to an Ethereum address) allows users to set a default deadline. This deadline defines the timeframe within which GasHawk seeks the best gas price after receiving a transaction. Users also have the flexibility to adjust deadlines individually for specific transactions, ensuring customization based on their unique requirements.
7. Handling Missed Deadlines
In instances where the deadline passes without GasHawk discovering an economical price, the platform employs different approaches based on the proximity of the deadline. While striving to find the lowest base fee within the specified deadline, if the deadline expires, GasHawk submits the transaction to the Ethereum network. At this stage, the maxBaseFeePerGas setting of the transaction protects users from exorbitantly high gas prices, providing an additional safeguard. “On top of this, the user can opt into GasHawk even delaying the TX beyond the deadline in order to make sure it will never cost more than initially”
Understanding the Priority Fee for Transactions
With GasHawk, each transaction created following EIP-1559 includes a “max_fee_per_gas” field. This value corresponds to the base_fee_per_gas price of the block, which fluctuates based on demand. To ensure inclusion in a block, GasHawk suggests setting max_fee_per_gas higher than the last observed block’s base_fee_per_gas. For real-time base fees, you can refer to the GasHawk Dashboard.
Calculation of Savings:
After a transaction is sent through GasHawk and successfully mined, GasHawk provides an estimate of the savings achieved. This estimation is derived using the following formula:
fee_saved = fee_reference – fee_paid
Where:
fee_reference = (base_fee_reference + prio_fee) * gas_used
(base_fee_reference: base_fee_per_gas of the first block mined after transaction submission to GasHawk)
- (prio_fee: miner tip, unaffected by GasHawk)
fee_paid = (base_fee_paid + prio_fee) * gas_used
- (base_fee_paid: base_fee_per_gas of the block including the transaction)
To define relative savings, we use the formula:
savings = fee_saved / fee_reference = 1 – “(“ fee_paid / fee_reference “)”
The GasHawk Dashboard displays fee_reference as “Initial TX cost” and fee_paid as “TX cost when mined,” with savings represented in percentage.
To optimize transaction inclusion, GasHawk recommends setting the priority fee to 0.5 per gas, slightly exceeding the prevailing market average. This strategy ensures that when GasHawk identifies a favorable gas price, users’ transactions are promptly incorporated into the next available blocks, maximizing efficiency and minimizing delays.
Let’s dive in and understand the fee model, calculation of savings, GasHawk’s performance, and potential scenarios where losses may occur.
Fee Model:
With GasHawk, each transaction created following EIP-1559 includes a “max_fee_per_gas” field. This value corresponds to the base_fee_per_gas price of the block, which fluctuates based on demand. To ensure inclusion in a block, GasHawk suggests setting max_fee_per_gas higher than the last observed block’s base_fee_per_gas. For real-time base fees, you can refer to the GasHawk Dashboard.
Delay:
We will explore the tradeoff between time and money, analyze simulated transaction results, discuss the maximum delay that can occur, and provide guidance on handling stuck transactions.
GasHawk technically supports any transaction on the Ethereum mainnet. However, it is recommended to use the system only for non-time-critical transactions to avoid potential issues. Here are some examples of transactions you should and shouldn’t use GasHawk for:
Do NOT use GasHawk for time-critical transactions:
- Trading on DEX (decentralized exchange like Uniswap): Delayed trades on DEX platforms can fail due to reasons such as excessive slippage and enforced timeouts by the DEX. “(The team is actively working on providing decision algorithms for deadlines < 5 min in order to address this)”
- Claiming NFTs in competitive scenarios: For popular NFTs with high demand, quicker transactions are necessary to secure the NFT before others do.
- Paying for services that require fast payments: Transactions needed for services like urgent deliveries or time-sensitive purchases might be considered abandoned if not completed promptly.
DO use GasHawk for non-time critical transactions:
- Depositing ETH or ERC20-tokens to a CEX (centralized exchange): Deposits to centralized exchanges can benefit from GasHawk to reduce fees without time sensitivity.
- Deployment of smart contracts: GasHawk can be used for smart contract deployment, where the timing of the transaction is not crucial.
- “Set-up and” Minting of NFT collections: NFT minting can benefit from GasHawk’s fee optimization.
- Claiming rewards accrued from lending or staking: Reward claims can be processed with GasHawk for fee efficiency.
General Preconditions for using GasHawk:
- You need to hold your own key: GasHawk requires users to have control of their private keys. Transactions involving funds held on centralized exchanges cannot use GasHawk.
- You need to be on a computer: GasHawk’s front end is not optimized for mobile devices, so using it on a computer is recommended.
- You need to have some time to spare: GasHawk’s cost-saving process might involve some transaction delay. If you require immediate transaction mining, GasHawk may not be suitable for that specific scenario.
Conclusion
In conclusion, GasHawk presents an exciting solution to address high Ethereum gas fees. By acting as a buffer for transactions, leveraging historical data, offering Flashbots Protect integration, and empowering users with transaction deadline settings, GasHawk provides a robust and user-friendly gas fee management experience. The platform’s innovative approach aims to simplify gas price selection, enhance transaction efficiency, and reduce costs. With GasHawk, Ethereum users can confidently navigate the complexities of gas fees, enjoying greater predictability and potential savings.