The practice of minimizing computational costs in smart contracts to reduce transaction fees and fit within resource limits. On Solana: reduce account reads, use zero-copy deserialization for large accounts, minimize logging, pre-compute PDAs. On Ethereum: use packed storage slots, avoid dynamic arrays, use events instead of storage for read-only data.
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The practice of minimizing computational costs in smart contracts to reduce transaction fees and fit within resource limits. On Solana: reduce account reads, use zero-copy deserialization for large accounts, minimize logging, pre-compute PDAs. On Ethereum: use packed storage slots, avoid dynamic arrays, use events instead of storage for read-only data.
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Wallets, signing flows, dApps, and key management concepts.
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Gas / CU Optimization (gas-optimization) Category: Web3 Definition: The practice of minimizing computational costs in smart contracts to reduce transaction fees and fit within resource limits. On Solana: reduce account reads, use zero-copy deserialization for large accounts, minimize logging, pre-compute PDAs. On Ethereum: use packed storage slots, avoid dynamic arrays, use events instead of storage for read-only data. Related: Compute Units (CU), Gas
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A measure of computational resources consumed by transaction execution, analogous to gas on Ethereum. Each BPF instruction costs CU; syscalls have predefined CU costs (e.g., SHA-256: 85 CU base + per-byte). Default per-instruction limit is 200,000 CU; max per-transaction is 1,400,000 CU. Priority fee cost = CU price × CU consumed.
A unit measuring the computational effort required to execute operations on a blockchain. On Ethereum, gas is priced in gwei (10^-9 ETH) and varies with network demand. Users set gas limits and gas prices; unused gas is refunded. Solana uses 'compute units' as its equivalent, with much lower costs (~$0.00025 per transaction vs. $1-100+ on Ethereum).
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Situation where users compete by bidding up transaction fees to get their transactions included first, typically during high-demand events like token launches or NFT mints. On Solana, gas wars manifest as priority fee bidding rather than Ethereum-style base fee spikes, with users paying higher compute unit prices for preferential inclusion.
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A measure of computational resources consumed by transaction execution, analogous to gas on Ethereum. Each BPF instruction costs CU; syscalls have predefined CU costs (e.g., SHA-256: 85 CU base + per-byte). Default per-instruction limit is 200,000 CU; max per-transaction is 1,400,000 CU. Priority fee cost = CU price × CU consumed.
A unit measuring the computational effort required to execute operations on a blockchain. On Ethereum, gas is priced in gwei (10^-9 ETH) and varies with network demand. Users set gas limits and gas prices; unused gas is refunded. Solana uses 'compute units' as its equivalent, with much lower costs (~$0.00025 per transaction vs. $1-100+ on Ethereum).
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The vision of a decentralized internet built on blockchain technology, where users own their data, identity, and digital assets. Web1 was read-only (static pages), Web2 is read-write (platforms like social media), Web3 is read-write-own (permissionless, user-sovereign). Web3 applications use wallets instead of logins and smart contracts instead of centralized servers.
An application with its backend logic running on a blockchain as smart contracts rather than centralized servers. dApps typically have a traditional web frontend that interacts with on-chain programs via RPC. Users authenticate with wallets instead of username/password. Examples: Uniswap (Ethereum DEX), Jupiter (Solana DEX), Magic Eden (NFT marketplace).
Software or hardware that manages cryptographic keys and enables users to sign transactions, view balances, and interact with dApps. Hot wallets (Phantom, Solflare, Backpack) are internet-connected for convenience. Cold wallets (Ledger, Trezor) store keys offline for security. Wallets don't actually 'hold' tokens—they hold the private keys that control on-chain accounts.
A 12 or 24-word human-readable backup of a wallet's master private key, generated using BIP-39 standard. The seed phrase can deterministically regenerate all derived keypairs (BIP-44 derivation paths). Losing the seed phrase means permanently losing access to all associated accounts. Never share, photograph, or store seed phrases digitally in plain text.