[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":19},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-content-en-how-gas-fees-work-solana-ton":3},{"slug":4,"title":5,"excerpt":6,"description":7,"bodyHtml":8,"faqItems":9},"how-gas-fees-work-solana-ton","How Gas Works on Solana and TON (vs Ethereum Native Gas)","Ethereum charges gas in ETH, Solana in lamports, TON in Toncoin. Here is how each fee model actually works, and how fee-payer and relayer patterns let someone else foot the native-token bill.","Explainer on how gas and fees work on Solana (lamports, compute units, priority fees, fee-payer) and TON (gas, storage, forward fees) versus Ethereum's native ETH gas, plus fee-payer\u002Frelayer patterns as the paymaster analog.","\u003Ch2>Ethereum's model: gas paid in the native coin\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>Every public blockchain has to price its scarce resource — block space and execution — and it does so with fees. On Ethereum and other EVM chains, that price is called \u003Cem>gas\u003C\u002Fem>, and it is always paid in the network's native coin, ETH. Each operation the EVM performs has a fixed gas cost; a simple transfer is 21,000 gas, while a contract call costs more depending on the work it does. Your total is that gas amount multiplied by a per-unit gas price, quoted in gwei (a billionth of an ETH).\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since EIP-1559, that price splits into a protocol \u003Cem>base fee\u003C\u002Fem> that is burned and adjusts with congestion, plus an optional \u003Cem>priority fee\u003C\u002Fem> (a tip) that goes to the validator to prioritise your transaction. The key constraint for users is simple: to move any ERC-20 token, you still need ETH in the same account to pay gas. Hold USDC but no ETH, and you are stuck. We cover this in more depth in \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fblog\u002Fcrypto-gas-fees-explained\">crypto gas fees explained\u003C\u002Fa>. Solana and TON solve the same pricing problem, but with different primitives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Ch2>Solana fees: lamports, base fee, priority fees and compute units\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>Solana denominates fees in \u003Cem>lamports\u003C\u002Fem>, the smallest unit of SOL (one SOL is 1,000,000,000 lamports). Fees have two parts. The \u003Cem>base fee\u003C\u002Fem> is a flat, deterministic charge per signature — as of 2026 that is 5,000 lamports per signature — so a typical single-signer transaction pays 5,000 lamports regardless of what it does. Half of the base fee is burned and half goes to the validator.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The second part is the \u003Cem>priority fee\u003C\u002Fem>, and this is where Solana's \u003Cem>compute units\u003C\u002Fem> (CUs) come in. Every instruction consumes compute units up to a per-transaction limit, and a transaction can bid a price per compute unit via a compute-budget instruction. Priority fee equals the CU limit you request times that price, and it acts as the tip that gets you scheduled ahead of others when a hot account or the whole network is congested. Unlike Ethereum, the base fee is not a market rate that floats with demand; the market lives entirely in the priority fee.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crucially, Solana separates the account that \u003Cem>signs\u003C\u002Fem> the meaningful action from the account that \u003Cem>pays\u003C\u002Fem>. The \u003Cem>fee-payer\u003C\u002Fem> is simply the first signer of the transaction, and its SOL balance is debited for the fee. That account does not have to be you — anything you authorise can be paid for by a different signer. That single design choice is what makes relayer patterns possible on Solana.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Ch2>TON fees: gas, storage and forward fees in Toncoin\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>TON (The Open Network) takes a different shape again, reflecting its actor-model, message-passing architecture where smart contracts communicate by sending messages to each other. Fees are paid in \u003Cem>Toncoin\u003C\u002Fem> and break into several components. \u003Cem>Gas fees\u003C\u002Fem> pay for computation, metered in gas units much like the EVM. \u003Cem>Storage fees\u003C\u002Fem> are unusual and important: contracts are charged rent over time for the state they occupy on-chain, so an account slowly pays for persisting data rather than paying once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then there are \u003Cem>forward fees\u003C\u002Fem>, which cover the cost of sending internal messages between contracts — because a single user action on TON often fans out into a chain of messages, each hop carries a forwarding cost. In practice a wallet attaches some Toncoin to a transaction to cover gas plus forwarding, and unused value is typically returned. The upshot is the same familiar friction: to do anything on TON, you need Toncoin sitting in the right place. For a side-by-side of the three execution models, see \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fblog\u002Fevm-vs-solana-vs-ton\">EVM vs Solana vs TON\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Ch2>Fee-payer and relayer patterns: the paymaster analog\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>On EVM, the emerging answer to \"I have tokens but no ETH for gas\" is account abstraction. ERC-4337 introduces a \u003Cem>paymaster\u003C\u002Fem>: a contract that agrees to sponsor the gas for a user's operation, optionally charging them in an ERC-20 token instead. As of 2026, EIP-7702 further lets ordinary externally owned accounts temporarily adopt smart-account behaviour, widening where these patterns apply. ERC-4337 and its EntryPoint contract are strictly EVM standards — they do not run on Solana or TON. If the mechanics are new to you, \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-paymaster\">what is a paymaster\u003C\u002Fa> walks through them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Solana and TON reach the same outcome with native primitives rather than a formal standard. On Solana, because the fee-payer is just the first signer, a \u003Cem>relayer\u003C\u002Fem> service can co-sign and pay the SOL fee for a transaction the user authorised, then settle with the user however it likes — including charging them in a different token. On TON, a similar relayer or sponsoring contract can attach the required Toncoin and forward the user's intended message, so the user never needs Toncoin themselves. The label differs — paymaster, fee-payer, relayer — but the function is identical: decouple the token you hold from the native token the chain demands for fees.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Ch2>Why one fee token across chains is hard\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>Put these three models together and the multi-chain user's problem is obvious. To be self-sufficient you must maintain ETH on every EVM chain, SOL on Solana, and Toncoin on TON — each a separate balance you have to acquire, top up, and watch. Fee sponsorship fixes the \"no native coin in this account\" problem on a single chain, but a sponsor still needs a way to be reimbursed, and a token on one chain is not natively spendable on another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is where a cross-chain token standard matters. LayerZero's \u003Cem>OFT\u003C\u002Fem> (Omnichain Fungible Token) standard, as of 2026, lets a single token maintain one unified supply across many chains rather than relying on wrapped, chain-specific copies. Combine an OFT fee token with a paymaster on EVM and fee-payer\u002Frelayer sponsorship on Solana and TON, and you get a coherent design: the user always pays in one token, and behind the scenes the sponsor supplies whatever native coin each chain actually requires.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Ch2>How WATS uses this\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>The WATS Hot Wallet applies exactly this pattern. On EVM chains it uses an \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fats-fee\">ERC-4337 paymaster\u003C\u002Fa>, and on Solana and TON it uses an equivalent fee-payer\u002Frelayer — the paymaster analog described above — so every transfer, swap or stake is charged in one token, ATS, and you never need SOL or Toncoin to transact. Because ATS is a LayerZero OFT, a single balance works across EVM, Solana and TON, and the ATS collected as fees is burned, reducing supply from 100,000,000 toward a 30,000,000 floor. WATS is non-custodial — you hold your keys and WATS never holds one — and it is the first and only wallet to combine ERC-4337 plus OFT single-token fees, charged instead of native gas on every transfer, with that burn. You can read the mechanics on the \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhot-wallet\">Hot Wallet\u003C\u002Fa> page.\u003C\u002Fp>",[10,13,16],{"q":11,"a":12},"Can I send tokens on Solana or TON without holding SOL or Toncoin?","By default, no — Solana debits its fee in lamports (SOL) from the fee-payer, and TON requires Toncoin for gas, storage and forward fees. However, both chains support sponsorship: on Solana a relayer can act as the fee-payer (the first signer) and pay the SOL, and on TON a sponsoring contract or relayer can supply the Toncoin. That lets a service charge you in a different token while covering the native fee for you.",{"q":14,"a":15},"Does ERC-4337 work on Solana and TON?","No. ERC-4337 and its EntryPoint contract are EVM-only standards and do not run on Solana or TON. Those chains achieve the same fee-sponsorship outcome with their own native primitives — Solana's fee-payer\u002Frelayer model and TON's message-sponsoring contracts — which act as the practical analog of an EVM paymaster.",{"q":17,"a":18},"What is the difference between Solana's base fee and priority fee?","The base fee on Solana is a flat, deterministic charge per signature (5,000 lamports per signature as of 2026) that does not float with demand. The priority fee is optional and market-driven: you bid a price per compute unit, and the total tip equals that price times the compute units you request. The priority fee is what gets your transaction scheduled ahead of others during congestion.",1784634269164]