Using Ethereum: wallets, gas, and transactions
A wallet authorizes an action, gas measures its computing work, and a transaction receipt helps you check the outcome. Learn those stages in order so you can distinguish an estimate from a completed action.
Before, during, and after a transaction
The wallet guide covers control and recovery before you act. The gas guide explains the cost of computation. The receipt guide helps you interpret status and the action you authorized after submission. Read all three before relying on a wallet’s summary.
To put gas units and gwei together, try the gas fee calculator. Use your own scenario inputs; it is not a live fee recommendation.
Follow one action from start to finish
Prepare, estimate, then check
A wallet helps you approve an action. Gas describes the work and fee. A receipt tells you what happened after the transaction was processed. These guides follow that order so a fee estimate does not get mistaken for proof of a successful payment.
- Before signing: Check the network, destination, and permissions.
- After sending: Read the receipt before assuming the action worked.
Your Ethereum wallet doesn’t actually hold the coins
Learn how Ethereum wallets use keys to authorize transactions, how balances are recorded, and what custody and recovery mean for access.
Ethereum gas fees, minus the headache
Understand Ethereum gas units and gwei with a worked fee example. Learn how the final cost differs from a fee cap and why failed transactions can cost ETH.
How to read an Ethereum transaction receipt
Read an Ethereum transaction receipt by checking the network, status, addresses, and fee. Learn why zero ETH value can still involve a token transfer.