We’ve had a LOT of questions from Chaingers regarding fees in the Chainge app, how they work and why in certain cases they turn out to be higher/lower than expected.
In order to answer them all, we’ve decided to publish this Q&A article which we recommend you read before performing any type of transactions in the Chainge app
Before we begin, we want to make a couple of things clear, so that there’s no confusion later on:
1. The Chainge app fee structure is de facto as follows:
- SPOT DEX fee -> 0.1% to Chainge + 0.1% to LP;
- Futures/Options DEX fee->0.4% to Chainge + 0.1% to LP;
- Options exercising fee -> 1% to Chainge
- Cross-chain fee -> 0 % to Chainge + blockchain fees in the blockchains’ native coins — goes to the specific blockchains’ miners
- Blockchain fee -> variable depending on the blockchain you want to use
- Escrow service fee -> 0.5% to Chainge (reduced to 0.3% when both parties use $CHNG as performance bonds)
2. The Chainge app runs on the Fusion blockchain. Therefore, any operation you perform in the Chainge app will require a very small amount of $FSN (0,002–0.5 FSN)
⚠️ there are exceptions here: for instance if the user receives and sends native BTC it doesn’t cost him any FSN since the Fusion blockchain is not involved in the transaction.
Now that we covered the basics, let’s get to answering some questions
1. Why doesn’t the Chainge app display the exact fees before a transaction is performed?
We are not able to display the exact fees before the transaction is done, because our cross-chain solution requires multiple volatile blockchain fees, for the multiple chains through which the order is executed. And those fees vary depending on the chains involved in your transaction.
For example:
If a user has 100 USDT ($50 are on ETH and $50 on Heco) and he is sending 70 USDT to a TRX address, then the fee structure is complicated, as it requires fees on each of the chains involved for the order to go through.
2. So, how does the cross-chain fee structure actually work?
As we said, we don’t actually charge network fees per se — the user pays the network fees to the miners.
For example, if 1000 USDT are sent from Chain A to Chain B → the user is paying the gas on Chain A and the app will also charge the user an amount in USDT to cover the gas for Chain B.
So, taking a 1000U cross-chain transaction from the fusion chain to the ethereum chain as an example, in order to send an asset cross-chain to ETH and then outside of the Chainge wallet, the steps are as follows:
Step 1: The app sends your USDT on the fusion chain to the DCRM node. (It costs the user a bit of FSN)
Step 2: the DCRM node sends the USDT on the ETH chain to user’s address in Chainge app. (It costs the DCRM node ETH, that’s why we take some USDT from the user to cover it)
Step 3: the app then sends USDT on the ETH chain from his own address to an outside address (It costs the user ETH)
For further info on how our cross-chain solution works please consult the publicly available materials detailing the Fusion DCRM tech specifications: https://fusiondev.gitbook.io/fusion/learn/fusion-features/dcrm-1
3. Why does the Chainge app ask for me to have a specific amount of ETH when trying to perform transactions on the Ethereum chain?
The answer here is pretty straight forward: The Chainge app will require you to have the MAXIMUM amount of gas on the specific chain for the transaction to go through. HOWEVER, once u have deposited the ETH (or blockchain native coin), you will see that when performing the transaction, the app will only take the minimum amount of ETH.
4. So, since ETH is the most expensive chain to use atm, how do I know how much the app will take for a transaction on ETH?
There’s no way to know exactly how much you will pay, however, it’s usually in the $40-$180 range depending on the ETH blockchain fees atm of transacting. Why so volatile?
Because there are two parameters set inapp when the user performs a cross-chain transaction:
1. gas price
2. gas limit
Gas price means the gas for each step we want to pay. Gas limit is the maximum gas we want to pay no matter if the transaction succeeds or fails.
Low gas price means low priority on the ethereum blockchain.
So, the gas price in the Chainge app is set at a medium to high level to make sure our transactions are taken as a priority by the Ethereum nodes.
If the transaction is set to low gas, it’s then low priority and therefore it is possible for the assets to be stuck in the pool forever and never be taken care of by the nodes. (or, as you’ve seen with other bridges, it might take hours to complete)
⚠️ For the best cross-chain experience, users can wrap all the assets onto FSN. When you wrap them out, there will be less steps, lower fees and a higher rate of success
5. In which cases can the blockchain fee be covered in $CHNG?
The user will receive a pop-up so that he can use $CHNG as gas instead if and only if he does not have the blockchain native coin in their wallet. But please note that IF you decide to pay for the blockchain fee in CHNG, the app will take double the amount of gas it would normally require. Why? Because hwta we do is we basically buy the required blockchain fees for you (using CHNG) and then we cross-chain it to the necessary chain. And that requires 2 steps, ergo double the fee. Long story short, while it is faster and easier to use $CHNG to cover the fees, it is more expensive to do so.
6. How can you avoid paying high block-chain fees?
In order to avoid high fees using BTC and ETH assets users can use different blockchains to move their Bitcoin or Ethereum. For example, a user can send his ETH over to the Chainge Finance Application from their exchange using alternative chains such as BSC - in this case the fee will be much lower. If your exchange doesn’t support BSC, Heco, or TRX we recommend finding an exchange that supports these protocols for sending and receiving assets to our application. In some cases, it might be cheaper to send assets back to an exchange over a cheaper chain to send out over the ETH blockchain to the destination. If you are not in a rush for your assets, I highly recommend this approach for instance you have 1500 USDT on Fusion and you want to move it to Ethereum to send it to Uniswap for liquidity, or for whatever reason you need to use Ethereum it is recommended you send to the exchange via BSC, Heco, or Trx or and once its on the exchange send it to Uniswap via ETH. It will save a decent amount of USDT.
To conclude, while we are doing our best to offer full transparency when it comes to the fees in the Chainge Finance app and how they work + we don’t charge any bridging fee (yet) all users need to understand that the cross-chain roaming feature is a PREMIUM feature. There are some indisputable advantages to using Chainge for cross-chain operations that include but are not limited to:
- FAST cross-chain transactions, no waiting time and no complicated network configurations
- Full decentralisation, while with other services you get a “clone” asset (as in the case of CEXs) or a wrapped version of your asset which is not compatible with some of the other chains. In Chainge, you get the same asset you have ownership rights over, with 0 risk of losing it.
- Performing MULTIPLE cross-chain transactions at a time, as opposite from other bridging services where you can make one single transaction.
- Friendly UX and the possibility of moving assets from one chain to another even amongst the rarest of combinations including non-EVM compatible chains. While other bridging services cannot offer this level of interoperability. (Take USDC as an example — which can cross-chain roam among 17 chains within seconds)
In order for us to be able to offer our users a flawless, upgraded cross-chain solution we do have to make sure everything goes smoothly in the backend. Which does imply setting the gas prices on the specific chains to a medium/high limit so that you get the promised instant cross-chain transaction. And until these specific chains (like ETH) find a way to reduce their operational costs, there is no way for us to bypass their fees.
Taken all of the above into consideration, Chainge Finance remains the only cross-chain service on the market that offers a superior level of interoperability which is slowly but surely shifting the way we perceive and operate our wealth while benefiting from the sum value of real cross-chain technology. So that in the end, users focus on how they manage their funds and not the blockchains behind them — which ultimately brings enormous financial advantages to the end user’s earning and trading capabilities.
