Gwei / satoshi.

In plain English

Gwei and satoshi exist because crypto amounts are often far smaller than one whole coin, and quoting tiny decimals is error-prone. A satoshi, named for bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, is 0.00000001 bitcoin, so one bitcoin contains 100,000,000 of them. A gwei is 0.000000001 ether, so one ether contains 1,000,000,000 gwei, and network gas prices are quoted in gwei because a full ether would be absurdly large for a fee. Neither is a separate asset. They are denominations of the same coin, the way cents are denominations of a dollar.

01Why it matters

Fee quotes and small transfers are shown in these units, so misreading the decimal place is an easy way to send far more or far less than intended.

02The math, step by step

Say a fee is quoted at 25 gwei per unit of gas for a transaction using 21,000 gas. Total is 25 times 21,000, which is 525,000 gwei. Divide by 1,000,000,000 to get 0.000525 ether. At a hypothetical $2,000 per ether, that is $1.05.

Illustrative example. The amounts here are hypothetical, chosen to show how the math works, not real quoted rates or figures.

03What this is NOT

04Receipts

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