Ethereum FAQs: Find answers to common Ethereum (ETH) questions and learn more about the Ethereum wallet in Exodus.
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Ethereum is an open-source blockchain network that supports smart contracts. It was created by programmer Vitalik Buterin and launched on July 30, 2015.

Ethereum's smart contracts allow developers to create an ecosystem of DeFi and web3 apps, tokens, and NFTs on the network.

The main asset of the Ethereum blockchain is Ethereum (ETH). ETH is used to pay the network transaction fees when sending ETH and ERC20 tokens, or when interacting with smart contracts and web3 apps.

On September 15, 2022, Ethereum transitioned from a proof-of-work network to a proof-of-stake network to make it more energy efficient.
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Learn about gas and how transaction fees work on Ethereum.

Gas is the unit that measures the amount of work needed to process a transaction on the Ethereum network.

Gas fees are the amount you pay for the network's validators to process your transaction. The total gas fee is based on the amount of gas used in the transaction and the price you pay for each unit of gas.

More complex transactions, such as ERC20 or smart contract transactions, consume more gas, often making them more expensive.

Gwei is a smaller unit of ETH.
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1 Gwei equals 0.000000001 ETH (or 10⁻⁹ ETH)

Transaction fees on the Ethereum network are calculated based on the amount of Gwei you pay per gas unit.

You can see the info on the current gas prices with Etherscan's gas tracker.

A gas limit is the maximum amount of gas units the sender allows the transaction to use.

With Ethereum, predicting exactly how much work is required to process a transaction isn't always possible. Gas limits protect the sender from paying unexpectedly high fees if a transaction uses more gas than allowed.

If a transaction reaches the gas limit before completing, it will stop processing and fail. However, it still consumes the gas used up to that point, so even though the transaction fails, it will incur a gas fee.

The Ethereum network requires all transactions to have a minimum gas limit of 21,000.

In Exodus, your wallet will automatically set the gas limits for your transactions.

In the transaction below, a) we can see that the sender paid ~2.48 Gwei per unit of gas, and b) it used 40,348 units of gas out of the 45,746 gas limit.

With that, we can calculate the gas fee for this transaction: 2.485301355 Gwei per unit of gas x 40,348 gas units used = ~100276 Gas Price (in Gwei)

This amount of Gwei equals 0.000100276 ETH, and c) matches the total transaction fee shown.
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Learn more about Ethereum transactions, common errors, and what to do if your transaction fails.

Multiple things can cause a transaction to fail, such as the gas limit being too low, an error with the smart contract, or ERC20 transfer issues.

You can investigate why a transaction failed with a block explorer. Here's how:

If you see a transaction with the status Dropped & Replaced it means the original transaction was replaced with a newer one with a higher fee.

It's only possible to drop and replace if the transaction is still pending. Before it's confirmed, the sender can broadcast a transaction with the same nonce but a higher fee. As two transactions can't share the same nonce, validators will prioritize the one with the higher fees and drop the other.

The transaction that replaces the original can have different transaction details, such as amount and recipient, as long as the nonce is the same and the fee is higher.

Common reasons for dropping and replacing are often to increase the fee if a transaction is stuck pending with a low fee, modify the transaction, or cancel by replacing it with a 0 ETH transaction before it's confirmed.

It's important to note:

In Ethereum, a nonce works like a counter for the number of transactions an address has sent, and every transaction needs to include one.

Counting nonces begins at 0 and increases by 1 for every transaction sent. For example, nonce 0 would be the first transaction an address has sent, and nonce 5 would be the 6th transaction.

The Ethereum network always processes transactions in order of the nonces. If a transaction gets stuck pending, any transaction sent after will have to wait for the pending transaction to confirm.

In Exodus, your wallet handles nonces automatically. So you don't need to keep track of them or manage them yourself.

ERC20 is a standard on the Ethereum network for fungible tokens. Fungible means that each token is interchangeable, all tokens have the same value, and no token is unique.

The ERC20 standard defines a set of rules that all ERC20 tokens follow, making them easy to use across wallets, dApps, and exchanges.

ERC20 tokens run on top of the Ethereum network using smart contracts called a token contract, which manages the tokens on the network. Whenever you send or interact with the ERC20 token, you’ll need Ethereum (ETH) to pay for the network fees.

ERC20 tokens are widely used in web3 and DeFi platforms. To learn more, visit:

Exodus supports many ERC20 tokens, and you can also add custom ERC20 tokens.

You can enable supported tokens from the Assets menu in your wallet. For more information, visit: How do I enable and disable assets in Exodus?

If you can't find a certain ERC20 token in Exodus, you might be able to add it as a custom token. For more information, visit: How do I add a custom token?

Because all transactions on the Ethereum network require ETH to pay for the gas fees, the gas fees for ERC20 transfers are also paid with ETH.

To send ERC20 tokens, your wallet needs to hold enough ETH to pay for the fees, and it's not possible to pay the fees with the ERC20 token itself. For more information, visit: Which asset do I pay transaction fees with?
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Because ETH and ERC20 tokens exist on the Ethereum network, your Exodus wallet uses the same Ethereum address to manage them.

For more information on receiving funds in your Exodus wallet, visit: How do I receive Bitcoin and other crypto in Exodus?

To confirm your Ethereum ERC20 token balance, you can use a block explorer like Etherscan.

a) Paste or enter your ETH address in the search bar, b) click on the ERC20 token dropdown. From here, c) you can view all your ERC20 tokens.

In Exodus, you can set custom fees before sending ETH or ERC20 token transactions.

By setting a higher fee, you increase the chance of the transaction confirming in the next block. Lowering fees reduces transaction costs, but if the fee is too low, the transaction might get delayed or stuck pending.

For a step-by-step guide, visit: How do I set Ethereum and ERC20 custom transaction fees?

If you have sent an ETH or ERC20 transaction with a custom fee that is too low and it's stuck pending, you might be able to accelerate it by paying a higher fee.

To learn more, visit: How do I accelerate a stuck Ethereum or ERC20 token transaction?

You can stake Ethereum (ETH) on the Ethereum network with Exodus Mobile.

To get started, you’ll need to stake a minimum of 0.1 ETH.

To learn more, visit: Staking Ethereum (ETH) FAQs

You can connect to Ethereum web3 apps with the Exodus Web3 Wallet browser extension: How do I connect to dApps and Web3 apps with Exodus Web3 Wallet?

In Exodus Mobile, connecting to web3 apps with WalletConnect and the web3 browser is only available if you created your wallet before April 22, 2026. To learn more, see the articles below:

To learn more, visit: Explore the Ethereum web3 ecosystem with Exodus

Ethereum (ETH) addresses are not case-sensitive. However, you might see the same address written only in lowercase, or with a mix of upper and lowercase characters.

If it's a mix of upper- and lowercase characters, it means it is a checksummed address, which is a method for checking whether an address is written correctly.

To learn more about checksummed addresses, visit: Checksums for Ethereum and EVM-compatible networks.

If you use a checksummed address, Exodus will check the checksum. You'll see a message if it's not formatted correctly.
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