This article is in English.
As the price of TRX has recently risen, many crypto enthusiasts have begun to complain that TRC20 transaction fees are approaching those of ERC20. Today, we will explore some aspects related to TRC20 transaction fees.
Currently, transfers on the TRON network are divided into popular contracts and non-popular contracts. Popular contracts have higher fees, and our commonly used USDT contract is among the most popular, which means the fees are doubled. For more details on the underlying principles of popular contracts, you can refer to the official explanation.
The core concept here is “TRON energy,” also known as “trx energy” or “tron energy.” The TRX we burn is converted into energy. Let’s take a closer look at aspects related to this energy.
Calculation of TRC20 Fees
Fees
Currently, the transaction fees for transferring USDT are as follows:
- If the recipient has a U balance, about 13.4 TRX needs to be burned as a fee.
- If the recipient does not have a U balance, about 27.3 TRX needs to be burned as a fee.
Detailed Analysis
We can easily obtain the fees mentioned above from transaction records, but what is behind these fees? Let’s look at the details in the block explorer.
- Recipient has U: Burning 13.39 TRX acquires 31,895 energy.
- Recipient has no U: Burning 27.25 TRX acquires 64,895 energy.
Here, the concept of energy is introduced. In simple terms, calling a smart contract requires energy. For a more detailed explanation, see the official documentation.
So, if an account has energy, does it no longer need to burn TRX? The answer is yes:
- If there is enough energy, no TRX needs to be burned for energy.
- If there is not enough energy, the energy is used first, and the shortfall is covered by burning TRX.
- Regardless of energy sufficiency, bandwidth is always used for on-chain transactions (each account has 600 free bandwidth per day, if insufficient, TRX will be burned to supplement it).
How to Obtain Energy
Since having energy means you don’t have to burn TRX, how can you obtain energy? We introduce two methods:
Self-Staking
Self-staking is an official method to obtain energy. Details can be found here. Most wallets supporting TRON should support this operation. Here, we use the block explorer as an example to understand the staking process.
- Connect to TronLink in the block explorer, and go to “Wallet Management” — “Resources” — “Staking 2.0.”
- In “My Resources,” you can see “Get Resources” and “Rent Energy.”
- Click “Get Resources” to see the following interface:
- Currently, staking 2000 TRX can get 34,180 energy, enough for one transfer (recipient has U). Note that this ratio is dynamic and will change based on the staking data of the entire network.
Complete the above operation, and your account will have energy. Try transferring again.
Pros and Cons of This Method:
- Pros: Self-controlled, no dependence on others, fee-free transfers.
- Cons: Staked TRX requires 14 days to be available after unstaking, posing a risk for large stakes.
Third-Party Purchase
During the staking operation mentioned above, we mentioned “Rent Energy,” which is an entry provided by TRON. The official also provides energy leasing services. Although it is cheaper than directly burning TRX, if there is a more affordable and stable option, why not use it? Here, we recommend using the energy service from ITRX.io.
- Official Entry: Uses pure contracts, meaning each request consumes contract fees. Hence, the minimum rental energy is 100,000 to avoid fees being higher than the rent.
- ITRX.io Entry: Uses a general service model, no contract fees, so it can support a minimum of 32,000 energy, the minimum needed for one U transfer.
- Official Support: Daily rentals.
- ITRX.io Support: Also supports hourly rentals.
For example, renting 32,000 energy on ITRX.io currently costs only 3.12 TRX (price may fluctuate based on market demand), saving about 13 TRX in burning fees.
More Information
The price of energy is not fixed. It can increase when demand is high and decrease when demand is low because the total energy and bandwidth of the TRON network are fixed, representing the maximum data that can be processed on the network. As more people stake, the proportion obtained decreases, explaining why the energy you get from staking changes daily.
