Fee Management

Message Fees

Proto uses a static fee model of 0.25 USDC per hop, regardless of the transfer amount (e.g., whether the user sends $20 or $200,000). This fee is fully automated and abstracted. The implementing party does not pay message fees.

Gas Fees (Mainnet)

NOTE: ONLY PERTAINS TO INTEGRATING BLOCKCHAIN FOUNDATIONS

Gas fees are required on the destination chain to automatically relay cross-chain messages. These fees are paid using the wrapped native gas token (e.g., WETH on Ethereum, WAVAX on Avalanche) within the BridgedManagerV1 contracts. To ensure the successful completion of transfers, the blockchain foundation / team is responsible for managing the destination gas reimbursement mechanism. The Bridged Manager contracts must maintain sufficient wrapped gas tokens to support the automatic relaying of messages.

On chains with infinitesimally low gas fees, protocols often choose to sponsor this fee. However, on networks like Ethereum, gas fees can accumulate quickly.

Gas Fees (Testnet)

VIA Labs sponsors all gas on testnet. New implementing blockchains are asked to provide testnet tokens.