Can EOS Transactions Be Truly Free?

Sometimes the EOS platform is advertised as an ecosystem that doesn't require any fees for making transactions. Technically, it is true. However, if you try to make an EOS transaction you will eventually find out that you need to put some of your EOS coins on hold.

This ecosystem requires some work or some coins to be staked in order to let you make transactions. The staked coins cannot be used as a means of payment. So that's a special kind of "free" and that's the reason why the EOS community created a number of custom tools supposed to make the transactions free or make fees negligible.

Probably, the best results were achieved by Freewallet, a multi-currency crypto wallet. Before we start speaking about the solutions aimed at making EOS transactions as free as it seems, let's learn what exactly makes EOS transactions chargeable in some sense.

EOS is an Ethereum-like decentralized platform that hosts DApps and smart contracts and executes cryptocurrency transactions. EOS emulates a computational machine and provides memory space for diverse purposes. Unlike Ethereum, EOS uses the Delegated-Proof-of-Stake consensus protocol.

More than that, EOS offers an original solution for fast and cheap transactions. Users don't pay commissions for the money they send. However, they are obliged to deposit some EOS coins in order to register their wallets on the network. These coins should be kept staked.

The staked coins make the holder an owner of the respective percentage of the network's computing power needed to perform transactions. You don't have to pay for gas when you own enough computing power to perform a transaction on EOS. So it turns out that as a stakeholder you can send money for free but you can't enjoy the benefits of the EOS blockchain if you are not staking anything.

There are a number of crypto wallets and other platforms that make EOS transactions free or almost free without the need to stake coins. Anchor Wallet, Scatter, Wombat Chrome extension, TokenPocket, and other platforms grant a limited number of free EOS transactions per certain time span or offer fee-based transaction systems.

I wanted to point out Freewallet's effort as its approach to EOS fairly fits the stereotype that EOS provides free transactions. According to the company, Freewallet defrays the users' transaction expenses. Users can create the EOS wallets on the Freewallet platform for free. Instead of paying (OK, staking) coins to register an EOS wallet, people can easily sign up to Freewallet using Facebook or Google account, or a mobile phone number, or an email address.

Freewallet accounts can contain multiple wallets for different currencies. The next step is clicking on the Add Wallets button and choosing the EOS wallet. A click on the EOS logo creates a new free EOS wallet within a Freewallet account. That's it. Without the need to stake CPU or NET or buying RAM users can send EOS for free or exchange these coins to other currencies. It makes EOS actually fee-free and simple in use.