Crypto Council For Innovation
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Leadership
    • Membership
    • Careers
    • CCI News
    • Contact
    • Events
    • Press Releases
  • Analysis
    • All Analysis
    • Crypto in Action
    • News Analysis
    • Explainer
  • POSA
  • Comment Letters
  • Policy Briefs
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Financial Literacy
  • Policy
  • EU Elections
  • Crypto in Action
  • Explainer
    • Defi
    • NFTs
    • DAOs
    • Layer 1s
    • Layer 2s
    • Government
    • Infrastructure
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Leadership
    • Membership
    • Careers
    • CCI News
    • Contact
    • Events
    • Press Releases
  • Analysis
    • All Analysis
    • Crypto in Action
    • News Analysis
    • Explainer
  • POSA
  • Comment Letters
  • Policy Briefs
  • Reports
No Result
View All Result
Crypto Council For Innovation
No Result
View All Result

Home » What are Ethereum Gas Fees?

What are Ethereum Gas Fees?

byCCI
March 23, 2023
in Explainers

Summary

  • Gas is the term for the amount of ether (ETH) – the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum – required by the network for a user to interact with the network.
  • Because fees on Ethereum are usually much less than 1 ETH (although sometimes it doesn’t feel like it), Ethereum employs a metric system of denominated units called “wei,” where 1 ETH is equal to 1 quintillion wei.
  • You can spend less on gas by interacting with the Ethereum blockchain with an Ethereum “layer 2 scaling solution.” Scaling tools are extensions of the Ethereum network that aim to increase the speed of transactions and the number of transactions that can be processed per second.
  • A version of this article first appeared on Coindesk. Read more Crypto Council explainers.

There is no such thing as a free lunch and there’s certainly no such thing as a free transaction. If spending $5 to receive $20 at an ATM can be frustrating, imagine spending $100 to send $500 or receive a PNG of a penguin.

While it might seem a steep example, that can sometimes be the case in order to send a transaction or perform a function on Ethereum’s network. And unlike the case with ATM fees, there’s no way the Ethereum network will refund you for your gas fees at the end of the month.

What Is Ethereum?

What is Gas?

Gas is the term for the amount of ether (ETH) – the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum – required by the network for a user to interact with the network. These fees are used to compensate Ethereum miners for the energy required to verify a transaction and for providing a layer of security to the Ethereum network by making it too expensive for malicious users to spam the network.

Even though they are an effective means of incentivizing miners to keep verifying transactions and maintain network security, gas fees are nonetheless every user’s most hated part about Ethereum. People hate gas fees not only for a general disdain toward fees, but because they can be absurdly expensive when the network is congested.

So, let’s dive into what can make gas fees so expensive and what simple steps you can take to save money when interacting with Ethereum’s ecosystem.

How are Gas Fees Calculated?

In order to get an understanding of why gas fees cost so much and how you can save on them, it’s important to understand how they are calculated.

Because fees on Ethereum are usually much less than 1 ETH (although sometimes it doesn’t feel like it), Ethereum employs a metric system of denominated units called “wei,” where 1 ETH is equal to 1 quintillion wei. (A quintillion is a number with 18 zeros after it.) One of the most common wei denominations, and the one used to represent gas fees, is gigawei (gwei), or 1 billion wei. Therefore, when you check on a gas tracker and see that the average gas for a transaction is 100 gwei, that means you should expect to pay a base fee of 0.0000001 ETH for a given transaction ($0.00031 at press time)

If you have ever minted a non-fungible token or purchased one on a secondary market like OpenSea, then you might be thinking that 100 gwei sounds like a steal for an NFT transfer. That is because the base fees are just one part of the total fee structure. Following the readjusted gas fee structures brought in by Ethereum’s London upgrade, the total fee is now calculated as:

Total Fee = Gas unit (limits) * (Base fee + Tip)

  • Gas units (limits): This refers to the maximum amount of gas you are willing to spend on a transaction. While you are able to adjust how much gas your transaction will cost, it’s important to do so carefully. That is because different types of interactions with the Ethereum blockchain will require different amounts of gas to complete.
  • Base fee: This refers to the minimum amount of gas required to include a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain. The amount of gas required for a base fee is determined by the demand for a transaction to be included, regardless of what type of transaction it is. Because base fees are a factor of demand, they are dynamically adjusted based on the number of users interacting with the network at any given time.
  • Tips: Also known as a priority fee, tips are an additional fee made to have your transaction completed faster. This fee is better known as a tip because it provides an economic incentive for Ethereum miners to confirm your transaction before others. When a miner verifies a transaction with a priority fee attached, they receive that fee as a tip for doing so. Because miners are able to see what transactions include tips, they will prioritize completing a transaction with the highest tips attached to make the most money they can.

It’s important to note that if you set your gas unit limit below the amount of gas needed to complete your interaction, your transaction will be reverted but you wouldn’t receive your gas fee back. That is because the miner has already done the equivalent amount of work to process your transaction and they receive the fees for doing so even if the transaction doesn’t go through.

Let’s use an example

To illustrate the total fee formula, let’s say that I am looking to send you 1 ETH and the average amount of gas required to transfer ETH on the Ethereum network is 23,000 gwei. I would set that as my gas limit. The minimum amount of gas required to send the transaction at the time (base fee) is 150 gwei, but I want it to get to you faster so I add a tip of 20 gwei to the transaction. In this case, our formula for a total fee would look like this:

Total Fee to send you 1 ETH = 23,000 gwei * (150 gwei + 20 gwei)

Following, the total fee would be equal to 3910000 gwei, or 0.00391 ETH (about $13, at press time). This means that I would send 1.00231 ETH to the Ethereum blockchain and you would receive 1 ETH to go buy some cool JPGs.

https://www.coindesk.com/podcasts/coindesks-money-reimagined/staking-and-the-investing-environment-what-will-gary-gensler-do-wwggd

Why gas fees cost so much

With an understanding of how total gas fees are calculated, we can get a better idea on why gas fees cost so much. Mainly, the two biggest factors that have caused gas fees to soar recently are:

  • Gas fees denomination in gwei.
  • Ethereum’s variable total fee formula.

Gas fees cost more because ETH costs more

The first major reason why gas fees are costing more is simply that ETH costs more. Recall that gas fees are denominated in gwei, which is a different way to represent an amount of ETH. The main catalyst for this rising demand is the booming decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFT sectors, which continue to attract new users to Ethereum’s ecosystem.

Gas fees cost more because base fees cost more

Also, gas fees cost so much now because Ethereum’s total fee formula is dynamic. Remember, base fees are the minimum amount of gas required to include a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain and are adjusted by the demand for transaction inclusion. As a result, base fees have consistently increased as a result of increasing demand for the Ethereum blockchain.

There are more than 3,000 decentralized applications (also known as “dapps”) running on the Ethereum blockchain, all of which are looking to have their transactions included alongside other Ethereum network users. Dapps alone account for more than 100,000 daily active users on Ethereum, executing a total of around 250,000 transactions a day.

The widespread adoption of Ethereum has not only led to higher base fees but also has made the gas for base fees much more volatile. In an effort to try to make gas fees more consistent, Ethereum’s EIP 1559 upgrade adjusted the calculation of base fees to be determined by the transaction before it. While the real impacts of EIP 1559 are debated, base fees continue to drive the total cost of gas fees up due to the increased demand for Ethereum.

Ethereum 2.0 is a major upgrade to the Ethereum network that will see the transition of Ethereum’s consensus algorithm go from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). Among the many benefits this will bring to the network, the upgrade promises to reduce Ethereum fees in line with other market competitors by significantly improving transaction-processing capabilities and doing away with miners.

What is “proof of work” or “proof of stake”?

How to spend less on gas

While it is impossible to avoid paying for gas when using the Ethereum blockchain, there are at least some ways to make them less burdensome.

Pick the right time and be patient

Unfortunately, there is no way for you to directly reduce the impact of the gas unit, but there are ways that you can reduce your total fee by lowering the base fee and tip.

To reduce the cost of your total gas fee through a lower base fee, you could make your transaction on the network at a time when fewer people are using the blockchain. This is because, in a way, base fees are a representation of demand for using Ethereum. Gas fees are higher when more work is required to interact with the Ethereum network. More work is required when there are more people trying to interact with the network. Therefore, if you can find a time where there is less demand to interact with the Ethereum network, you could spend less on gas by reducing the base fee of your transaction. Weekends are usually the best time for that.

Another method of reducing your total gas fee cost is by reducing your tip. Remember that our tip, or priority fee, is an additional cost that we can give to miners in exchange for a faster transaction time. If your transaction isn’t time-sensitive and you are willing to be patient, reducing your tip can be an additional way to spend less on gas.

Set a max fee limit on your transaction

Another way to spend less on gas fees is to set a maximum gas fee limit on your transaction. Setting a max fee for gas is a way of telling the Ethereum blockchain that X gwei is the most you are willing to spend by sending X gwei as your total gas fee. Once the transaction is completed, the Ethereum network will refund the remainder of the max fee that wasn’t used as part of your total gas fee.

Setting max fees can not only help you spend less on gas, but it can also provide you with peace of mind that you will not be paying more than you need to on a particular transaction. It’s important to remember, however, that like with setting your gas limits, a max fee below the amount of the total gas needed to make your transaction will result in you losing your gas fee and having the transaction reverted.

Layer 2 scaling solutions

Finally, you can spend less on gas by interacting with the Ethereum blockchain with an Ethereum “layer 2 scaling solution.” Scaling tools are extensions of the Ethereum network that aim to increase the speed of transactions and the number of transactions that can be processed per second. Some popular examples include Arbitrum, Loopring and dYdX.

Layer 2 scaling solutions are off-chain, meaning they handle transactions separately from the Ethereum blockchain. Though there are different implementations of layer 2 scaling solutions, they all act in a similar way. Layer 2 transactions occur off-chain and then are verified by the Ethereum network and recorded on-chain.

Referring back to our total fee formula one more time, layer 2 scaling solutions offer a way to save on gas by reducing the number of gas units required to complete a transaction. Because this method interacts with Ethereum only when the transaction is being validated, less gas is needed by Ethereum miners to handle the interaction. Layer 2 solutions also ease Ethereum network congestion, leading to an overall lower base fee for all users. In doing so, layer 2 scaling solutions can help you spend significantly less on gas.

Tags: bitcoincarouselcryptocryptocurrencyfeesgasLayer 1 Explainer
Tweet

Related Posts

Photo of the White House illustrating crypto policy during the first 100 days of the Trump presidency.
Explainers

Trump, Crypto, and the First 100 Days 

May 17, 2025
Solana Staking Mechanics: A Step-by-Step Explanation
Explainers

Solana Staking Mechanics: A Step-by-Step Explanation

May 16, 2025
Load More
Next Post
U.S. banks, crypto myths, and realities

U.S. banks, crypto myths, and realities

By Categories

  • CCI News
  • Comment Letters
  • Congressional Testimony
  • Crypto in Action
  • Data
  • Explainers
  • Letter
  • News Analysis
  • Pinned Event
  • Policy Briefs
  • Press Releases
  • Previous Events
  • Recent Coverage
  • Report
  • Uncategorized
  • Upcoming Events
  • About
  • Contact

© 2025 Crypto Council For Innovation.

No Result
View All Result
Subscribe
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Leadership
    • Membership
    • Careers
    • CCI News
    • Contact
    • Events
    • Press Release
    • Recent Coverage
  • Analysis
    • All Analysis
    • Crypto in Action
    • Explainer
      • All Explainers
      • DeFi
      • NFT
      • DAO
      • Layer 1s
      • Layer 2s
      • Government
      • Infrastructure
    • News Analysis
  • Recent Coverage
  • Comment Letters
  • Policy Briefs
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Financial Literacy
  • Policy
  • EU Elections
  • In Action
  • Explainer
    • All Explainers
    • DeFi
    • NFT
    • DAO
    • Layer 1s
    • Layer 2s
    • Government
    • Infrastructure

© 2025 Crypto Council For Innovation.

Saskia Seidel

Policy Fellow

Saskia Seidel is the Policy Fellow at CCI, conducting legal and policy analysis on crypto regulations and legislative developments across key jurisdictions. She examines bills and regulatory proposals as well as case decisions, providing insights into the evolving landscape of digital assets policy.

Saskia holds a Master of Laws in International Business and Economic Law from Georgetown University Law Center. Originally from Germany, she earned a Bachelor's degree in Law and Economics and passed the First German State Exam in Law to qualify in the legal system.

Before joining CCI, Saskia worked at various law firms specializing in corporate and international tax law, where she developed a strong understanding of how businesses navigate legal and regulatory challenges in a cross-border context and advising on complex legal matters.

Krisina Antonio

Office Manager / Administrative Assistant

Krisina Antonio is the Executive Assistant to the CEO and DC Office Manager at CCI. Prior to joining CCI, Krisina has led executive offices in education and finance. She also worked within the pro-sports sales and marketing space for teams within the NFL, MLS, and Minor League Baseball

Emily Ekshian

Communications Specialist

Emily Ekshian is the Communications Lead at CCI, working closely with the communications team on branding, marketing and publicity efforts. She holds a Master of Science in Journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, with concentrations in Finance, Technology, and Human Rights.

She also earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy and Media Studies, with a Minor in Human Rights, from the University of California, Berkeley. Emily is passionate about the intersection of blockchain, digital assets, and global policy, focusing on how emerging technologies can support climate resilience, financial inclusion, and freedom of expression.

Through her work, she explores the transformative potential of Web3 in addressing global challenges and advancing positive social impact.

Renee Barton

Director, Impact Research

Renée leads Impact Research at CCI, documenting real world Web3 use cases to create shared understandings of how Web3 technologies are shaping the future for people and communities. She has ten years of experience examining the policy, economic, and community development implications of technology deployments.

She previously led primary ethnographic research at the Crypto Research and Design Lab (CRADL), where her research helped policymakers and business leaders understand why people are turning to crypto through evidenced-based insights.

Prior to her work at CRADL, Renée advised public, private, non-profit, and philanthropic clients at the intersection of technology, economic development and community-building.

Giles Swan

European Public Police Advisor

Giles has been a regulator, policymaker, the policy lead of a major digital asset service provider and the global policy director of a leading investment fund trade association. Giles advises trade associations, investment funds and asset managers, and web3 and crypto firms, on public policy, licensing, regulation and advocacy. During his time as a policymaker,

Giles was a national expert on the Investment Management Standing Committee of the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA), a national representative on the Standing Committee on Investment Management of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and a member of the European Union’s Council of Ministers Financial Services Working Party.

Giles holds a BA in Banking and Finance, first class, from London Guildhall University, an MSc in Finance and Investment from CASS Business School and professional certificates in teaching and learning, and blockchain strategy.

Peter Herzog

Associate Director, State Government Affairs

Peter Herzog is a dedicated government affairs professional, specializing in issues impacting emerging financial technologies. As the Associate Director of State and Local Government Affairs at the Crypto Council for Innovation, Peter oversees initiatives to advance responsible regulation for the digital asset industry across state and local governments.

He has developed a pragmatic approach to building relationships with key decision makers and navigating nuanced policy issues. Before joining CCI, Peter served on the government relations team at the digital mortgage startup Better.com, where he led the organization’s state government relations strategy. He began his career at the Health and Medicine Counsel, a boutique healthcare lobbying firm on Capitol Hill,

where he was one of the youngest registered lobbyists in Washington, DC. His former clients include patient advocacy organizations, trade societies, and pharmaceutical companies. Peter holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Government and International Politics from George Mason University.

Ryan Eagan

Associate Director, Federal Affairs

With nearly 10 years of experience working for Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Ryan advised the Leader on a wide array of banking policies and housing priorities. He worked with members in the House and Senate and the relevant Committees to advance legislative priorities.

This includes federal responses to COVID such as the American Rescue Plan,statutory changes to securities law, ESG rulemaking, cryptocurrency policy, and certain appropriations topics.

He graduated Williams College with a BA in both Political Science and History.

Rashan Colbert

Director, U.S. Policy

Rashan A. Colbert is the US Policy Director for the Crypto Council for Innovation. A seasoned policy leader with extensive experience in government, politics, and the crypto industry, he has served as a senior legislative advisor in the U.S. Senate, led policy efforts for a cutting-edge DeFi protocol, and has amassed a high-powered network across the public and private sectors. As Head of Policy at dYdX Trading, Rashan took the firm’s advocacy strategy and effort from zero to one.

His work involved educating policymakers, advising company leadership on policy risks, and ensuring DeFi’s importance to the future of the United States was well understood in Washington. Before transitioning to the private sector, he spent seven years in Senator Cory Booker’s office, where he led on technology, telecommunications, and commerce issues, with work focused on AI, big tech, social media regulation, and digital assets.

As Booker’s lead staffer on crypto policy for the Senate Agriculture Committee, he developed a deep understanding of fi nancial regulation and the legislative vehicles that will be used to shape it.

Patrick Kirby

Policy Counsel

Patrick is joining CCI as Policy Counsel, and brings considerable experience engaging with policymakers on emerging technology and financial services issues. Before joining CCI, he worked as an attorney in the US Policy & Government Relations group at the law firms Dentons and Squire Patton Boggs.

In those roles, he advised domestic and international clients on a variety of legal, policy, and regulatory issues related to technology, financial services, and digital assets. He assisted clients in developing and executing government relations strategies to further their legislative and regulatory interests before Congress and the Executive Branch.

In prior roles, he served as a legal intern at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

Yele Bademosi

Africa Advisor

Yele Bademosi is the co-creator of Onboard, a community-first onchain neobank designed for creators and builders. Onboard's goal is to expand the onchain economy, making it accessible to anyone, anywhere, and empowering people to live radically better lives.

Throughout his career, Yele has invested in close to 100 startups globally, primarily in the financial services and onchain sectors. His purpose extends beyond geographical borders, aiming to leverage innovation, capital, and policy to create sustainable economic opportunities worldwide.

Sean Lee

Senior APAC Advisor

Sean is an advisor and entrepreneur in Web3 and FinTech, and has been frequently quoted in Reuters, Forbes, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, among others. Sean was previously the CEO of the Algorand Foundation, an MIT incubated Layer-1 blockchain protocol that reached top-10 by network valuation during his tenure.

He is currently leading the efforts at VSFG, a global financial services platform and the first licensed virtual asset manager in Hong Kong, to develop the regulated HKD stablecoin for programmable payment and cross border use cases across Asia and beyond. Before entering into crypto and blockchain, Sean spent 10 years and held global leadership positions in cloud computing and open source software development companies.

Sean also advises crypto startups and engages in mentorship and advocacy programs including the MIT Entrepreneurship & FinTech Innovation Node, the Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School, and the Hong Kong FinTech Association.

Matt Homer

Senior Advisor

Matthew Homer is the Founder & General Partner of The Venture Dept. Previously, he was an investor at Nyca Partners, a $1B+ AUM fintech VC firm, where he remains involved as an Operating Partner in an advisory capacity.

Before venture investing, he was Executive Deputy Superintendent at the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), where he oversaw the licensing and supervision of major digital asset firms, including some of the largest exchanges, custodians, and stablecoin issuers in the U.S.

Earlier in his career, he worked as a federal regulator at the FDIC, focusing on policy development and new technologies. Matt has also held operating roles in fintech startups, starting at Quovo and continuing at Plaid after its acquisition.

Laura Navaratnam

UK Policy Lead

Laura is a digital assets policy expert, and serves as the UK Policy Lead for CCI. Laura is a fintech policy expert, specializing in digital assets. Laura has worked in financial services policy for over 15 years. She worked at the UK Financial Conduct Authority for 7 years where she ultimately served as the Head of the FCA’s Innovate function,

which included all aspects of cryptoasset policy and fintech (sandbox, firm support, international engagement and strategy). She is also a Director at bespoke fintech consultancy Gattaca Horizons, supporting a broad range of US and UK based fintech clients and leveraging her experience to provide policy, regulatory and strategy advice.

She is also a Non-Executive Director for Zero Hash UK, a leading crypto-as-a-service provider.

Cameron Jones

Director, Strategic Initiatives

Cameron has over 30 years of experience in technology, philanthropy, and civil society sectors. She worked in the nonprofit and private sectors in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

She developed and scaled strategic social good programs for leading tech companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe, Intuit, and VMware, leading the development of program delivery and marketing strategies.

At CCI she leads strategic initiatives, manages new partnerships and current members.

Amanda Russo

Director, Communications

She led C-suite media relations and content for IHS Markit research divisions across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As a strategic communications advisor to CEOs, heads of state, and policymakers, Amanda worked on the World Economic Forum’s Public Engagement leadership team as Head of Media Content. Amanda started her career as a terrorism and intelligence analyst.

Yaya J. Fanusie

Director, Policy, AML & Cyber Risk

He spent seven years as an economic and counterterrorism analyst in the CIA, briefing federal law enforcement, military personnel, White House-level policy makers and the President. After government service, he joined the think tank world and as Director of Analysis at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance led research on sanctions evasion and terrorist financing threats.

In 2016 he began tracking the illicit use of crypto and wrote some of the first public analysis on a terrorist crypto crowdfunding campaign. He later published a major study on efforts by Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and China to build national blockchain infrastructure. Yaya is currently an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and Visiting Fellow at Georgetown's Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy.

He is a frequent media commentator and has testified before Congress multiple times on illicit financing issues. He is considered a leading expert on China’s CBDC.

Annie Dizon

Chief Operating Officer

With more than 20 years of tech, operations, and marketing experience, Annie has held several senior executive positions at the global social impact nonprofit TechSoup; most recently serving as Vice President of Customer Experience. Prior to TechSoup, she led marketing communications programs for leading Fortune 500 companies in the financial and professional services sectors.

Ji Kim

President and Acting Chief Executive Officer

Ji Kim is the President and Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Crypto Council for Innovation - the premier global alliance for advancing the promise of this new technology through research, education and advocacy. Prior to this role, he served as the Chief Legal & Policy Officer for CCI. Before joining CCI, he was General Counsel and Head of Policy & Regulatory Affairs at Gemini, a global digital asset exchange and custodian.

In his role, Ji led the legal, policy, and regulatory affairs teams and also set and implemented Gemini’s global strategy for engaging with regulators, policymakers, and the government. Prior to that, he was a senior attorney at Kraken, another global digital asset exchange. In prior roles, he was an attorney at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and served as Federal Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Robert D. Drain of the Southern District of New York, U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

In prior roles, he was an attorney at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and served as Federal Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Robert D. Drain of the Southern District of New York, U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Sheila Warren

Senior Global Policy Advisor

In 2023, Sheila was voted one of the most influential women in DC by the Washingtonian. Prior to the Crypto Council, she founded the World Economic Forum’s blockchain and digital assets team and was a member of the Executive Leadership Team. She oversaw tech policy strategy across 14 countries and regularly briefed ministers, CEOs of the Fortune 100 and Heads of State.

She spent significant time as a lawyer and executive in the nonprofit sector helping companies work with emerging technology to solve problems and increase efficiency. She was on the leadership team at TechSoup and built NGOsource, an online service that helps US foundations reduce costs on cross-border grants.

Sheila began her career as a Wall Street attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP after earning her J.D. at Harvard Law School. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a degree in Economics. She is the co-host of Money Reimagined, a CoinDesk podcast.

Senator Cory Gardner

Senior Political Advisor

Senator Gardner honorably represented the state of Colorado from 2015 to 2021 after two terms in the United States House of Representatives. During his tenure, Cory was consistently recognized as one of the most bi-partisan members of the Senate, sponsoring and passing milestone legislation like the Great American Outdoors Act,

America COMPETES Act, the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act and the 988 Suicide Prevention Hotline. He served on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Mark Foster

EU Policy Lead

Mark has over 20 years of experience advising public and private sector entities on EU policy and politics. He started his career in Brussels as a European Parliamentary Assistant from 2003 to 2007. He later developed expertise in EU financial services as a Senior Official in the UK Permanent Representation.

In 2011, he moved to Kreab, a global public affairs and consultancy firm, where he became Partner in the financial services practice. He has held elected roles in trade associations including vice-chair at the financial services committee of AmCham EU and he retains a role as vice-chair for the EU/UK task force at the British Chamber of Commerce to the EU.

Mark was VP of Government Relations at Barclays from 2019-2021 before establishing his own business – Strategic Advisory Management - at the start of 2022.

Alison Mangiero

Senior Director, Staking Coalition & Industry Affairs

Alison Mangiero is the Executive Director of Proof of Stake Alliance (POSA), a CCI project that advocates for clear and forward-thinking public policies that foster innovation in the rapidly growing, sustainable, multi-billion dollar staking industry.

Alison began working in the industry in 2018, when she founded the Tocqueville Group (“TQ”), an entity that created open-source software and other public goods for Tezos, one of the first proof-of-stake blockchains to launch. Before founding TQ, she spent a decade in public policy and academia, and has broad experience fundraising and growing membership associations.

A passionate advocate of the liberal arts, Alison also teaches courses on leadership at the College of the Holy Cross and is on the Executive Board of Advisors for the University of Richmond's Jepson School of Leadership Studies.An alum of the University of Richmond and Boston College, Alison lives in the New York City suburbs with her husband and two young daughters.