Fees

The Silicon is a zkEVM based layer 2 network, using the Polygon CDK. The Polygon CDK is a zkRollup solution that is being used in global L2 network implementations.

When a user sends a transaction on a rollup, the transaction fee paid is meant to cover the cost of two things: the L2 network resources needed to execute the transaction + the L1 network resources for making the transaction data available.

In the case of rollups built on top of Ethereum, this second part of the formula is what’s costly. (Source: https://polygon.technology/blog/polygon-zkevm-effective-gas-price-live-on-mainnet-beta)

The L1 fee will vary depending on the amount of transactions on the L1. If the timing of your transaction is flexible, you can save costs by submitting transactions during periods of lower gas on the L1 (for example, over the weekend)

Similarly, the L2 fee can increase and decrease depending on how many transactions are being submitted to the L2. This adjustment mechanism has the same implementation as the L1; you can read more about it here.

For additional details about fee calculation on Silicon, please refer to the Polygon zkEVM developer documentation.