The cashier on a small screen
Ethereum casino on a phone: where the gas estimate hides on a small screen
On a phone a deposit is two screens, not one: the casino's cashier, which knows the amount and the address, and the wallet app, which knows the fee. Most mistakes happen in the hand-over between them.
Where does the fee show on a phone?
In the wallet, on the confirmation screen, and usually as a figure in your own currency with the gwei price behind a small expand arrow. The casino cashier does not know it, because the fee is set at the moment the wallet signs. That makes the confirmation screen the last chance to look at the number before it is spent.
Switching networks in a mobile wallet
A wallet app holds ether on each network separately. If the cashier names a Layer 2, the wallet has to be switched to it before sending, and the ether has to be there already. Wallets usually show the network name near the top of the confirmation screen, and it is worth reading it against the cashier's wording each time, because a small header is easy to skip on a phone.
Same address, two screens
Phones shorten addresses to their first and last few characters. Comparing both ends of the address on the cashier screen with both ends on the wallet screen is a cheap check, and copying and pasting beats typing every time. The address belongs to the cashier on the screen in front of you; one saved from an earlier visit or pasted from a message is not the same thing.
Browser cashier or app
A cashier can be a web page in a mobile browser or a screen inside an app, and the way it reaches a wallet varies: a link that opens the wallet app, or an address and a code to copy. Neither changes the fee. The thing to keep an eye on in a hand-over is that the amount arriving in the wallet screen is the amount typed in the cashier.
Which wallet screen is the one to trust?
The confirmation screen that appears after you press send in the wallet, because it is generated at that moment. A fee shown inside a browser page, a cashier or a chat message is an estimate from somewhere else, and it can be out of date by the time the wallet signs.
Questions that come up
| Can I change the gas fee on my phone? | Most wallet apps let you choose between preset speeds or enter a custom fee on the confirmation screen. The estimate it shows is the number to read before confirming. |
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| Why does my phone wallet say I have too little ETH? | Because the fee is taken on top of the amount. Sending the whole balance leaves nothing for the fee. |
Carry on with
Payments on mobile the two-screen deposit in order
Gas and fees what the estimate on the wallet screen is made of