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Version: 1.5.X

Estimating Gas Costs with Speculative Execution

Version 1.5 of the Casper Node includes a new JSON RPC endpoint called speculative_exec. This endpoint allows developers to send a Deploy to a single node, which will execute the Deploy without committing the results to global state and, therefore, not incurring the associated costs. Observing the execution results of the Deploy gives a rough estimate of the potential cost for sending the Deploy without speculative execution.

In addition to the Deploy in question, speculative_exec also accepts a [block_identifier] for a specific block height or hash to speculate on. If you do not provide a block identifier, the Deploy will be executed on the most recent block.

Sending a Speculative Execution Deploy using the Rust CLI Casper Client

The Rust CLI Casper client includes a speculative-exec option that will flag a normal put-deploy for execution but not commitment to global state. The following command shows an example:


casper client put-deploy /
--node-address <HOST:PORT> /
--chain-name <CHAIN_NAME> /
--secret-key <PATH> /
--session-path <PATH> /
--payment-amount <PAYMENT_AMOUNT_IN_MOTES>
--speculative-exec <BLOCK HEIGHT OR HASH>

You should receive execution_results that show a cost.


{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"id": -4571113357017152230,
"result": {
"api_version": "1.0.0",
"block_hash": "6ca035b08de092e7f5e8fff771b880c5b4d7463a8f7a9b108888aaad958e5b0f",
"execution_result": {
"Success": {
"effect": {
<Deploy effects removed for conciseness.>
},
"transfers": [],
"cost": "87300473670"
}
}
}
}

note

Cost estimates acquired through speculative_exec may vary from the cost of sending the same Deploy to a Casper network. Speculative execution is a tool to help narrow down the potential cost of sending a Deploy, but many factors can cause the actual cost to vary.