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I recently wrote an article about Staking, you can check that out here. While doing research for that article I discovered I was overpaying in fees on Cosmos ATOM in the LEDGER Live program. This guide will demonstrate how you can reduce those fees by performing blockchain actions outside the Live application.
Considerations
Most blockchains are open source so invoking transactions on them is just a matter of programming those interactions. Keeping that in mind, we can sign transactions with other front-ends that also implemented interacting with the Ledger hardware (which is just reading your public keys from the device).
The important thing to keep in mind here is that your private keys never leave your hardware. I'll warn you in advance and again down below - Always review before signing anything on your Ledger screen. You should be checking:
- The Action (Claim, Send, Delegate, etc)
- The Amount matches the transaction you generated
- The Address matches - if claiming rewards it should pay them out to you
Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for how you use this guide; if you chose to follow these steps you do so at your own risk.
Reading Your Ledger
In searching for an alternative I found the most success with Big Dipper. Cosmostation also allows you to perform these actions but I didn't notice any reduction in fees overall. You'll need to be patient with the Big Dipper site, if you see the 'pulsing dot' it's still working and should eventually return back the action we're requesting.
Before visiting the site we'll be using you'll want to have the COSMOS App installed on your Ledger device, have it unlocked, and have the app (on the Ledger) opened. Also, you'll want to be using a Chromium based browser (Chrome, Edge, etc), Firefox does not always interact with hardware devices properly.
Let's start by clicking the key icon in the top right, then click the USB option:
Your browser will pop up and ask you to choose the hardware device. After reading the public keys on the device (again, it will take time) you'll be presented with several options for ATOM* addresses. You'll probably choose the first one and it should match the address you initially funded the account with. Select it and click Sign In, if you get it wrong you can log out and try again.
The key icon in the top right should now switch to a 'profile' icon, click on it and the modal will have the address you chose above. Click on that and the site will take you to your wallet.
Claiming Rewards
Now that you're logged in we can work on claiming our pending rewards, an action you'll want to take often but may have found is cost prohibit. Let's take a look at the Ledger Live "Cash In" option to get our comparison number. I'm currently delegating to two validators, you can see one is Cosmostation, and that my estimated fee is 0.009515 ATOM ($0.227 on 5/16/21). One thing to note here is that fee covers cashing in one of those two validators. Let's not worry about compounding, but as you'll see in the Delegating section it's no better.
Let's go back to Big Dipper. Having logged in you should have been taken to the wallet page. From here click Withdraw, which should populate the pop-up like you see below. This will take time just as the log-in process did, click Next.
The site will process some some more while it generates the transaction and you should get the next screen. We're being informed the action will cost 0.000242 ATOM, a fraction of the Live application's set fee.
When you click Sign the transaction will be sent to your Ledger.
AGAIN, BE CAREFUL HERE: If you were to get scammed here it would be because you didn't review your Ledger's text before Approving. Check over all of the screens, it should clearly state that you're taking the reward action, that you're the recipient, and state the fee you can expect.
If you've reviewed and everything matches then Approve the transaction and wait. Big Dipper will eventually confirm it was submitted.
Back in Ledger Live you can click Synchronize and the transaction should show up fairly quick (less than 3 minutes). There's a quirk in Ledger that it shows you fee instead of the reward amount here:
However, if you click on it the pop-up shows the 0.000242 ATOM correctly as the fee. To further confirm the receipt click View in Explorer, you should see the following:
If your reward amount was higher than mine you should have noticed the obvious increase in your balance too, mine was difficult to see as it was only 3k uATOM.
Send
We can also accomplish normal sending transactions cheaper too. Let's go back to Ledger Live and see what fees we can expect here:
Looks like the number to beat is 0.005212 ATOM, $0.124 at time of writing. If you go back to the wallet page in Big Dipper you'll see that above the Withdraw button is the Transfer button. If you follow the screens by entering a recipient and amount the site will offer the following screen:
I'm sending an amount smaller than the fee from Ledger Live above for 0.000094 ATOM ($0.002).
Delegating
The last action you might want to do, just not as often, is compounding your ATOM/changing validators via Delegation. I couldn't pull up the current amount in Ledger but here is my last Delegation action from mid April:
The fee to beat is 0.0135 ATOM. Back in Big Dipper click on Validators in the top row of links. You'll get a list of Active validators, their commissions, etc. After doing your own research select the one that appeals to you (I am not suggesting you use ANY of the ones listed here, I've even blocked out the one I used as an example below to further this point):
At the Validator page you'll find there's a green Delegate button:
Follow the prompts by choosing how much you'll delegate and click Next, the following will pop up:
The result here is a 0.000147 ATOM ($0.003).
Summary
I can't really speak to why Ledger Live fees are demonstrably higher than needed. I understand ATOM isn't much different than other blockchains with utilizing gas to pay for transactions but perhaps Live is missing a slider option to set your desired speed?
Either way, let's take a look at the results in savings. The prices for ATOM below were calculated at $22.28, but the screenshots above were at an earlier Market Value of above $23.
- Rewards
- Ledger Live: 0.009451 ATOM ($0.21) for one delegation
- Big Dipper: 0.000242 ATOM ($0.005) for both delegation.
- Sending
- Ledger Live: 0.005212 ATOM ($0.116)
- Big Dipper: 0.000094 ATOM ($0.002)
- Delegating
- Ledger Live: 0.01357 ATOM ($0.302)
- Big Dipper: 0.000147 ATOM ($0.003)
Hopefully this article allows you to enjoy the ATOM ecosystem more by experiencing lower fees. You should also find it more cost-effective to claim rewards and compound them at less cost.
Support Good Developers
Lastly, as mentioned in the beginning of this article, Big Dipper is open source. You can check it out at https://github.com/forbole/big-dipper. There are donation links at the bottom of that page if you'd like to support them.
