What it is
The Canton network charges a fee for every transaction submitted to it. That fee belongs to the network. Loop does not add anything on top of it.
Your Fee Balance is a small amount of Canton Coin set aside in advance to cover those fees. It sits separately from your main CC balance. When you make a transaction, the fee comes out of the Fee Balance, not out of the amount you are sending.
Fee Balance activates automatically. There is nothing to switch on. You only need to keep enough CC in it to keep transacting.
Why it sits apart
So the network fee stays independent of the money you are moving. Your transfers arrive at their full amount, and you can see exactly what you paid in fees.
One thing to know before you move CC across: CC credited to your Fee Balance stays there. It is set aside for fees, and it cannot be moved back to your main balance or refunded. Add what you expect to use, and add more later if you need it.
What you see before you sign
Most actions show you an estimated fee and your current Fee Balance before you confirm.
The estimate is an estimate. The actual fee can come out slightly higher or lower, because the network prices each transaction by its real size. Some flows show a live estimate, others show a typical figure, and a few cannot show one at all until the transaction is prepared.
The three states
State | What it means |
Healthy | Nothing to do. Carry on. |
Warning | Running low. You can still transact, but you may be asked to top up if an action would leave you too low. |
Critical | Not enough to cover the next action. You will be asked to top up before continuing. |
What happens if it runs out?
Nothing is lost. Your wallet and your funds are untouched. You simply cannot submit new transactions until you top up.
Topping up is itself a transaction, so it needs a little Fee Balance of its own. The wallet keeps that in mind: it stops you before you fall below what a top-up costs, so topping up stays available to you. In rare cases, such as several transactions submitted at once, the balance can slip below that point. If that happens, message us from this page and we will sort it out.