Transactions

Comprehensive guide on Transactions on Sei. Learn key concepts, commands, and best practices.

Sei supports EVM transactions, so it works with Ethereum-based tools and contracts. Transactions are signed messages from an externally owned account (EOA) that trigger state changes on the blockchain.

Transaction lifecycle

Stage	Description
1. Creation	An EOA creates a transaction and specifies the recipient, value, gas parameters, and other fields.
2. Signing	The sender’s private key signs the transaction and creates a valid signature.
3. Submission	The sender submits the signed transaction to the network through an RPC endpoint.
4. Mempool	The transaction enters the mempool (transaction pool), where it waits for inclusion in a block.
5. Execution	When a validator selects the transaction, the EVM executes it and updates the state.
6. Validation	The consensus mechanism validates the transaction and its state changes.
7. Confirmation	After validation, the transaction is included in a block and confirmed on-chain.
8. Finality	On Sei, transactions reach immediate finality when they are included in a block.

On other EVM chains, you need to wait for multiple confirmations. Sei’s consensus mechanism gives immediate transaction finality. After a transaction is included in a block, it cannot be reversed.

Gas mechanics

Gas is a unit of computational work in the EVM. It helps prevent spam and allocate resources efficiently:

Term	Description
Gas limit	The maximum amount of gas the transaction may consume. The sender sets it.
Base fee	The minimum gas price required for inclusion in a block. On Sei, the base fee is not burned. All fees go to validators.
Priority fee	An extra fee (tip) paid to validators for faster inclusion.
Gas price	In legacy transactions, the price per unit of gas the sender is willing to pay.
Effective gas price	The actual price paid per unit of gas (base fee + priority fee in EIP-1559).

Gas requirements for common operations:

• Simple SEI transfer: 21,000 gas
• ERC-20 transfer: approximately 45,000 gas
• Contract deployment: Depends on contract size and complexity
• Always estimate gas with eth_estimateGas before you send transactions

Transaction structure

EVM transactions on Sei follow the Ethereum transaction format and its standard properties:

Transaction Properties

Property	Description
from	The address of the sender that signs the transaction. This must be an externally owned account (EOA), because contract accounts cannot send transactions.
to	The receiving address. If it is an EOA, the transaction transfers value. If it is a contract address, the transaction executes the contract code. If it is empty or null, the transaction creates a new contract.
signature	The cryptographic signature generated when the sender’s private key signs the transaction. It confirms that the sender authorized the transaction, and it includes the v, r, and s components.
nonce	A sequentially incrementing counter that indicates the transaction number from the account. It prevents replay attacks and keeps transactions in order.
data	The input data (also called ‘input’ or ‘calldata’) for contract execution. For simple transfers, this is usually empty. For contract interactions, this contains the function selector and encoded arguments.
value	The amount of SEI to transfer from the sender to the recipient, in wei (1 SEI equals 1e+18 wei).
gasLimit	The maximum number of gas units that the transaction can consume. Transaction objects often call it ‘gas’.
maxPriorityFeePerGas	The maximum tip per unit of consumed gas that goes to the validator, in wei. Used in EIP-1559 transactions.
maxFeePerGas	The maximum fee per unit of gas that the sender is willing to pay for the transaction, including baseFeePerGas and maxPriorityFeePerGas. Used in EIP-1559 transactions.
gasPrice	The price per unit of gas that the sender is willing to pay, in wei. Used in legacy transactions.
chainId	The chain identifier number. It prevents transaction reuse across different chains.
accessList	A list of addresses and storage keys that the transaction plans to access. EIP-2930 and EIP-1559 transactions use it to reduce the gas cost of access to those addresses and storage slots.
type	The transaction type: 0 for legacy (pre-EIP-2718), 1 for EIP-2930 access list transactions, and 2 for EIP-1559 fee market transactions.
hash	The transaction hash: a unique identifier for the transaction, generated after signing.

Transaction Types

Legacy transactions (type 0)

This format predates EIP-1559 and specifies a single gasPrice.

{
  "from": "0x1923f626bb8dc025849e00f99c25fe2b2f7fb0db",
  "to": "0x07a565b7ed7d7a678680a4c162885bedbb695fe0",
  "gas": "0x55555",
  "gasPrice": "0x1234",
  "value": "0x1234",
  "data": "0xabcd",
  "nonce": "0x0"
}

Access list transactions (type 1, EIP-2930)

These transactions can include an access list of addresses and storage keys to reduce gas costs.

{
  "type": "0x1",
  "from": "0x1923f626bb8dc025849e00f99c25fe2b2f7fb0db",
  "to": "0x07a565b7ed7d7a678680a4c162885bedbb695fe0",
  "gas": "0x55555",
  "gasPrice": "0x1234",
  "value": "0x1234",
  "data": "0xabcd",
  "nonce": "0x0",
  "accessList": [
    {
      "address": "0x07a565b7ed7d7a678680a4c162885bedbb695fe0",
      "storageKeys": [
        "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Fee market transactions (type 2, EIP-1559)

This format supports dynamic base fees and a priority fee (tip) to validators.

{
  "type": "0x2",
  "from": "0x1923f626bb8dc025849e00f99c25fe2b2f7fb0db",
  "to": "0x07a565b7ed7d7a678680a4c162885bedbb695fe0",
  "gas": "0x55555",
  "maxFeePerGas": "0x1234",
  "maxPriorityFeePerGas": "0x1234",
  "value": "0x1234",
  "data": "0xabcd",
  "nonce": "0x0",
  "accessList": []
}

Example Request

Example request: sending an EIP-1559 transaction

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "eth_sendTransaction",
  "params": [
    {
      "from": "0x1923f626bb8dc025849e00f99c25fe2b2f7fb0db",
      "to": "0x07a565b7ed7d7a678680a4c162885bedbb695fe0",
      "gas": "0x55555",
      "maxFeePerGas": "0x1234",
      "maxPriorityFeePerGas": "0x1234",
      "value": "0x1234",
      "data": "0xabcd",
      "nonce": "0x0"
    }
  ],
  "id": 2
}

JavaScript example with web3.js

Public RPC endpoints such as https://evm-rpc.sei-apis.com do not manage or unlock accounts. On these endpoints, eth_accounts returns an empty list and eth_sendTransaction returns an error. Sign transactions locally with a private key and broadcast the raw transaction instead.

// Example using web3.js v4 to sign and broadcast a transaction.
// Public RPC endpoints do not manage accounts, so sign locally with a private key.
const { Web3 } = require('web3');
const web3 = new Web3('https://evm-rpc.sei-apis.com');

// Load your account from a private key. Never hard-code keys — read from an env var.
const account = web3.eth.accounts.privateKeyToAccount(process.env.PRIVATE_KEY);

async function sendTransaction() {
  // Current nonce for the sender
  const nonce = await web3.eth.getTransactionCount(account.address);

  // Use the latest base fee to set EIP-1559 fees
  const block = await web3.eth.getBlock('latest');
  const maxPriorityFeePerGas = web3.utils.toWei('1', 'gwei');
  const maxFeePerGas = (BigInt(block.baseFeePerGas) + BigInt(maxPriorityFeePerGas)).toString();

  const tx = {
    from: account.address,
    to: '0x07a565b7ed7d7a678680a4c162885bedbb695fe0',
    value: web3.utils.toWei('0.1', 'ether'),
    gas: 21000, // Gas limit for a simple transfer
    maxFeePerGas,
    maxPriorityFeePerGas,
    nonce,
    chainId: 1329 // Sei Mainnet (use 1328 for Sei Testnet)
  };

  // Sign locally, then broadcast the raw transaction
  const signed = await web3.eth.accounts.signTransaction(tx, process.env.PRIVATE_KEY);
  const receipt = await web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction(signed.rawTransaction);
  console.log('Transaction receipt:', receipt);
}

sendTransaction().catch(console.error);

Example Response

eth_sendTransaction

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 2,
  "result": "0xeba2df809e7a612a0a0d444ccfa5c839624bdc00dd29e3340d46df3870f8a30e"
}

eth_getTransactionByHash

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 3,
  "result": {
    "blockHash": "0x5d15649e25d8e7c60b5a1cb3612b6b45dceaa3c774f438d4d5b4e1e1b2db634a",
    "blockNumber": "0x92a",
    "from": "0x1923f626bb8dc025849e00f99c25fe2b2f7fb0db",
    "gas": "0x55555",
    "gasPrice": "0x1234",
    "hash": "0xeba2df809e7a612a0a0d444ccfa5c839624bdc00dd29e3340d46df3870f8a30e",
    "input": "0xabcd",
    "nonce": "0x0",
    "to": "0x07a565b7ed7d7a678680a4c162885bedbb695fe0",
    "transactionIndex": "0x1",
    "value": "0x1234",
    "type": "0x2",
    "accessList": [],
    "chainId": "0x531",
    "maxFeePerGas": "0x1234",
    "maxPriorityFeePerGas": "0x1234",
    "v": "0x0",
    "r": "0x223a7c9bcf5531c99be5ea7082183816eb20cfe0bbc322e97cc5c7f71ab8b20e",
    "s": "0x2aadee6b34b45bb15bc42d9c09de4a6754e7000908da72d48cc7704971491663"
  }
}

Transaction receipt

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 4,
  "result": {
    "transactionHash": "0xeba2df809e7a612a0a0d444ccfa5c839624bdc00dd29e3340d46df3870f8a30e",
    "transactionIndex": "0x1",
    "blockHash": "0x5d15649e25d8e7c60b5a1cb3612b6b45dceaa3c774f438d4d5b4e1e1b2db634a",
    "blockNumber": "0x92a",
    "from": "0x1923f626bb8dc025849e00f99c25fe2b2f7fb0db",
    "to": "0x07a565b7ed7d7a678680a4c162885bedbb695fe0",
    "cumulativeGasUsed": "0xd190",
    "gasUsed": "0x5208",
    "contractAddress": null,
    "logs": [],
    "status": "0x1",
    "logsBloom": "0x00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
    "effectiveGasPrice": "0x1234",
    "type": "0x2"
  }
}

Transaction guidelines

• Use network conditions to estimate appropriate values for maxFeePerGas and maxPriorityFeePerGas.
• Track and increment nonces correctly to avoid transaction failures.
• Prefer EIP-1559 transactions (type 2) for more predictable fees.
• Handle possible transaction failures and revert reasons in your code.
• Always double-check destination addresses, because transactions cannot be reversed.

Common issue	Cause	Solution
Transaction Underpriced	Gas price or priority fee too low	Increase maxFeePerGas and maxPriorityFeePerGas
Nonce Too Low	The nonce was already used	Query the current nonce with getTransactionCount
Out of Gas	Gas limit too low for the operation	Use eth_estimateGas to set an appropriate limit
Contract Execution Failed	Contract function reverted	Test with eth_call before you send the transaction

Transaction validation

Before Sei accepts an EVM transaction, it performs strict semantic validation of the transaction fields. Sei enforces this validation from v6.5.0 onward. If you construct and sign transactions manually, make sure they are well formed to avoid rejection.

• Transaction types is the canonical field-level reference. It covers signature-value byte caps and zero-padding rules, access-list entries, and EIP-7702 authorization lists.
• Differences with Ethereum covers envelope-level restrictions: no Cosmos wrapper fields, canonical protobuf encoding, and whole-block rejection on decode failure.

Receipts for nonce-bumping failed transactions

Some EVM transactions pass basic validation and bump the sender’s nonce, but still fail during state transition. One example is a transaction whose gas limit clears the intrinsic-gas check but falls short of the EIP-7623 floor-data-gas requirement. This can occur in normal operation after Pectra. Because these transactions bump the nonce, they are considered to have happened and therefore produce a receipt.

For such failures, Sei writes a synthetic status=0 (failed) receipt at the end of the block. The receipt reports a gasUsed of 0 and an effectiveGasPrice of 0. It also carries a VmError that describes the state-transition reason. eth_getTransactionReceipt returns this failed-transaction receipt instead of null. Sei stores the VmError on its internal receipt record, not in the eth_getTransactionReceipt JSON response. To get it, use the non-standard eth_getVMError method.

Previously, a nonce-bumping transaction that failed during state transition could return null from eth_getTransactionReceipt indefinitely. Clients that polled for a receipt could then hang. Clients should now expect a status=0 receipt for these transactions and treat it as a normal failed-transaction result.

Additional resources

RPC reference

Sei’s EVM RPC endpoints for creating and monitoring transactions

Gas and fees

Learn more about gas calculation, fee estimation, and cost optimization on Sei

Accounts

Externally owned accounts and contract accounts on Sei