Many of you are wondering why the fees seem so high when you purchase either a ship or consumables in Star Atlas.  I will explain why the fees seem high and how to get the SOL back.

Serum network which is the processor for the SOL blockchain is where this fee comes into play.  Perhaps you have seen the 0.023 SOL fee charged when making a purchase.  This is what they refer to as a "rent".  This fee is paid one time on every market pair you buy from.  For example if I buy fuel with ATLAS the market pair is Fuel/ATLAS and I will be charged the rent fee on my first purchase of fuel with ATLAS.  Now if I buy ammunition with ATLAS its the same thing.  This is another market pair so I will be charged another "rent" fee.  Same goes if I buy food, toolkits or a ship.  With ships every different type will be a market pair and if you buy with ATLAS its one pair and if USDC its another pair.  After the market pair fee is paid every subsequent purchase from that pair charges only the low .000005 SOL network fee.

Now you have the option to recover the .023 SOL "rent" from your market pairs.  If you chose to do this you will be charged the "rent" the next time you purchase from that market pair.  All you have to do is close the market pair and you will get back the "rent".  I monitor and close my pairs on Sonar.Watch.  Just link your wallet and you will see your pairs with a button that lets you close them.

Hopefully this explains a little better what to expect and how it works and take the fear out of thinking it will cost 0.023 SOL every time you make a purchase.  Feel free to comment about anything I missed or if this was helpful.  Thanks!

Addition.  Many people are discovering they have SOL to claim from market pairs they didn't know they had.  How much did you recover? Be sure and post it in comments.  I am glad this info is helping so many!

Read my new article on the Star Atlas Market.

†SkyLove⁵¹² | SL