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Am I paying gas in ETH for sending tokens to a specific miner? If so is it possible to find out how that miner is and to make a deal with that miner to pay less gas for many transactions or maybe pay in tokens?

Thank you very, very much.

Tomesupp
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I'm interpreting this question as "Is there a specific miner who will receives payment in ETH for a transaction when I send tokens?"

The miner that collects the fees is the one that mines your transaction. The present transaction system is essentially an open market. Miners (presumably) mine include transactions that pay them the most in fees when they mine a block. Miners can also set a floor on the minimum price they are willing to accept for a transaction.

What you are proposing is something akin to someone having a bar of gold that they want to sell with a hundred bidders. Each of them is offering to buy 1/100th of an ounce at a price of at at least $100. The gold bar owner has no incentive to sell you 1/100th of an ounce for $90 instead of selling to one of the other buyers.

On the other hand, if you offered the gold bar seller $100 worth of silver, the seller might take you up on your offer, but if the seller just wants cash, that's extra hassle. Similarly, you could, in theory, negotiate with a miner so that your transaction would be included if the miner is paid in tokens, but you'd have wait for that miner (or one of the miners) that you made a deal with to mine your transaction. They'd probably also need to modify their miner code. This seems inefficient and error-prone. That's not to say it couldn't be done. This is not a technical problem but a market-driven concern.

At the end of the day, all you're doing is bidding on a resource with a finite supply (spot in a block). Someone who has some of the resource can dispose of/sell it at whatever price s/he deems fit.

lungj
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  • "you could, in theory, negotiate with a miner so that your transaction would be included if the miner is paid in tokens" Exactly my question, how do I identify the miner and negotiate paying in tokens? – Tomesupp Jan 23 '18 at 06:28
  • That's in my answer ("the miner that collects the fees is the one that mines your transaction"). There is no "specific miner" in the sense you seem to intend. Who is going to win this year's World Series? There is a specific team, but you won't know until it happens. The winner of this year's World Series is the team which wins this year's World Series. All we know is that it's a team that's playing baseball. Which miner is the one that mines your transaction? The miner that mines your transaction is the miner that mines your transaction. All we know is that it's an entity engaged in mining. – lungj Jan 23 '18 at 06:30
  • Miners compete to mine blocks and have some probability of mining a block at any particular moment (i.e., it is random). The miner that mines a block may also include (or, more precisely, included) transactions from users of the network. Miners may choose to include any valid transactions that (usually) have been broadcast onto the network. Thus, your transaction is up for grabs. – lungj Jan 23 '18 at 06:36
  • Thanks a lot. So if I understood correctly there are random miners who mine my transactions and there is no specific miner who I can identify and make a deal with him to pay gas in tokens? There is no way or... – Tomesupp Jan 23 '18 at 07:16
  • No one knows who will mine any particular block in advance (see https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/18992/which-miner-gets-the-gas-fee-for-each-transaction). You could try to strike a deal with every miner (but see https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/26865/source-for-a-reliable-number-of-active-mining-nodes). The same issues arise as https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/23794/would-a-minimal-gas-price-tx-ever-be-mined . – lungj Jan 23 '18 at 07:54