Substrate transaction fails due to existential deposit
The Existential Deposit
The existential deposit (ED) refers to the minimum amount of cryptocurrency required to keep an address or account active on Polkadot and most Substrate chains. Note that this is a feature of Substrate-based (Polkadot ecosystem) networks, and is not specific to the Talisman wallet.
Official Polkadot docs here:
For DOT, the existential deposit is 1 DOT. This value differs for the various chains within the Polkadot ecosystem, and is often denominated in the chain's native token.
If your account falls below this value, your account will be reaped. This will render the account inactive, and the remaining funds will be burned. However, you may reactivate the account again by sending more funds to the original address. To reactivate an account, make sure you send an amount higher than the ED on that chain, otherwise it will be lost.
On the Talisman Portal
The Talisman Portal prevents the user from actions that would result in the account balance being lower than the existential deposit.
This is most commonly encountered during staking. For example:
You may have 1.0001 in DOT, and want to claim your stake
However, the fees required to execute the transaction may be around 0.005 DOT
If the transaction were allowed, that would put you below the existential deposit
And so, in these cases, the stake/re-stake action would be blocked by the Portal
In summary, please always remember that there are transfer fees involved in any transfer or transaction, and be sure to keep/add enough tokens in your account to cover these fees.
On the Talisman Extension
Talisman extension wallet protects users by warning them when they are about to engage in an asset transfer that would burn funds in their account.
There are two possible reaping scenarios:
Users transfer an amount + fee that results in the balance being lower than the existential deposit. In this case a warning appears, and users may proceed with at their own risk. The account will be reaped and the remaining balance will be burned (lost).
Users click on "Max" to fully transfer all funds out of their account, which would result in the remaining balance being 0. No warning will appear in this case, and the account will be reaped.
More information here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgPHVztHJWk
https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/build-protocol-info#existential-deposit
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