Processing gas cost on a sidechain

Question

I am developing a sidechain that will store data and I want to evaluate the processing of this data in the ethereum network to get the cost in gas. I'm going to develop a smart contract that will process the algorithm and return the data processing information to my sidechain. My doubts are:

• Will the Ethereum network charge me some gas costs for processing smart contracts? Or will you only be charged the cost of creating the contract?
• Is it possible to obtain information regarding the cost of processing using GANACHE?

Answer 1

As nobody else seems to give an answer, I can give an answer of some sorts.

Basically, anything that happens on the Ethereum blockchain costs gas (and therefore Ether). So whatever processing you execute on the mainnet will cost you.

Whatever happens in your side chain is your responsibility and the main net does not care about it per se. So for whatever processing happens in the side chain you only pay depending on your upkeep costs.

The only a bit tricky part is the link between your side chain and mainnet. That is a smart contract of some sorts. To be honest, I'm not sure how the communication is supposed to happen (oracles?). But in the end, it does not make much difference - whatever happens in the mainnet costs you some gas. The mainnet doesn't really care whether you have a side chain or not, there is no special treatment for side chain operations.

And yes, you can simulate the operations in ganache (and you should). Use ganache instead of the mainnet and you can simulate the whole process for free.