Created to address the critical challenges faced by Ethereum in terms of scalability and cost, SKALE is a modular, Ethereum Native network of high-throughput, low-latency blockchains. Conceived by seasoned entrepreneurs Jack O'Holleran and Stan Kladko, SKALE’s mission was to enhance the Ethereum ecosystem by providing a scalable, efficient, and user-friendly solution. Their vision was rooted in the necessity to support dApps with the speed and efficiency required for mass adoption, without the exorbitant gas fees that deter developers and users across other ecosystems.
Most discussions around the blockchain trilemma default to ideological debates that leave developers and users stuck without a true solution. Balancing between speed, security and decentralization is difficult and hasn’t been fully achieved yet - SKALE is a reasonable candidate for the world’s first scalable, user-first and sufficiently decentralized blockchain network. Users can onboard with ease and transact gas-free, and developers can take advantage of SKALE’s unique modular architecture to build great dApps and decentralization remains of the utmost importance.
Unlike traditional Layer 1 blockchains, SKALE operates as a Layer 2-like solution that runs on top of Ethereum, providing increased throughput and reduced latency. Its unique modular architecture utilizes app-specific chains, which can be tailored to meet the specific needs of individual dApps. These chains, called SKALE Chains, are capable of running thousands of transactions per second, making SKALE the ideal platform for applications that require high performance and low costs.
SKALE’s innovative model eliminates the need for gas fees, a common pain point for the Ethereum ecosystem. Instead, the platform employs a subscription-based model where developers pay a fixed fee to access SKALE’s resources (blockspace). This approach not only makes the platform more cost-effective for both developers and users, but also predictable, allowing developers to budget more efficiently and onboard more users, even via Web2 platforms (the invisible blockchain). By removing the burden of gas fees, SKALE enables developers to focus on technical improvements rather than cost management, and provides a quicker path to adoption.
SKALE fuels innovation and mass-adoption. Not gas fees. Seasoned crypto traders and investors may remember the numerous issues Ethereum mainnet faced in 2020/2021 when user count spiked dramatically. New crypto users were flocking to Ethereum to mint NFTs, participate in DeFi and discover new applications, but the chain couldn’t keep up.
An average transaction ballooned in cost to well over $100 each, even for minor contract interactions. This priced out many users and led to a renaissance in blockchain architecture, giving rise to alternative L1s, Ethereum L2s and the concept of a modular blockchain architecture (though SKALE, was built to be modular since 2019. To give an example of just how much users have spent on gas fees, here’s a graphic of the top ten blockchains and their respective gas consumption - and these are just EVM blockchains:
Much of SKALE design comes from these major pain points, with an overarching goal of creating a blockchain environment that’s user-first and developer-friendly. By abstracting away the need for gas fees, users are able to interact on-chain like they would on traditional, familiar web2 applications (like the Epic Games Store). This environment is unique, as while a large number of alternative L1s and Ethereum L2s offer low transaction costs, none of them compete with SKALE’s model of free transacting on-chain.
SKALE’s approach has led to a massive growth in deployment of diverse dApps across various sectors, with the highlights coming from gaming and AI, high-throughput dApps. Its versatility and its ability to meet the wide-ranging demands of the blockchain community is only possible through its modular architecture and core principles; users and developers alike gravitate to this environment because it’s so unique. Developers are attracted to SKALE’s promise of high performance and low costs, making it an appealing choice for creating applications that need to scale efficiently without compromising on user experience. The users are attracted to quality applications that are only possible on SKALE, unburdened by traditional blockchain hurdles.
Just last month, SKALE saved 4.5 million users over $300 million on gas fees across 55 million transactions, their most yet. This is what blockchain performance should be, and this is what it is on SKALE. Let’s explore how SKALE achieves this, examine their architecture and discover why this is so impressive.
How does SKALE do what it does?
SKALE’s technological stack is designed to offer a unique gas-free environment, a feature that sets it apart from many other blockchain platforms. This gas-free model is enabled by a combination of innovative architecture and the use of sFUEL, a valueless gas token that powers transactions on the network without incurring costs for users. Unlike traditional blockchains where users pay transaction fees, SKALE operates on a subscription model where developers pay a cost-effective and flat fee to use the network, effectively subsidizing transaction costs for end users.
This type of system is unprecedented on other networks, where users must face the bulk of the costs at the expense of gaining economic security. With SKALE, users can feel safe knowing their network is secure while benefiting from these subscription-based models that abstract costs. By eliminating transaction costs through a chain subscription pricing model, SKALE allows developers to focus on innovation and scalability without being burdened by financial constraints
The SKALE tech stack consists of EVM-compatible chains with their own set of configurable settings and advanced features, tailored to meet the needs of a wide range of use cases. SKALE’s network of chains orbit Ethereum and feed off its economic security and capabilities, driving a more powerful experience for all ecosystem actors. These chains are equipped with AI/ML smart contracts, on-chain file storage, enhanced security features and many more bespoke quality-of-life services that serve the network’s growth every single day.
High gas fees on networks like Ethereum have historically hindered mass adoption by making transactions prohibitively expensive during periods of high demand. SKALE’s approach removes this barrier, allowing users to interact with dApps seamlessly and without concern.
SKALE is particularly well-suited for the gaming industry, although it should not be pigeonholed as a "gaming chain." Its architecture supports high throughput and low latency, which are crucial for creating engaging and responsive gaming experiences. Features like native file storage, built-in random number generators, and user-friendly interfaces enhance its appeal to game developers. In addition to gaming, SKALE has attracted a significant amount of attention from decentralized AI developers. Teams are seeing the increased capabilities of SKALE and how its been able to attract gaming talent and drive innovation, extending this to DeAI development.
When compared to other blockchains, SKALE shares similarities with other Ethereum Layer 2 solutions in terms of scalability and security but stands out with its unique economic model. While networks like Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, and Avalanche require users to pay gas fees in their respective native tokens, SKALE’s implementation of sFUEL ensures transactions remain free for users. This model not only enhances user experience but also mitigates issues like network congestion and high transaction costs, serving as a superior alternative to fragmented user experiences on other blockchains.
SKALE also employs cryptographic techniques and pooled security models to ensure the platform delivers speed and decentralization without compromising on its security. The use of leaderless Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus and virtualized subnodes enable SKALE to handle over 10 million transactions per day, maintaining that high throughput and low latency for its users.
SKALE’s validator reward system differs from traditional models where validators earn fees per transaction. Instead, SKALE validators receive monthly payments based on their performance, including uptime and latency, ensuring a stable and secure network while maintaining zero transaction costs for users. This approach incentivizes validators to maintain high standards without directly impacting users.
In traditional businesses, overhead costs are often predictable and allow for more efficient financial planning. With SKALE, the same model is applied to make validator payments predictable, passing this value back to users. With the implementation of this chain subscription system, validators gain access to a new revenue stream, effectively limiting the reliance of SKL inflation to pay validators. SKALE’s predictable economic system makes it easy for users, applications, and validators to plan ahead, making for a more streamlined experience on-chain.
SKALE has been working on a variety of improvements to its developer experience, particularly in its launch of the SKALE Block Explorer 2.0. A brand new UI for the explorer, addition of comprehensive historical chain statistics and improved token user interface combine to bring a new level of accessibility to SKALE. Developers can more easily verify contracts to support high-speed deployment, giving the chain another leg up for this coming month after a record breaking June.
The team has also begun upgrading its consensus mechanism, which is currently in the QA stage. To accommodate for this heightened level of user and developer activity, it’s essential the chains’ core functions operate at a higher level as well. Come release of the upgrade, users will experience faster block confirmations, making for a smoother experience overall. Additionally, these upgrades have resulted in a increase in transaction throughput - a massive boost to the network’s already impressive metrics. A study from Dartmouth Blockchain concluded SKALE was performing at a rate of 397.7 TPS, with its closest competitor Solana topping out at 375.31 TPS.
The study also highlighted how the network’s modular architecture of over 20 interoperable EVM blockchains represents a TPS of 7,954 in reality - there’s no upper bound on how far SKALE can continue growing its network capacity thanks to these choices around modular design. Dartmouth also found SKALE’s TTF performance to be faster than its competitors, sitting at roughly 1.46 seconds on average. Its closest competitors included Fantom and Avalanche. To put this into perspective, the study found Ethereum’s TTF to be a whopping seventeen minutes and five seconds - over 700 times slower than SKALE. Ethereum wasn’t designed with scalability in mind, but this comparison highlights the need for performant blockchains that maintain the same standards of security and decentralization.
Recent developments in the SKALE ecosystem
Putting the technicals aside, let’s explore some developments from across the SKALE ecosystem. We’ve seen how SKALE enables new types of applications and a massively differentiated experience, but what’s this look like in reality?
On-chain gaming spotlight
SKALE’s architecture makes it an almost perfect choice for on-chain gaming apps. Typical crypto sectors like DeFi or financial services don’t always require the throughput or finality capabilities SKALE is capable of. With gaming, the fit is obvious.
Players of video games might not yet demand blockchain integrations for all of their favorite games, but for games that can benefit from financial services, the use of blockchain technology makes sense. Users gain ownership over their in-game assets, revenue opportunities from actual gameplay are streamlined and users take control over how their time is spent.
SKALE has made this possible for a variety of games, and we’re taking a look at some of the strongest examples currently available. For a broader overview of the SKALE gaming ecosystem, here’s a link to help you explore further.
StrayShot
StrayShot is an exciting play-to-earn game that brings a new dimension to the SKALE gaming ecosystem.
Developed as a shooter game, StrayShot offers players an immersive experience where they can engage in competitive battles and earn rewards through their gameplay. The game’s design focuses on delivering high-quality graphics and fast-paced action, a new experience for those used to other sectors of crypto like DeFi or payments - gaming on SKALE is fast, efficient and cost-effective for all users.
One of StrayShot’s standout features is its integration with the SKALE to offer zero gas fees. In the on-chain gaming space, it’s been difficult for games to compete with the speed of non blockchain-based games. The amount of ticks required on-chain is incredibly difficult to implement, and most on-chain games rely on slower speeds or entirely different game styles to accommodate for this.
Thanks to SKALE, players of StrayShot can buy, sell, and trade in-game items without worrying about prohibitive fees, allowing for a more seamless and cost-effective experience. The ability to transact freely is crucial in a P2E game where the economy plays a significant role in player engagement and satisfaction.
In addition to cost savings, SKALE’s high-performance capabilities are essential for the real-time action that StrayShot offers. The network’s low latency and high throughput ensure that the game runs smoothly, providing players with a responsive and lag-free experience. This is particularly important in shooter games where split-second decisions can mean the difference between victory and defeat. By leveraging SKALE’s expanding infrastructure, StrayShot can maintain those high standards of performance that players are expecting from modern online games outside of the web3 space.
The seamless integration with Ethereum-based wallets and ERC standards enhances the game’s accessibility, allowing players to easily use their existing crypto assets within the game. This interoperability is a key feature that helps StrayShot attract a broader audience from the existing blockchain and crypto communities. StrayShot is available on the Epic Games Store and more information can be found at this link.
Haven’s Compass
Haven’s Compass is an innovative blockchain-based game developed by Ghost Ivy, designed to offer a fast-paced, tactical shooter experience. The game allows players to engage in strategic battles where they can utilize interchangeable hero abilities to gain the upper hand in combat. This combination of tactical gameplay and dynamic character customization sets Haven’s Compass apart in the increasingly competitive blockchain gaming market.
The integration of Haven’s Compass into the SKALE ecosystem significantly enhances its functionality and user experience. Its zero gas fee model is particularly advantageous for Haven’s Compass, as it allows players to perform in-game transactions without the burden of high fees. This is essential for maintaining a seamless and engaging gaming experience, especially when players are frequently trading items, upgrading abilities, or participating in various in-game events.
By utilizing this gas-free infrastructure, Haven’s Compass ensures that players can focus on gameplay rather than transaction costs, fostering a more immersive and enjoyable environment. SKALE's high throughput and low latency capabilities are crucial for the fast-paced nature of Haven’s Compass. The game demands quick response times and real-time interactions, which are made possible by its impressive performance metrics.
With the ability to handle thousands of transactions per second, SKALE ensures that Haven’s Compass operates smoothly, providing players with the real-time feedback and performance they expect from a tactical shooter game
Haven’s Compass also benefits from built-in game development tools, such as native file storage and SKALE’s RNG functionalities. These tools enable the developers to prototype and iterate quickly, ensuring that new features and updates can be rolled out efficiently. SKALE’s support for Ethereum-based wallets and ERC standards means that players can easily integrate their existing crypto assets into the game, enhancing the overall utility and accessibility of Haven’s Compass within the broader blockchain ecosystem. Haven’s Compass is now available on the Epic Games Store - if you wish to read more or experiment for yourself, here’s a link to their website.
SKALE and Unity
SKALE has formed a strategic partnership with Unity to advance the development of Web3 games on the network, marking a huge step forward for both Unity and SKALE. This collaboration leverages SKALE’s gas-less experience with Unity’s suite of development tooling, enabling game developers to create and deploy blockchain-based games more efficiently and cost-effectively on SKALE.
As part of Unity’s Publisher Support Program, SKALE developers now have access to premium services that include dedicated project managers, strategic guidance, technical support, and best practices for game development.
Unity, with over 1.2 million monthly active users and 3.6 billion downloads each month of Made With Unity apps, is a leader in real-time 3D development platforms, making this partnership highly useful as SKALE builds out its on-chain gaming ecosystem.
For Unity, they’re able to tap into a rapidly growing community of users and developers eager to transact and build net-new apps on SKALE. Both SKALE and Unity emphasized the importance of “blurring the lines” of what a blockchain game currently is and what it can eventually become.
As SKALE and Unity team up to make blockchain gaming larger and better than ever, you can navigate to SKALE’s ecosystem page here and Unity’s website here, for more information.
Decentralizing AI on SKALE
As the world continues to adapt to AI and the many ways it may adjust our workflows and daily lives, so too must blockchains.
SKALE has managed to develop a strong decentralized AI (DeAI) community of projects building without barriers. Just like other crypto apps, projects in the DeAI space have struggled due to the limits blockchains impose on them. Traditional monolithic blockchains can’t compete with SKALE’s network of chains and the immense benefits to TTF and TPS it offers. For DeAI developers, the choice between SKALE and its competitors is clear.
Network congestion, off putting fees and a lack of necessary throughput have made it difficult to extend the utility of AI on-chain. SKALE’s approach has been anything but, with a variety of different DeAI sectors contributing to the ecosystem. Let’s explore some of these projects and how they’re leveraging SKALE in the wild.
Exorde
Exorde is a platform that leverages decentralized AI to harness the power of data analysis and information extraction from the web. Its core utility focuses around the task of gathering and analyzing massive amounts of unstructured data from various online sources, including social media, blogs, news articles, and forums. Exorde aims to provide actionable insights and real-time analytics through this data, making it a useful complement to SKALE’s fast, cost-effective, and performant architecture. The amount of data pouring onto the internet increases everyday - Exorde is here to make sense of that data and drive actionable information from it..
One of the key features of Exorde is its ability to perform real-time sentiment analysis across multiple languages and regions. Crypto is an industry untethered by traditional geographical jurisdictions and hurdles of the web2 industry; it’s necessary to accommodate all types of data, no matter where it’s come from.
These insights are crucial for users and companies looking to make informed decisions, tailor their marketing strategies, or manage their online reputations. The platform’s multilingual support ensures that it can provide comprehensive coverage and analysis on a global scale, making it a versatile tool for the SKALE ecosystem and beyond.
Exorde’s integration with the SKALE network can significantly enhance its performance and scalability, thanks to the numerous technical benefits we’ve already covered. SKALE’s zero gas fee model and high throughput capabilities align perfectly with Exorde’s need for handling large volumes of data and executing numerous transactions. By leveraging this infrastructure, Exorde can perform real-time data processing and analytics more efficiently, without the burden of high transaction costs. Additionally, Exorde makes it easy to integrate their API so anyone can access this data in just five minutes.
The platform also benefits from SKALE’s advanced security features - Exorde obviously handles a large amount of sensitive and valuable data, and ensuring its security is crucial for users and developers alike. Exorde is currently processing over two million posts a day across 4,000 topics and 125 languages. Emotions, sentiment, volume, trends - all of this is essential to Exorde’s system that’s constantly evolving and growing. If you’d like to learn more or try it out for yourself, you can navigate to their website here.
PaLM AI
PaLM AI (Pathways Language Model) is a blockchain-based AI developed to advance the capabilities of natural language processing and machine learning through crypto. It leverages a highly advanced architecture designed to understand, generate, and manipulate human language with impressive accuracy and efficiency. PaLM AI is built to support a wide range of applications, from language translation and summarization to complex data analysis and automated decision-making, making it a versatile tool in the AI landscape.
PaLM AI’s functionality centers around its process to generate natural language with a large degree of sophistication; it’s been trained on extensive datasets, enabling it to generate human-like text responses and understand complex queries. This proficiency in language understanding makes PaLM AI suitable for applications that require accurate language interpretation, such as chatbots, virtual assistants, and content generation tools. Additionally, it makes PaLM AI a good fit for SKALE and its growing ecosystem of projects.
By leveraging PaLM AI's advanced NLP capabilities, SKALE can enhance its smart contract functionality, enabling more intuitive and precise contract creation and auditing processes. On the other side of the coin, with the help of SKALE PaLM AI can more efficiently deliver these insights at a lower cost.
Developers can use natural language inputs to generate smart contracts, which PaLM AI can then interpret and convert into executable code. This streamlines the development process and reduces the risk of errors, making blockchain technology more accessible to a broader range of users, overall benefiting SKALE’s wide ranging ecosystem of dApps and users.
SKALE's high throughput and zero gas fee infrastructure make for an ideal environment for deploying PaLM AI's data-intensive operations. The scalable nature of SKALE ensures that PaLM AI can handle extensive data processing tasks without typical performance bottlenecks, while the absence of gas fees makes these operations cost-effective. This synergy between PaLM AI and SKALE optimizes the efficiency of AI applications while securing these operations in a way that offers superior user experience. PaLM AI has been very busy working on new integrations, product improvements and expanding its reach - you can check out their Twitter here to get a better understanding.
ChainGPT
ChainGPT is an advanced AI model designed specifically for the crypto space. Developed to provide comprehensive solutions for a range of applications within the blockchain ecosystem, ChainGPT takes the power of artificial intelligence to offer services such as smart contract development, auditing, market predictions, and automated trading for its users. ChainGPT ultimately aims to simplify and enhance the blockchain experience by leveraging AI's capabilities to streamline processes and provide valuable insights - let’s explore how it works.
One of the core functionalities of ChainGPT is its ability to generate and audit smart contracts. By using natural language processing and machine learning algorithms, ChainGPT can create smart contracts based on user specifications and ensure their security (and accuracy) through detailed audits.
The platform also offers predictive analytics and market forecasting. ChainGPT’s model analyzes large amounts of data from a variety of sources to predict market trends and price movements, providing traders and investors with actionable insights. This capability can be incredibly valuable in the volatile world of cryptocurrencies, where timely and accurate information can significantly impact investment decisions. With this collaboration, users can now make more informed choices and potentially improve their trades.
ChainGPT also excels in automated trading and portfolio management. The platform’s AI-driven algorithms can execute trades based on predefined strategies and real-time market data, optimizing the trading process and reducing the need for constant manual monitoring. This automation allows traders to capitalize on market opportunities more efficiently and manage their portfolios with greater precision.
Integrating ChainGPT into the SKALE network should amplify the benefits of both platforms - SKALE's zero gas fee model and high throughput capabilities align perfectly with the data-intensive operations of ChainGPT. ChainGPT can perform real-time analytics and automated transactions without the burden of high transaction costs.
The team at ChainGPT has been hard at work and has shipped a variety of new features in the past month. Their blog is a great source of information and a way to stay updated on new developments. As the DeAI space continues to grow, SKALE should be able to take advantage of this with the impressive set of projects already deployed. For more information on how SKALE is approaching this subject, you can navigate to this post here.
SKALE’s Blossoming Gas-Free DeFi Ecosystem
With news of SushiSwap’s recent deployment on SKALE, the network’s gas-free ecosystem continues to grow and accommodate all types of users. SushiSwap, a renowned decentralized exchange and one of the pillars of DeFi, has announced its integration with SKALE and a new dawn for gas-free swaps.
While SKALE has focused its efforts on building out its gaming and decentralized AI ecosystems, their network capabilities extend far beyond that; DeFi is yet another realm where SKALE’s technical benefits can extend user activity on-chain thanks to gas-free transactions.
Traditional DeFi activities can be very harsh on users, especially when you consider the difficulties already present in providing liquidity on-chain. Paying for signature approvals, swaps, and other fundamental on-chain behaviors can quickly eat into a user’s potential profits, leaving them stuck between the decision of providing liquidity or doing nothing at all. With this collaboration between SKALE and SushiSwap, users no longer have to sit on the sidelines. SKALE’s gas-free swaps make it easy for anyone to get started, without those unnecessary hurdles.
The following markets are live and readily tradable on SushiSwap, with over $150,000 in LP incentives: ETH/SKL, USDC/SKL, and SKL/CMPS. As time goes on, more markets will be created to accommodate the different types of traders on SKALE. Use SushiSwap on SKALE with zero gas fees here.
Exciting times ahead for SKALE
SKALE is on track for another massive month, and the announcements continue to pour in.
As SKALE continues to evolve and expand its capabilities, it stands out as a leading platform in the growing ecosystem of modular blockchains. Its innovative approach to eliminating gas fees has set a new standard for cost-effective and efficient blockchain operations - there isn’t anyone who can compete with SKALE on this.
Each day that passes brings a new set of users to crypto, and where they end up is of the utmost importance. Prohibitive transaction costs were a massive issue that brought us where we are today; we can’t repeat these mistakes if we want to move forward as an industry.
Looking ahead, SKALE's focus on continuous improvement makes it an ideal candidate for future growth and continued success. Recent upgrades, such as the enhanced consensus mechanism and the launch of the SKALE Block Explorer 2.0, demonstrate the platform's commitment to optimizing performance and user experience. Even more, SKALE has something big up its sleeve with the coming network upgrade. Information is limited, though this should align well with the various milestones SKALE continues to hit.
SKALE's ability to adapt has been essential to its current position and it’s important it continues to improve its ecosystem to accommodate its users. If this report was able to give you an interest in exploring SKALE for yourself, you can check out their ecosystem page to dive into any of the previously mentioned or additional projects and bridge to SKALE using the SKALE Portal. Thank you for reading.
Sources for graphics: Skale Blog
Disclaimer: This report was commissioned by Skale Labs. This research report is exactly that — a research report. It is not intended to serve as financial advice, nor should you blindly assume that any of the information is accurate without confirming through your own research. Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and other digital assets are incredibly risky and nothing in this report should be considered an endorsement to buy or sell any asset. Never invest more than you are willing to lose and understand the risk that you are taking. Do your own research. All information in this report is for educational purposes only and should not be the basis for any investment decisions that you make.
Created to address the critical challenges faced by Ethereum in terms of scalability and cost, SKALE is a modular, Ethereum Native network of high-throughput, low-latency blockchains. Conceived by seasoned entrepreneurs Jack O'Holleran and Stan Kladko, SKALE’s mission was to enhance the Ethereum ecosystem by providing a scalable, efficient, and user-friendly solution. Their vision was rooted in the necessity to support dApps with the speed and efficiency required for mass adoption, without the exorbitant gas fees that deter developers and users across other ecosystems.
Most discussions around the blockchain trilemma default to ideological debates that leave developers and users stuck without a true solution. Balancing between speed, security and decentralization is difficult and hasn’t been fully achieved yet - SKALE is a reasonable candidate for the world’s first scalable, user-first and sufficiently decentralized blockchain network. Users can onboard with ease and transact gas-free, and developers can take advantage of SKALE’s unique modular architecture to build great dApps and decentralization remains of the utmost importance.
Unlike traditional Layer 1 blockchains, SKALE operates as a Layer 2-like solution that runs on top of Ethereum, providing increased throughput and reduced latency. Its unique modular architecture utilizes app-specific chains, which can be tailored to meet the specific needs of individual dApps. These chains, called SKALE Chains, are capable of running thousands of transactions per second, making SKALE the ideal platform for applications that require high performance and low costs.
SKALE’s innovative model eliminates the need for gas fees, a common pain point for the Ethereum ecosystem. Instead, the platform employs a subscription-based model where developers pay a fixed fee to access SKALE’s resources (blockspace). This approach not only makes the platform more cost-effective for both developers and users, but also predictable, allowing developers to budget more efficiently and onboard more users, even via Web2 platforms (the invisible blockchain). By removing the burden of gas fees, SKALE enables developers to focus on technical improvements rather than cost management, and provides a quicker path to adoption.
SKALE fuels innovation and mass-adoption. Not gas fees. Seasoned crypto traders and investors may remember the numerous issues Ethereum mainnet faced in 2020/2021 when user count spiked dramatically. New crypto users were flocking to Ethereum to mint NFTs, participate in DeFi and discover new applications, but the chain couldn’t keep up.
An average transaction ballooned in cost to well over $100 each, even for minor contract interactions. This priced out many users and led to a renaissance in blockchain architecture, giving rise to alternative L1s, Ethereum L2s and the concept of a modular blockchain architecture (though SKALE, was built to be modular since 2019. To give an example of just how much users have spent on gas fees, here’s a graphic of the top ten blockchains and their respective gas consumption - and these are just EVM blockchains:
Much of SKALE design comes from these major pain points, with an overarching goal of creating a blockchain environment that’s user-first and developer-friendly. By abstracting away the need for gas fees, users are able to interact on-chain like they would on traditional, familiar web2 applications (like the Epic Games Store). This environment is unique, as while a large number of alternative L1s and Ethereum L2s offer low transaction costs, none of them compete with SKALE’s model of free transacting on-chain.
SKALE’s approach has led to a massive growth in deployment of diverse dApps across various sectors, with the highlights coming from gaming and AI, high-throughput dApps. Its versatility and its ability to meet the wide-ranging demands of the blockchain community is only possible through its modular architecture and core principles; users and developers alike gravitate to this environment because it’s so unique. Developers are attracted to SKALE’s promise of high performance and low costs, making it an appealing choice for creating applications that need to scale efficiently without compromising on user experience. The users are attracted to quality applications that are only possible on SKALE, unburdened by traditional blockchain hurdles.
Just last month, SKALE saved 4.5 million users over $300 million on gas fees across 55 million transactions, their most yet. This is what blockchain performance should be, and this is what it is on SKALE. Let’s explore how SKALE achieves this, examine their architecture and discover why this is so impressive.
How does SKALE do what it does?
SKALE’s technological stack is designed to offer a unique gas-free environment, a feature that sets it apart from many other blockchain platforms. This gas-free model is enabled by a combination of innovative architecture and the use of sFUEL, a valueless gas token that powers transactions on the network without incurring costs for users. Unlike traditional blockchains where users pay transaction fees, SKALE operates on a subscription model where developers pay a cost-effective and flat fee to use the network, effectively subsidizing transaction costs for end users.
This type of system is unprecedented on other networks, where users must face the bulk of the costs at the expense of gaining economic security. With SKALE, users can feel safe knowing their network is secure while benefiting from these subscription-based models that abstract costs. By eliminating transaction costs through a chain subscription pricing model, SKALE allows developers to focus on innovation and scalability without being burdened by financial constraints
The SKALE tech stack consists of EVM-compatible chains with their own set of configurable settings and advanced features, tailored to meet the needs of a wide range of use cases. SKALE’s network of chains orbit Ethereum and feed off its economic security and capabilities, driving a more powerful experience for all ecosystem actors. These chains are equipped with AI/ML smart contracts, on-chain file storage, enhanced security features and many more bespoke quality-of-life services that serve the network’s growth every single day.
High gas fees on networks like Ethereum have historically hindered mass adoption by making transactions prohibitively expensive during periods of high demand. SKALE’s approach removes this barrier, allowing users to interact with dApps seamlessly and without concern.
SKALE is particularly well-suited for the gaming industry, although it should not be pigeonholed as a "gaming chain." Its architecture supports high throughput and low latency, which are crucial for creating engaging and responsive gaming experiences. Features like native file storage, built-in random number generators, and user-friendly interfaces enhance its appeal to game developers. In addition to gaming, SKALE has attracted a significant amount of attention from decentralized AI developers. Teams are seeing the increased capabilities of SKALE and how its been able to attract gaming talent and drive innovation, extending this to DeAI development.
When compared to other blockchains, SKALE shares similarities with other Ethereum Layer 2 solutions in terms of scalability and security but stands out with its unique economic model. While networks like Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, and Avalanche require users to pay gas fees in their respective native tokens, SKALE’s implementation of sFUEL ensures transactions remain free for users. This model not only enhances user experience but also mitigates issues like network congestion and high transaction costs, serving as a superior alternative to fragmented user experiences on other blockchains.
SKALE also employs cryptographic techniques and pooled security models to ensure the platform delivers speed and decentralization without compromising on its security. The use of leaderless Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus and virtualized subnodes enable SKALE to handle over 10 million transactions per day, maintaining that high throughput and low latency for its users.
SKALE’s validator reward system differs from traditional models where validators earn fees per transaction. Instead, SKALE validators receive monthly payments based on their performance, including uptime and latency, ensuring a stable and secure network while maintaining zero transaction costs for users. This approach incentivizes validators to maintain high standards without directly impacting users.
In traditional businesses, overhead costs are often predictable and allow for more efficient financial planning. With SKALE, the same model is applied to make validator payments predictable, passing this value back to users. With the implementation of this chain subscription system, validators gain access to a new revenue stream, effectively limiting the reliance of SKL inflation to pay validators. SKALE’s predictable economic system makes it easy for users, applications, and validators to plan ahead, making for a more streamlined experience on-chain.
SKALE has been working on a variety of improvements to its developer experience, particularly in its launch of the SKALE Block Explorer 2.0. A brand new UI for the explorer, addition of comprehensive historical chain statistics and improved token user interface combine to bring a new level of accessibility to SKALE. Developers can more easily verify contracts to support high-speed deployment, giving the chain another leg up for this coming month after a record breaking June.
The team has also begun upgrading its consensus mechanism, which is currently in the QA stage. To accommodate for this heightened level of user and developer activity, it’s essential the chains’ core functions operate at a higher level as well. Come release of the upgrade, users will experience faster block confirmations, making for a smoother experience overall. Additionally, these upgrades have resulted in a increase in transaction throughput - a massive boost to the network’s already impressive metrics. A study from Dartmouth Blockchain concluded SKALE was performing at a rate of 397.7 TPS, with its closest competitor Solana topping out at 375.31 TPS.
The study also highlighted how the network’s modular architecture of over 20 interoperable EVM blockchains represents a TPS of 7,954 in reality - there’s no upper bound on how far SKALE can continue growing its network capacity thanks to these choices around modular design. Dartmouth also found SKALE’s TTF performance to be faster than its competitors, sitting at roughly 1.46 seconds on average. Its closest competitors included Fantom and Avalanche. To put this into perspective, the study found Ethereum’s TTF to be a whopping seventeen minutes and five seconds - over 700 times slower than SKALE. Ethereum wasn’t designed with scalability in mind, but this comparison highlights the need for performant blockchains that maintain the same standards of security and decentralization.
Recent developments in the SKALE ecosystem
Putting the technicals aside, let’s explore some developments from across the SKALE ecosystem. We’ve seen how SKALE enables new types of applications and a massively differentiated experience, but what’s this look like in reality?
On-chain gaming spotlight
SKALE’s architecture makes it an almost perfect choice for on-chain gaming apps. Typical crypto sectors like DeFi or financial services don’t always require the throughput or finality capabilities SKALE is capable of. With gaming, the fit is obvious.
Players of video games might not yet demand blockchain integrations for all of their favorite games, but for games that can benefit from financial services, the use of blockchain technology makes sense. Users gain ownership over their in-game assets, revenue opportunities from actual gameplay are streamlined and users take control over how their time is spent.
SKALE has made this possible for a variety of games, and we’re taking a look at some of the strongest examples currently available. For a broader overview of the SKALE gaming ecosystem, here’s a link to help you explore further.
StrayShot
StrayShot is an exciting play-to-earn game that brings a new dimension to the SKALE gaming ecosystem.
Developed as a shooter game, StrayShot offers players an immersive experience where they can engage in competitive battles and earn rewards through their gameplay. The game’s design focuses on delivering high-quality graphics and fast-paced action, a new experience for those used to other sectors of crypto like DeFi or payments - gaming on SKALE is fast, efficient and cost-effective for all users.
One of StrayShot’s standout features is its integration with the SKALE to offer zero gas fees. In the on-chain gaming space, it’s been difficult for games to compete with the speed of non blockchain-based games. The amount of ticks required on-chain is incredibly difficult to implement, and most on-chain games rely on slower speeds or entirely different game styles to accommodate for this.
Thanks to SKALE, players of StrayShot can buy, sell, and trade in-game items without worrying about prohibitive fees, allowing for a more seamless and cost-effective experience. The ability to transact freely is crucial in a P2E game where the economy plays a significant role in player engagement and satisfaction.
In addition to cost savings, SKALE’s high-performance capabilities are essential for the real-time action that StrayShot offers. The network’s low latency and high throughput ensure that the game runs smoothly, providing players with a responsive and lag-free experience. This is particularly important in shooter games where split-second decisions can mean the difference between victory and defeat. By leveraging SKALE’s expanding infrastructure, StrayShot can maintain those high standards of performance that players are expecting from modern online games outside of the web3 space.
The seamless integration with Ethereum-based wallets and ERC standards enhances the game’s accessibility, allowing players to easily use their existing crypto assets within the game. This interoperability is a key feature that helps StrayShot attract a broader audience from the existing blockchain and crypto communities. StrayShot is available on the Epic Games Store and more information can be found at this link.
Haven’s Compass
Haven’s Compass is an innovative blockchain-based game developed by Ghost Ivy, designed to offer a fast-paced, tactical shooter experience. The game allows players to engage in strategic battles where they can utilize interchangeable hero abilities to gain the upper hand in combat. This combination of tactical gameplay and dynamic character customization sets Haven’s Compass apart in the increasingly competitive blockchain gaming market.
The integration of Haven’s Compass into the SKALE ecosystem significantly enhances its functionality and user experience. Its zero gas fee model is particularly advantageous for Haven’s Compass, as it allows players to perform in-game transactions without the burden of high fees. This is essential for maintaining a seamless and engaging gaming experience, especially when players are frequently trading items, upgrading abilities, or participating in various in-game events.
By utilizing this gas-free infrastructure, Haven’s Compass ensures that players can focus on gameplay rather than transaction costs, fostering a more immersive and enjoyable environment. SKALE's high throughput and low latency capabilities are crucial for the fast-paced nature of Haven’s Compass. The game demands quick response times and real-time interactions, which are made possible by its impressive performance metrics.
With the ability to handle thousands of transactions per second, SKALE ensures that Haven’s Compass operates smoothly, providing players with the real-time feedback and performance they expect from a tactical shooter game
Haven’s Compass also benefits from built-in game development tools, such as native file storage and SKALE’s RNG functionalities. These tools enable the developers to prototype and iterate quickly, ensuring that new features and updates can be rolled out efficiently. SKALE’s support for Ethereum-based wallets and ERC standards means that players can easily integrate their existing crypto assets into the game, enhancing the overall utility and accessibility of Haven’s Compass within the broader blockchain ecosystem. Haven’s Compass is now available on the Epic Games Store - if you wish to read more or experiment for yourself, here’s a link to their website.
SKALE and Unity
SKALE has formed a strategic partnership with Unity to advance the development of Web3 games on the network, marking a huge step forward for both Unity and SKALE. This collaboration leverages SKALE’s gas-less experience with Unity’s suite of development tooling, enabling game developers to create and deploy blockchain-based games more efficiently and cost-effectively on SKALE.
As part of Unity’s Publisher Support Program, SKALE developers now have access to premium services that include dedicated project managers, strategic guidance, technical support, and best practices for game development.
Unity, with over 1.2 million monthly active users and 3.6 billion downloads each month of Made With Unity apps, is a leader in real-time 3D development platforms, making this partnership highly useful as SKALE builds out its on-chain gaming ecosystem.
For Unity, they’re able to tap into a rapidly growing community of users and developers eager to transact and build net-new apps on SKALE. Both SKALE and Unity emphasized the importance of “blurring the lines” of what a blockchain game currently is and what it can eventually become.
As SKALE and Unity team up to make blockchain gaming larger and better than ever, you can navigate to SKALE’s ecosystem page here and Unity’s website here, for more information.
Decentralizing AI on SKALE
As the world continues to adapt to AI and the many ways it may adjust our workflows and daily lives, so too must blockchains.
SKALE has managed to develop a strong decentralized AI (DeAI) community of projects building without barriers. Just like other crypto apps, projects in the DeAI space have struggled due to the limits blockchains impose on them. Traditional monolithic blockchains can’t compete with SKALE’s network of chains and the immense benefits to TTF and TPS it offers. For DeAI developers, the choice between SKALE and its competitors is clear.
Network congestion, off putting fees and a lack of necessary throughput have made it difficult to extend the utility of AI on-chain. SKALE’s approach has been anything but, with a variety of different DeAI sectors contributing to the ecosystem. Let’s explore some of these projects and how they’re leveraging SKALE in the wild.
Exorde
Exorde is a platform that leverages decentralized AI to harness the power of data analysis and information extraction from the web. Its core utility focuses around the task of gathering and analyzing massive amounts of unstructured data from various online sources, including social media, blogs, news articles, and forums. Exorde aims to provide actionable insights and real-time analytics through this data, making it a useful complement to SKALE’s fast, cost-effective, and performant architecture. The amount of data pouring onto the internet increases everyday - Exorde is here to make sense of that data and drive actionable information from it..
One of the key features of Exorde is its ability to perform real-time sentiment analysis across multiple languages and regions. Crypto is an industry untethered by traditional geographical jurisdictions and hurdles of the web2 industry; it’s necessary to accommodate all types of data, no matter where it’s come from.
These insights are crucial for users and companies looking to make informed decisions, tailor their marketing strategies, or manage their online reputations. The platform’s multilingual support ensures that it can provide comprehensive coverage and analysis on a global scale, making it a versatile tool for the SKALE ecosystem and beyond.
Exorde’s integration with the SKALE network can significantly enhance its performance and scalability, thanks to the numerous technical benefits we’ve already covered. SKALE’s zero gas fee model and high throughput capabilities align perfectly with Exorde’s need for handling large volumes of data and executing numerous transactions. By leveraging this infrastructure, Exorde can perform real-time data processing and analytics more efficiently, without the burden of high transaction costs. Additionally, Exorde makes it easy to integrate their API so anyone can access this data in just five minutes.
The platform also benefits from SKALE’s advanced security features - Exorde obviously handles a large amount of sensitive and valuable data, and ensuring its security is crucial for users and developers alike. Exorde is currently processing over two million posts a day across 4,000 topics and 125 languages. Emotions, sentiment, volume, trends - all of this is essential to Exorde’s system that’s constantly evolving and growing. If you’d like to learn more or try it out for yourself, you can navigate to their website here.
PaLM AI
PaLM AI (Pathways Language Model) is a blockchain-based AI developed to advance the capabilities of natural language processing and machine learning through crypto. It leverages a highly advanced architecture designed to understand, generate, and manipulate human language with impressive accuracy and efficiency. PaLM AI is built to support a wide range of applications, from language translation and summarization to complex data analysis and automated decision-making, making it a versatile tool in the AI landscape.
PaLM AI’s functionality centers around its process to generate natural language with a large degree of sophistication; it’s been trained on extensive datasets, enabling it to generate human-like text responses and understand complex queries. This proficiency in language understanding makes PaLM AI suitable for applications that require accurate language interpretation, such as chatbots, virtual assistants, and content generation tools. Additionally, it makes PaLM AI a good fit for SKALE and its growing ecosystem of projects.
By leveraging PaLM AI's advanced NLP capabilities, SKALE can enhance its smart contract functionality, enabling more intuitive and precise contract creation and auditing processes. On the other side of the coin, with the help of SKALE PaLM AI can more efficiently deliver these insights at a lower cost.
Developers can use natural language inputs to generate smart contracts, which PaLM AI can then interpret and convert into executable code. This streamlines the development process and reduces the risk of errors, making blockchain technology more accessible to a broader range of users, overall benefiting SKALE’s wide ranging ecosystem of dApps and users.
SKALE's high throughput and zero gas fee infrastructure make for an ideal environment for deploying PaLM AI's data-intensive operations. The scalable nature of SKALE ensures that PaLM AI can handle extensive data processing tasks without typical performance bottlenecks, while the absence of gas fees makes these operations cost-effective. This synergy between PaLM AI and SKALE optimizes the efficiency of AI applications while securing these operations in a way that offers superior user experience. PaLM AI has been very busy working on new integrations, product improvements and expanding its reach - you can check out their Twitter here to get a better understanding.
ChainGPT
ChainGPT is an advanced AI model designed specifically for the crypto space. Developed to provide comprehensive solutions for a range of applications within the blockchain ecosystem, ChainGPT takes the power of artificial intelligence to offer services such as smart contract development, auditing, market predictions, and automated trading for its users. ChainGPT ultimately aims to simplify and enhance the blockchain experience by leveraging AI's capabilities to streamline processes and provide valuable insights - let’s explore how it works.
One of the core functionalities of ChainGPT is its ability to generate and audit smart contracts. By using natural language processing and machine learning algorithms, ChainGPT can create smart contracts based on user specifications and ensure their security (and accuracy) through detailed audits.
The platform also offers predictive analytics and market forecasting. ChainGPT’s model analyzes large amounts of data from a variety of sources to predict market trends and price movements, providing traders and investors with actionable insights. This capability can be incredibly valuable in the volatile world of cryptocurrencies, where timely and accurate information can significantly impact investment decisions. With this collaboration, users can now make more informed choices and potentially improve their trades.
ChainGPT also excels in automated trading and portfolio management. The platform’s AI-driven algorithms can execute trades based on predefined strategies and real-time market data, optimizing the trading process and reducing the need for constant manual monitoring. This automation allows traders to capitalize on market opportunities more efficiently and manage their portfolios with greater precision.
Integrating ChainGPT into the SKALE network should amplify the benefits of both platforms - SKALE's zero gas fee model and high throughput capabilities align perfectly with the data-intensive operations of ChainGPT. ChainGPT can perform real-time analytics and automated transactions without the burden of high transaction costs.
The team at ChainGPT has been hard at work and has shipped a variety of new features in the past month. Their blog is a great source of information and a way to stay updated on new developments. As the DeAI space continues to grow, SKALE should be able to take advantage of this with the impressive set of projects already deployed. For more information on how SKALE is approaching this subject, you can navigate to this post here.
SKALE’s Blossoming Gas-Free DeFi Ecosystem
With news of SushiSwap’s recent deployment on SKALE, the network’s gas-free ecosystem continues to grow and accommodate all types of users. SushiSwap, a renowned decentralized exchange and one of the pillars of DeFi, has announced its integration with SKALE and a new dawn for gas-free swaps.
While SKALE has focused its efforts on building out its gaming and decentralized AI ecosystems, their network capabilities extend far beyond that; DeFi is yet another realm where SKALE’s technical benefits can extend user activity on-chain thanks to gas-free transactions.
Traditional DeFi activities can be very harsh on users, especially when you consider the difficulties already present in providing liquidity on-chain. Paying for signature approvals, swaps, and other fundamental on-chain behaviors can quickly eat into a user’s potential profits, leaving them stuck between the decision of providing liquidity or doing nothing at all. With this collaboration between SKALE and SushiSwap, users no longer have to sit on the sidelines. SKALE’s gas-free swaps make it easy for anyone to get started, without those unnecessary hurdles.
The following markets are live and readily tradable on SushiSwap, with over $150,000 in LP incentives: ETH/SKL, USDC/SKL, and SKL/CMPS. As time goes on, more markets will be created to accommodate the different types of traders on SKALE. Use SushiSwap on SKALE with zero gas fees here.
Exciting times ahead for SKALE
SKALE is on track for another massive month, and the announcements continue to pour in.
As SKALE continues to evolve and expand its capabilities, it stands out as a leading platform in the growing ecosystem of modular blockchains. Its innovative approach to eliminating gas fees has set a new standard for cost-effective and efficient blockchain operations - there isn’t anyone who can compete with SKALE on this.
Each day that passes brings a new set of users to crypto, and where they end up is of the utmost importance. Prohibitive transaction costs were a massive issue that brought us where we are today; we can’t repeat these mistakes if we want to move forward as an industry.
Looking ahead, SKALE's focus on continuous improvement makes it an ideal candidate for future growth and continued success. Recent upgrades, such as the enhanced consensus mechanism and the launch of the SKALE Block Explorer 2.0, demonstrate the platform's commitment to optimizing performance and user experience. Even more, SKALE has something big up its sleeve with the coming network upgrade. Information is limited, though this should align well with the various milestones SKALE continues to hit.
SKALE's ability to adapt has been essential to its current position and it’s important it continues to improve its ecosystem to accommodate its users. If this report was able to give you an interest in exploring SKALE for yourself, you can check out their ecosystem page to dive into any of the previously mentioned or additional projects and bridge to SKALE using the SKALE Portal. Thank you for reading.
Sources for graphics: Skale Blog
Disclaimer: This report was commissioned by Skale Labs. This research report is exactly that — a research report. It is not intended to serve as financial advice, nor should you blindly assume that any of the information is accurate without confirming through your own research. Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and other digital assets are incredibly risky and nothing in this report should be considered an endorsement to buy or sell any asset. Never invest more than you are willing to lose and understand the risk that you are taking. Do your own research. All information in this report is for educational purposes only and should not be the basis for any investment decisions that you make.
Created to address the critical challenges faced by Ethereum in terms of scalability and cost, SKALE is a modular, Ethereum Native network of high-throughput, low-latency blockchains. Conceived by seasoned entrepreneurs Jack O'Holleran and Stan Kladko, SKALE’s mission was to enhance the Ethereum ecosystem by providing a scalable, efficient, and user-friendly solution. Their vision was rooted in the necessity to support dApps with the speed and efficiency required for mass adoption, without the exorbitant gas fees that deter developers and users across other ecosystems.
Most discussions around the blockchain trilemma default to ideological debates that leave developers and users stuck without a true solution. Balancing between speed, security and decentralization is difficult and hasn’t been fully achieved yet - SKALE is a reasonable candidate for the world’s first scalable, user-first and sufficiently decentralized blockchain network. Users can onboard with ease and transact gas-free, and developers can take advantage of SKALE’s unique modular architecture to build great dApps and decentralization remains of the utmost importance.
Unlike traditional Layer 1 blockchains, SKALE operates as a Layer 2-like solution that runs on top of Ethereum, providing increased throughput and reduced latency. Its unique modular architecture utilizes app-specific chains, which can be tailored to meet the specific needs of individual dApps. These chains, called SKALE Chains, are capable of running thousands of transactions per second, making SKALE the ideal platform for applications that require high performance and low costs.
SKALE’s innovative model eliminates the need for gas fees, a common pain point for the Ethereum ecosystem. Instead, the platform employs a subscription-based model where developers pay a fixed fee to access SKALE’s resources (blockspace). This approach not only makes the platform more cost-effective for both developers and users, but also predictable, allowing developers to budget more efficiently and onboard more users, even via Web2 platforms (the invisible blockchain). By removing the burden of gas fees, SKALE enables developers to focus on technical improvements rather than cost management, and provides a quicker path to adoption.
SKALE fuels innovation and mass-adoption. Not gas fees. Seasoned crypto traders and investors may remember the numerous issues Ethereum mainnet faced in 2020/2021 when user count spiked dramatically. New crypto users were flocking to Ethereum to mint NFTs, participate in DeFi and discover new applications, but the chain couldn’t keep up.
An average transaction ballooned in cost to well over $100 each, even for minor contract interactions. This priced out many users and led to a renaissance in blockchain architecture, giving rise to alternative L1s, Ethereum L2s and the concept of a modular blockchain architecture (though SKALE, was built to be modular since 2019. To give an example of just how much users have spent on gas fees, here’s a graphic of the top ten blockchains and their respective gas consumption - and these are just EVM blockchains:
Much of SKALE design comes from these major pain points, with an overarching goal of creating a blockchain environment that’s user-first and developer-friendly. By abstracting away the need for gas fees, users are able to interact on-chain like they would on traditional, familiar web2 applications (like the Epic Games Store). This environment is unique, as while a large number of alternative L1s and Ethereum L2s offer low transaction costs, none of them compete with SKALE’s model of free transacting on-chain.
SKALE’s approach has led to a massive growth in deployment of diverse dApps across various sectors, with the highlights coming from gaming and AI, high-throughput dApps. Its versatility and its ability to meet the wide-ranging demands of the blockchain community is only possible through its modular architecture and core principles; users and developers alike gravitate to this environment because it’s so unique. Developers are attracted to SKALE’s promise of high performance and low costs, making it an appealing choice for creating applications that need to scale efficiently without compromising on user experience. The users are attracted to quality applications that are only possible on SKALE, unburdened by traditional blockchain hurdles.
Just last month, SKALE saved 4.5 million users over $300 million on gas fees across 55 million transactions, their most yet. This is what blockchain performance should be, and this is what it is on SKALE. Let’s explore how SKALE achieves this, examine their architecture and discover why this is so impressive.
How does SKALE do what it does?
SKALE’s technological stack is designed to offer a unique gas-free environment, a feature that sets it apart from many other blockchain platforms. This gas-free model is enabled by a combination of innovative architecture and the use of sFUEL, a valueless gas token that powers transactions on the network without incurring costs for users. Unlike traditional blockchains where users pay transaction fees, SKALE operates on a subscription model where developers pay a cost-effective and flat fee to use the network, effectively subsidizing transaction costs for end users.
This type of system is unprecedented on other networks, where users must face the bulk of the costs at the expense of gaining economic security. With SKALE, users can feel safe knowing their network is secure while benefiting from these subscription-based models that abstract costs. By eliminating transaction costs through a chain subscription pricing model, SKALE allows developers to focus on innovation and scalability without being burdened by financial constraints
The SKALE tech stack consists of EVM-compatible chains with their own set of configurable settings and advanced features, tailored to meet the needs of a wide range of use cases. SKALE’s network of chains orbit Ethereum and feed off its economic security and capabilities, driving a more powerful experience for all ecosystem actors. These chains are equipped with AI/ML smart contracts, on-chain file storage, enhanced security features and many more bespoke quality-of-life services that serve the network’s growth every single day.
High gas fees on networks like Ethereum have historically hindered mass adoption by making transactions prohibitively expensive during periods of high demand. SKALE’s approach removes this barrier, allowing users to interact with dApps seamlessly and without concern.
SKALE is particularly well-suited for the gaming industry, although it should not be pigeonholed as a "gaming chain." Its architecture supports high throughput and low latency, which are crucial for creating engaging and responsive gaming experiences. Features like native file storage, built-in random number generators, and user-friendly interfaces enhance its appeal to game developers. In addition to gaming, SKALE has attracted a significant amount of attention from decentralized AI developers. Teams are seeing the increased capabilities of SKALE and how its been able to attract gaming talent and drive innovation, extending this to DeAI development.
When compared to other blockchains, SKALE shares similarities with other Ethereum Layer 2 solutions in terms of scalability and security but stands out with its unique economic model. While networks like Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, and Avalanche require users to pay gas fees in their respective native tokens, SKALE’s implementation of sFUEL ensures transactions remain free for users. This model not only enhances user experience but also mitigates issues like network congestion and high transaction costs, serving as a superior alternative to fragmented user experiences on other blockchains.
SKALE also employs cryptographic techniques and pooled security models to ensure the platform delivers speed and decentralization without compromising on its security. The use of leaderless Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus and virtualized subnodes enable SKALE to handle over 10 million transactions per day, maintaining that high throughput and low latency for its users.
SKALE’s validator reward system differs from traditional models where validators earn fees per transaction. Instead, SKALE validators receive monthly payments based on their performance, including uptime and latency, ensuring a stable and secure network while maintaining zero transaction costs for users. This approach incentivizes validators to maintain high standards without directly impacting users.
In traditional businesses, overhead costs are often predictable and allow for more efficient financial planning. With SKALE, the same model is applied to make validator payments predictable, passing this value back to users. With the implementation of this chain subscription system, validators gain access to a new revenue stream, effectively limiting the reliance of SKL inflation to pay validators. SKALE’s predictable economic system makes it easy for users, applications, and validators to plan ahead, making for a more streamlined experience on-chain.
SKALE has been working on a variety of improvements to its developer experience, particularly in its launch of the SKALE Block Explorer 2.0. A brand new UI for the explorer, addition of comprehensive historical chain statistics and improved token user interface combine to bring a new level of accessibility to SKALE. Developers can more easily verify contracts to support high-speed deployment, giving the chain another leg up for this coming month after a record breaking June.
The team has also begun upgrading its consensus mechanism, which is currently in the QA stage. To accommodate for this heightened level of user and developer activity, it’s essential the chains’ core functions operate at a higher level as well. Come release of the upgrade, users will experience faster block confirmations, making for a smoother experience overall. Additionally, these upgrades have resulted in a increase in transaction throughput - a massive boost to the network’s already impressive metrics. A study from Dartmouth Blockchain concluded SKALE was performing at a rate of 397.7 TPS, with its closest competitor Solana topping out at 375.31 TPS.
The study also highlighted how the network’s modular architecture of over 20 interoperable EVM blockchains represents a TPS of 7,954 in reality - there’s no upper bound on how far SKALE can continue growing its network capacity thanks to these choices around modular design. Dartmouth also found SKALE’s TTF performance to be faster than its competitors, sitting at roughly 1.46 seconds on average. Its closest competitors included Fantom and Avalanche. To put this into perspective, the study found Ethereum’s TTF to be a whopping seventeen minutes and five seconds - over 700 times slower than SKALE. Ethereum wasn’t designed with scalability in mind, but this comparison highlights the need for performant blockchains that maintain the same standards of security and decentralization.
Recent developments in the SKALE ecosystem
Putting the technicals aside, let’s explore some developments from across the SKALE ecosystem. We’ve seen how SKALE enables new types of applications and a massively differentiated experience, but what’s this look like in reality?
On-chain gaming spotlight
SKALE’s architecture makes it an almost perfect choice for on-chain gaming apps. Typical crypto sectors like DeFi or financial services don’t always require the throughput or finality capabilities SKALE is capable of. With gaming, the fit is obvious.
Players of video games might not yet demand blockchain integrations for all of their favorite games, but for games that can benefit from financial services, the use of blockchain technology makes sense. Users gain ownership over their in-game assets, revenue opportunities from actual gameplay are streamlined and users take control over how their time is spent.
SKALE has made this possible for a variety of games, and we’re taking a look at some of the strongest examples currently available. For a broader overview of the SKALE gaming ecosystem, here’s a link to help you explore further.
StrayShot
StrayShot is an exciting play-to-earn game that brings a new dimension to the SKALE gaming ecosystem.
Developed as a shooter game, StrayShot offers players an immersive experience where they can engage in competitive battles and earn rewards through their gameplay. The game’s design focuses on delivering high-quality graphics and fast-paced action, a new experience for those used to other sectors of crypto like DeFi or payments - gaming on SKALE is fast, efficient and cost-effective for all users.
One of StrayShot’s standout features is its integration with the SKALE to offer zero gas fees. In the on-chain gaming space, it’s been difficult for games to compete with the speed of non blockchain-based games. The amount of ticks required on-chain is incredibly difficult to implement, and most on-chain games rely on slower speeds or entirely different game styles to accommodate for this.
Thanks to SKALE, players of StrayShot can buy, sell, and trade in-game items without worrying about prohibitive fees, allowing for a more seamless and cost-effective experience. The ability to transact freely is crucial in a P2E game where the economy plays a significant role in player engagement and satisfaction.
In addition to cost savings, SKALE’s high-performance capabilities are essential for the real-time action that StrayShot offers. The network’s low latency and high throughput ensure that the game runs smoothly, providing players with a responsive and lag-free experience. This is particularly important in shooter games where split-second decisions can mean the difference between victory and defeat. By leveraging SKALE’s expanding infrastructure, StrayShot can maintain those high standards of performance that players are expecting from modern online games outside of the web3 space.
The seamless integration with Ethereum-based wallets and ERC standards enhances the game’s accessibility, allowing players to easily use their existing crypto assets within the game. This interoperability is a key feature that helps StrayShot attract a broader audience from the existing blockchain and crypto communities. StrayShot is available on the Epic Games Store and more information can be found at this link.
Haven’s Compass
Haven’s Compass is an innovative blockchain-based game developed by Ghost Ivy, designed to offer a fast-paced, tactical shooter experience. The game allows players to engage in strategic battles where they can utilize interchangeable hero abilities to gain the upper hand in combat. This combination of tactical gameplay and dynamic character customization sets Haven’s Compass apart in the increasingly competitive blockchain gaming market.
The integration of Haven’s Compass into the SKALE ecosystem significantly enhances its functionality and user experience. Its zero gas fee model is particularly advantageous for Haven’s Compass, as it allows players to perform in-game transactions without the burden of high fees. This is essential for maintaining a seamless and engaging gaming experience, especially when players are frequently trading items, upgrading abilities, or participating in various in-game events.
By utilizing this gas-free infrastructure, Haven’s Compass ensures that players can focus on gameplay rather than transaction costs, fostering a more immersive and enjoyable environment. SKALE's high throughput and low latency capabilities are crucial for the fast-paced nature of Haven’s Compass. The game demands quick response times and real-time interactions, which are made possible by its impressive performance metrics.
With the ability to handle thousands of transactions per second, SKALE ensures that Haven’s Compass operates smoothly, providing players with the real-time feedback and performance they expect from a tactical shooter game
Haven’s Compass also benefits from built-in game development tools, such as native file storage and SKALE’s RNG functionalities. These tools enable the developers to prototype and iterate quickly, ensuring that new features and updates can be rolled out efficiently. SKALE’s support for Ethereum-based wallets and ERC standards means that players can easily integrate their existing crypto assets into the game, enhancing the overall utility and accessibility of Haven’s Compass within the broader blockchain ecosystem. Haven’s Compass is now available on the Epic Games Store - if you wish to read more or experiment for yourself, here’s a link to their website.
SKALE and Unity
SKALE has formed a strategic partnership with Unity to advance the development of Web3 games on the network, marking a huge step forward for both Unity and SKALE. This collaboration leverages SKALE’s gas-less experience with Unity’s suite of development tooling, enabling game developers to create and deploy blockchain-based games more efficiently and cost-effectively on SKALE.
As part of Unity’s Publisher Support Program, SKALE developers now have access to premium services that include dedicated project managers, strategic guidance, technical support, and best practices for game development.
Unity, with over 1.2 million monthly active users and 3.6 billion downloads each month of Made With Unity apps, is a leader in real-time 3D development platforms, making this partnership highly useful as SKALE builds out its on-chain gaming ecosystem.
For Unity, they’re able to tap into a rapidly growing community of users and developers eager to transact and build net-new apps on SKALE. Both SKALE and Unity emphasized the importance of “blurring the lines” of what a blockchain game currently is and what it can eventually become.
As SKALE and Unity team up to make blockchain gaming larger and better than ever, you can navigate to SKALE’s ecosystem page here and Unity’s website here, for more information.
Decentralizing AI on SKALE
As the world continues to adapt to AI and the many ways it may adjust our workflows and daily lives, so too must blockchains.
SKALE has managed to develop a strong decentralized AI (DeAI) community of projects building without barriers. Just like other crypto apps, projects in the DeAI space have struggled due to the limits blockchains impose on them. Traditional monolithic blockchains can’t compete with SKALE’s network of chains and the immense benefits to TTF and TPS it offers. For DeAI developers, the choice between SKALE and its competitors is clear.
Network congestion, off putting fees and a lack of necessary throughput have made it difficult to extend the utility of AI on-chain. SKALE’s approach has been anything but, with a variety of different DeAI sectors contributing to the ecosystem. Let’s explore some of these projects and how they’re leveraging SKALE in the wild.
Exorde
Exorde is a platform that leverages decentralized AI to harness the power of data analysis and information extraction from the web. Its core utility focuses around the task of gathering and analyzing massive amounts of unstructured data from various online sources, including social media, blogs, news articles, and forums. Exorde aims to provide actionable insights and real-time analytics through this data, making it a useful complement to SKALE’s fast, cost-effective, and performant architecture. The amount of data pouring onto the internet increases everyday - Exorde is here to make sense of that data and drive actionable information from it..
One of the key features of Exorde is its ability to perform real-time sentiment analysis across multiple languages and regions. Crypto is an industry untethered by traditional geographical jurisdictions and hurdles of the web2 industry; it’s necessary to accommodate all types of data, no matter where it’s come from.
These insights are crucial for users and companies looking to make informed decisions, tailor their marketing strategies, or manage their online reputations. The platform’s multilingual support ensures that it can provide comprehensive coverage and analysis on a global scale, making it a versatile tool for the SKALE ecosystem and beyond.
Exorde’s integration with the SKALE network can significantly enhance its performance and scalability, thanks to the numerous technical benefits we’ve already covered. SKALE’s zero gas fee model and high throughput capabilities align perfectly with Exorde’s need for handling large volumes of data and executing numerous transactions. By leveraging this infrastructure, Exorde can perform real-time data processing and analytics more efficiently, without the burden of high transaction costs. Additionally, Exorde makes it easy to integrate their API so anyone can access this data in just five minutes.
The platform also benefits from SKALE’s advanced security features - Exorde obviously handles a large amount of sensitive and valuable data, and ensuring its security is crucial for users and developers alike. Exorde is currently processing over two million posts a day across 4,000 topics and 125 languages. Emotions, sentiment, volume, trends - all of this is essential to Exorde’s system that’s constantly evolving and growing. If you’d like to learn more or try it out for yourself, you can navigate to their website here.
PaLM AI
PaLM AI (Pathways Language Model) is a blockchain-based AI developed to advance the capabilities of natural language processing and machine learning through crypto. It leverages a highly advanced architecture designed to understand, generate, and manipulate human language with impressive accuracy and efficiency. PaLM AI is built to support a wide range of applications, from language translation and summarization to complex data analysis and automated decision-making, making it a versatile tool in the AI landscape.
PaLM AI’s functionality centers around its process to generate natural language with a large degree of sophistication; it’s been trained on extensive datasets, enabling it to generate human-like text responses and understand complex queries. This proficiency in language understanding makes PaLM AI suitable for applications that require accurate language interpretation, such as chatbots, virtual assistants, and content generation tools. Additionally, it makes PaLM AI a good fit for SKALE and its growing ecosystem of projects.
By leveraging PaLM AI's advanced NLP capabilities, SKALE can enhance its smart contract functionality, enabling more intuitive and precise contract creation and auditing processes. On the other side of the coin, with the help of SKALE PaLM AI can more efficiently deliver these insights at a lower cost.
Developers can use natural language inputs to generate smart contracts, which PaLM AI can then interpret and convert into executable code. This streamlines the development process and reduces the risk of errors, making blockchain technology more accessible to a broader range of users, overall benefiting SKALE’s wide ranging ecosystem of dApps and users.
SKALE's high throughput and zero gas fee infrastructure make for an ideal environment for deploying PaLM AI's data-intensive operations. The scalable nature of SKALE ensures that PaLM AI can handle extensive data processing tasks without typical performance bottlenecks, while the absence of gas fees makes these operations cost-effective. This synergy between PaLM AI and SKALE optimizes the efficiency of AI applications while securing these operations in a way that offers superior user experience. PaLM AI has been very busy working on new integrations, product improvements and expanding its reach - you can check out their Twitter here to get a better understanding.
ChainGPT
ChainGPT is an advanced AI model designed specifically for the crypto space. Developed to provide comprehensive solutions for a range of applications within the blockchain ecosystem, ChainGPT takes the power of artificial intelligence to offer services such as smart contract development, auditing, market predictions, and automated trading for its users. ChainGPT ultimately aims to simplify and enhance the blockchain experience by leveraging AI's capabilities to streamline processes and provide valuable insights - let’s explore how it works.
One of the core functionalities of ChainGPT is its ability to generate and audit smart contracts. By using natural language processing and machine learning algorithms, ChainGPT can create smart contracts based on user specifications and ensure their security (and accuracy) through detailed audits.
The platform also offers predictive analytics and market forecasting. ChainGPT’s model analyzes large amounts of data from a variety of sources to predict market trends and price movements, providing traders and investors with actionable insights. This capability can be incredibly valuable in the volatile world of cryptocurrencies, where timely and accurate information can significantly impact investment decisions. With this collaboration, users can now make more informed choices and potentially improve their trades.
ChainGPT also excels in automated trading and portfolio management. The platform’s AI-driven algorithms can execute trades based on predefined strategies and real-time market data, optimizing the trading process and reducing the need for constant manual monitoring. This automation allows traders to capitalize on market opportunities more efficiently and manage their portfolios with greater precision.
Integrating ChainGPT into the SKALE network should amplify the benefits of both platforms - SKALE's zero gas fee model and high throughput capabilities align perfectly with the data-intensive operations of ChainGPT. ChainGPT can perform real-time analytics and automated transactions without the burden of high transaction costs.
The team at ChainGPT has been hard at work and has shipped a variety of new features in the past month. Their blog is a great source of information and a way to stay updated on new developments. As the DeAI space continues to grow, SKALE should be able to take advantage of this with the impressive set of projects already deployed. For more information on how SKALE is approaching this subject, you can navigate to this post here.
SKALE’s Blossoming Gas-Free DeFi Ecosystem
With news of SushiSwap’s recent deployment on SKALE, the network’s gas-free ecosystem continues to grow and accommodate all types of users. SushiSwap, a renowned decentralized exchange and one of the pillars of DeFi, has announced its integration with SKALE and a new dawn for gas-free swaps.
While SKALE has focused its efforts on building out its gaming and decentralized AI ecosystems, their network capabilities extend far beyond that; DeFi is yet another realm where SKALE’s technical benefits can extend user activity on-chain thanks to gas-free transactions.
Traditional DeFi activities can be very harsh on users, especially when you consider the difficulties already present in providing liquidity on-chain. Paying for signature approvals, swaps, and other fundamental on-chain behaviors can quickly eat into a user’s potential profits, leaving them stuck between the decision of providing liquidity or doing nothing at all. With this collaboration between SKALE and SushiSwap, users no longer have to sit on the sidelines. SKALE’s gas-free swaps make it easy for anyone to get started, without those unnecessary hurdles.
The following markets are live and readily tradable on SushiSwap, with over $150,000 in LP incentives: ETH/SKL, USDC/SKL, and SKL/CMPS. As time goes on, more markets will be created to accommodate the different types of traders on SKALE. Use SushiSwap on SKALE with zero gas fees here.
Exciting times ahead for SKALE
SKALE is on track for another massive month, and the announcements continue to pour in.
As SKALE continues to evolve and expand its capabilities, it stands out as a leading platform in the growing ecosystem of modular blockchains. Its innovative approach to eliminating gas fees has set a new standard for cost-effective and efficient blockchain operations - there isn’t anyone who can compete with SKALE on this.
Each day that passes brings a new set of users to crypto, and where they end up is of the utmost importance. Prohibitive transaction costs were a massive issue that brought us where we are today; we can’t repeat these mistakes if we want to move forward as an industry.
Looking ahead, SKALE's focus on continuous improvement makes it an ideal candidate for future growth and continued success. Recent upgrades, such as the enhanced consensus mechanism and the launch of the SKALE Block Explorer 2.0, demonstrate the platform's commitment to optimizing performance and user experience. Even more, SKALE has something big up its sleeve with the coming network upgrade. Information is limited, though this should align well with the various milestones SKALE continues to hit.
SKALE's ability to adapt has been essential to its current position and it’s important it continues to improve its ecosystem to accommodate its users. If this report was able to give you an interest in exploring SKALE for yourself, you can check out their ecosystem page to dive into any of the previously mentioned or additional projects and bridge to SKALE using the SKALE Portal. Thank you for reading.
Sources for graphics: Skale Blog
Disclaimer: This report was commissioned by Skale Labs. This research report is exactly that — a research report. It is not intended to serve as financial advice, nor should you blindly assume that any of the information is accurate without confirming through your own research. Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and other digital assets are incredibly risky and nothing in this report should be considered an endorsement to buy or sell any asset. Never invest more than you are willing to lose and understand the risk that you are taking. Do your own research. All information in this report is for educational purposes only and should not be the basis for any investment decisions that you make.
