There are plenty of people who would love to get into cryptocurrency and experience the freedom that comes with using the public blockchain. However, there is a barrier to entry, especially when it comes to using the Ethereum network.
When someone wants to use the Ethereum network, they have to actually possess the coin Ethereum (ETH) in order to pay what is called “gas fees” so the transaction will go through.
These gas fees are paid to the “miners” who are using their own computers and processing power to verify and complete transactions on the Ethereum network. Fees are necessary to keep the blockchain functioning, as it’s basically paying people to update the “ledger” or the record of transactions and allows the network to truly be decentralized.
For us at Digifox, this ETH fee was a concern. We currently only support ERC-20 tokens, which are tokens supported solely on the Ethereum network. If we want people to use our app to send money or make any kind of transaction, we’d have to require every one of our users to purchase some ETH to use for these actions. Even if buying ETH wasn’t a problem for a user, they still would need some general knowledge of gas fees and the network to make the most out of what actions they took.
Well, we didn’t want to make our users go through the hassle. That’s why we implemented “Meta Transactions.”
Basically, this means we cover the Ethereum gas fee for our users. Currently, we cover all transactions’ gas fees, whether they be deposits, swaps, or sending money.
We’re able to do this by acting as a “relayer” for our users. Basically, they send us the transaction they want executed, then we relay it to the network and pay for the gas fee.
These gas fees can change, which causes another inconvenience for the user trying to perform transactions. If a transaction was submitted with a certain gas fee, but the gas cost goes up before it can be completed, the transaction with the lower fee will be pushed back and not given as much priority on the network. This is not something Digifox controls, it’s simply the way the Ethereum blockchain works. Luckily, there are a variety of improvements coming to the Ethereum network that aim at solving some of these flaws.
Of course, since Ethereum gas fees are a bit high and tend to be volatile, we are not able to cover all these fees and still be sustainable. This is why we charge network fees. However, we take our fee from the coin you are trading, so you still don’t need Ethereum to perform your transaction. It’s one of many ways we want to show that we’re building the best experience for our users.
Our long-term goal is to find a way to cover these network fees so every transaction will be free for our users. With a variety of interesting technologies like ‘layer-two’ scaling solutions on the horizon and our team hard at work, anything is possible. For now, we’re thrilled to be able to simplify the world of crypto for our users by eliminating their need to hold ETH, and further accelerate this movement of better finance for everyone.
