What could \u201cfreemium\u201d UX for gas look like across\u00a0L2s?<\/p>\n
Gas fees are one of those things crypto natives tolerate.
New users? Not so\u00a0much.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy am I paying to click a\u00a0button?\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\u201cWait, I need ETH to use this app built on something else?\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\u201cWhat\u2019s a\u00a0gwei?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n To most people, gas feels like a glitch in the product, not a cost of the protocol. And the truth is: that friction kills more onboarding than we\u00a0admit.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s imagine a Web3 UX where gas fees are invisible<\/strong> by default. What would dApps look like if users\u00a0could:<\/p>\n Use features first, and settle gas\u00a0laterSkip fees altogether if it\u2019s their first\u00a0timeHave a tab they clear monthly, like a credit\u00a0cardWatch an ad to \u201csponsor\u201d a transactionStake into a plan that covers their future\u00a0activity<\/p>\n We\u2019re not talking about a tech stack<\/em> shift. We\u2019re talking about a UX mindset<\/em> shift. The Web2 Analogy: Freemium\u00a0UX<\/p>\n In the Web2 world, payment friction is delayed, smoothed out, or entirely hidden at\u00a0first.<\/p>\n You can use Spotify for free until you\u2019re annoyed enough to\u00a0payYou can try Notion without entering a\u00a0cardYou can binge YouTube and let the ad model handle the\u00a0rest<\/p>\n Why doesn\u2019t Web3 offer a similar\u00a0ramp?<\/p>\n dYdX<\/strong> and Lens<\/strong> have covered gas via\u00a0relayersStackup<\/strong> and Biconomy<\/strong> offer paymasters and smart\u00a0walletsBase<\/strong> and Optimism<\/strong> talk about user subsidiesZora<\/strong> abstracted minting fees into the\u00a0protocol<\/p>\n But all of these still feel like developer-led experiments. The user rarely feels like they\u2019re in\u00a0control.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s flip\u00a0that.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how a future UX could\u00a0look:<\/p>\n Prepaid Gas Packs Not really. The tooling exists: Account Abstraction, ERC-4337, meta-transactions, session\u00a0keys.<\/p>\n The real blocker is UX imagination<\/em>. Too many teams still design with the assumption that users must understand gas, plan around it, and prepay\u00a0it.<\/p>\n But we don\u2019t do that in any other digital\u00a0system.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not saying gas should vanish. We\u2019re saying the way users experience<\/em> gas needs to\u00a0evolve.<\/p>\n Let them skip. Let them defer. Let them not think about it<\/em> until they\u00a0care.<\/p>\n If crypto wants to onboard millions, we need fewer dashboards asking for $0.98 to click a button, and more flows that just\u00a0say:<\/p>\n \u201cGo ahead. We got\u00a0you.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n If Gas Fees Were Optional\u2026<\/a> was originally published in Coinmonks<\/a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What could \u201cfreemium\u201d UX for gas look like across\u00a0L2s? Gas fees are one of those things crypto natives tolerate. New users? Not so\u00a0much. \u201cWhy am I paying to click a\u00a0button?\u201d\u201cWait, I need ETH to use this app built on something else?\u201d\u201cWhat\u2019s a\u00a0gwei?\u201d To most people, gas feels like a glitch in the product, not a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What If Gas Didn\u2019t Have to Be Paid\u2026 Up\u00a0Front?<\/h4>\n
Not abstracted. Not discounted. Just\u2026 not there\u200a\u2014\u200aunless you want them to\u00a0be.<\/p>\nThis Is Already Happening, But It\u2019s Fragmented<\/h4>\n
Five Models for Optional\u00a0Gas<\/h4>\n
<\/strong>Buy a \u201cgas pack\u201d once, use across apps. Like prepaid data. Works best on L2s with shared infrastructure.Ad-Sponsored Actions
<\/strong>Scroll a promoted NFT or watch a DAO promo\u200a\u2014\u200askip the gas. Basically Brave, but UX-native.DAO-Paid Interactions
<\/strong>DAOs can choose to sponsor interactions for new members or key actions. Voting? Free. Proposal feedback? Free. Minting a badge?\u00a0Free.Subscription UX
<\/strong>Subscribe to your wallet\u200a\u2014\u200a$5\/month covers X actions across ZK-rollups. Stripe for\u00a0gas.Deferred Gas UX
<\/strong>You mint an NFT, use a DeFi pool, or send tokens\u200a\u2014\u200athe dApp tracks usage, and charges once a week. Like Amazon\u2019s \u201cBuy Now, Pay Later\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200abut on-chain.<\/p>\nBut\u2026 Wouldn\u2019t This Break Everything?<\/h4>\n
Optional Gas Isn\u2019t Free\u200a\u2014\u200aIt\u2019s Just\u00a0Smarter<\/h4>\n