Introducing our Policy for Sustainable Free Transactions

How we got here

Since we started Authereum, we’ve been focused on lowering the barriers to entry for Ethereum and making an experience that is simple and familiar for mainstream users. One of the largest barriers that new Ethereum users face is acquiring crypto to pay for transaction fees. It often involves signing up for an exchange account, forfeiting sensitive personal information, and waiting for a 24 hour or longer period for your identity to be verified. For new users, this must all be completed before realizing any value from the application they intend to use. Asking users to pay any amount of their hard-earned cash will almost always result in a drop-off. This is why web 2.0 applications almost never ask for payment up-front. If we want to see true mainstream adoption of Ethereum applications, we need to keep these lessons in mind.

A user should be able to jump into an Ethereum based game, claim a pack of NFTs, and experience the game before they’re asked for any credit card or banking information. By covering users’ transaction costs and making up those costs through other business models, we can avoid losing new users in the onboarding flow and create an all around more fluid experience. This has been a growing and effective trend with apps like Argent, dYdX, and Nuo Network all opting to cover gas fees for users.

That being said, we always knew we couldn’t economically cover all transactions for everyone. At the same time, we weren’t sure where those limitations should be placed and how they should be communicated to the user in an easy-to-understand way. We decided to launch Authereum without limitations on free transactions to get real world data on user behavior that could help inform these decisions. This data ultimately helped us come up with the model we are introducing today.

Our goals with this model are to:

• Allow users to get onboarded to and use Ethereum before asking them to purchase crypto.
• Keep our costs economical and evenly distributed by limiting the number and size of transactions that are covered.
• Allow dapps to cover transaction fees for their users when they fall outside of our limitations.
• Maintain some level of abstraction from gas and gas prices for a simpler user experience.

Our model for sustainable free transactions

Note: This model is subject to change as we continue to collect data and observe user behavior.

• Users get 10 free transactions per week, refreshed on a weekly basis.
• Only transactions under 750,000 gas will covered.
• Users will be prompted to pay for transactions outside of these limitations.
• All transactions are free on dapps that are apart of our partner program like ErasureBay and OpenSea.

In addition, we have begun to partner with dapps like ErasureBay and OpenSea to provide free transactions for users without limitations. Based on our data, this model will cover the majority of transactions that Authereum users make. It will also significantly reduce our costs which were concentrated on just a few users using a handful of gas-heavy dapps. That means we can continue to provide the streamlined user experience we’ll need to onboard mainstream users today while maintaining a sustainable business that can continue to serve our users in the long term.

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