The Gas Station Network Alliance

The most important part of building great technology is making it enjoyable to use.

Groundhog is delighted to announce the formation of the Gas Station Network Alliance!

The Gas Station Network Alliance consists of a group of organizations united in leveraging meta transactions to provide customers with magical user experiences.

The Facts

Gas transactions lead to bad user experiences. By forcing application users to understand the inner workings of the blockchain we create a massive point of friction. Alice, in the end, just wants to send a few bucks to Bob; she doesn’t need to learn about cryptography on the way.

With meta transactions, users are relieved of dealing with gas prices. This creates a user experience where the only information users are given is information about what they came to accomplish.

By simplifying the experience for the end user, we’re reducing some of the barriers impeding adoption.

Meta Transactions: How They Work

Meta transactions are very similar to regular transactions but with the addition of a relayer.

In a meta transaction, the user generates a transaction with a to address, they add the amount they want to send, and then they use their signature to authenticate the transaction. This transaction is then managed by the relayer who handles paying gas and facilitates sending the transaction to the receiver.

By doing more work for the end user, we simplify their experience while still enabling them to reap the security benefits of blockchain technology.

For a more in-depth explanation of how meta transactions work, check out the incredible Austin Griffiths article: Ethereum Meta Transactions

The Gas Station Network Alliance

In the gas station analogy, relayers act as on-demand gas station attendants giving cars gas as they need it. Applications are the road, users are the driver, cars are their accounts, and the Gas Station Network Alliance is a franchise of trustworthy gas stations.

The Gas Station Network Alliance is an effort to converge around a way to relay transactions. This enables developers to focus on making really cool experiences without needing to build meta transactions into their applications from scratch.

Network alliance members will run software, the relayer, and execute transactions on behalf of others for a premium. The network is trust minimized and uses strong game theory incentives around slashing deposits if transactions are censored.

“Our goal is to ensure that there are relayers available for people to leverage, 24/7/365, cross border, censorship-resistant, and providing an amazing user experience on top. “ — Andrew Redden, Groundhog CTO

The alliance is comprised of:
MetaCartel
TabooKey
ZeppelinOS
Burner Wallet
Ethereum Foundation
Portis
Pillar Project
Groundhog

Let us know if you have any questions!

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Send us an email: hello@groundhog.network