How does SKALE do Zero gas fees?

In traditional cloud computing, businesses or developers rent server space or virtualized instances from cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure. This service is paid for upfront by the business or developer, which then deploys its applications or services on this rented infrastructure. Users or clients of these applications don’t pay for each interaction with the application – such as each HTTP request they make. Instead, the cost of these operations is absorbed by the business or developer, who has already paid for the computational resources and network bandwidth.

Applying this analogy to the SKALE Network, SKALE provides a similar system but operating in the blockchain space. Developers or developer communities rent SKALE Chains using SKL tokens on the Ethereum mainnet. This is akin to renting server space in cloud computing. After setting up their SKALE Chains, these developers can deploy their dApps (decentralized applications) or other blockchain-based services.

As in cloud computing, where the end-users are not charged for each interaction (like an HTTP request), SKALE Network offers a similar benefit but for blockchain transactions. End-users interacting with these dApps do not have to pay gas fees (the cost associated with conducting a transaction on the Ethereum network) for their actions. These costs are already covered by the upfront payment made by the developers. Usage is metered (and DDoS attacks prevented) using chain-specific sFUEL tokens, which the developer can distribute to all users as they onboard and conduct transactions. There is no way to purchase sFUEL as it is freely distributed to users. See more on sFUEL.

In summary, SKALE Network can be seen as providing 'cloud-like' services but specifically tailored for the blockchain world, where developers rent for network bandwidth, allowing their end-users to enjoy zero-cost gas fees for their transactions, much like users of a web application don’t pay for each HTTP request they make.