Building for SKALE

SKALE Chains and the greater SKALE Network offer a number of benefits for developers. The following page goes through a number of key topics about SKALE to help you build successfully.

EVM Compatability

The SKALE Network is a Layer-1 blockchain network that contains many individual SKALE Chains. Every SKALE Chain is fully EVM compatible meaning that all of your favorite tools on Ethereum, your existing smart contracts, and all of your scripts should work out of the box.

Zero Gas Fees

SKALE is known for it’s zero gas fee model, but developers are often unaware of the strategic decisions made at the chain level to make that happen. Every SKALE Chain contains a native token called SKALE Fuel (sFUEL). sFUEL is almost identical to Ether on Ethereum with the largest difference being that sFUEL by default has no monetary value or available market.

How to Take Payments

It is quite common for dApps to use various mechanisms to represent value on chains. It is common to see many dApps use the native gas token of a chain — Ether for example — to allow for payment. With sFUEL holding no monetary value, it means that alternative forms of value must be used. The most common way is to use ERC-20 tokens to represent value.

Developer Tip

See the community guide on how to use ERC-20 instead of msg.value

Onboarding & sFUEL Distribution

Onboarding users — regardless of whether you are using non-custodial or custodial wallets — is unique when it comes to SKALE.

Traditional Onboarding

Non-Custodial

1. User downloads a wallet
2. User visits CEX or Fiat on-ramp
3. Optional - User bridges to new network
4. User pays fees and clicks and manually approves every transaction

Custodial

1. User logs in to application
2. User uses application
3. dApp pays the gas fees

Account Abstraction

1. User logs in to application
2. An MPC, custodial, or background wallet is created
3. User uses application
4. dApp pays the gas fees via paymaster

SKALE Onboarding

When building on SKALE, you will notice that by default you get to cut out at least one step. Additionally, in situations where you are “covering the fees” you will not have to worry about variable costs since the gas is always free.

Non-Custodial

1. User downloads a wallet
2. sFUEL Distribution occurs — automatically in the background
3. User uses application

Custodial

1. User logs in to application
2. sFUEL Distribution occurs — automatically in the background
3. User uses application

Account Abstraction

1. User logs in to application
2. An MPC, custodial, or background wallet is created
3. User uses application
4. dApp pays the gas fees via paymaster — no variable costs for dApp

Understanding Finality

SKALE Chains are well known for being incredibly fast. While the overall throughput of a SKALE Chain averages around 400 transactions per second (TPS); it is the finality that makes a big difference. SKALE Chains themselves are not Layer-2’s and are not roll-ups of any kind. This means you don’t have to wait for any sort of finality on Ethereum to ensure finality on SKALE.

SKALE Chains also cannot fork. With the validators working together using a leaderless consensus protocol; you only need to wait for the block that transactions are in to be published to the chain, a.k.a 1 block, to ensure that things are final.

Tools

Need more than just the SKALE Chain? Checkout our extensive list of 3rd party tools and partners.

Wallets

Explore the various wallet options available throughout the SKALE Ecosystem

Bridging

Learn more about how to help facilitate bridging to or from a SKALE Chain

Data & Indexers

Checkout the tools and options to help you utilize SKALE Chain data

Developer Tools

Find the best tools to help you build and deploy dApps quickly

Explore More Tools

Checkout the rest of the tools available on SKALE