📝 Editor’s Note: Network at a Glance

Welcome to OurNetwork’s 5th Ecosystem Mega Issue of 2024! Today we’re covering SKALE – the first modular EVM-compatible app-chain network with zero gas fees. There are 74 apps deployed on SKALE with a key focus on web3 gaming and consumer experiences that bring in >3M monthly users making 54M monthly transactions– coupled with a nascent, yet emerging DeFi ecosystem with $430k TVL, anchored by SushiSwap.

SKALE, being a multichain network, consists of app-specific chains, and hub chains. App-specific chains are utilized by a single high throughput dApp, while Hub chains are shared by multiple dApps that are part of similar use cases.

These are the 4 Hub chains on SKALE:

• Europa Hub: Liquidity hub on SKALE home to all DeFi dApps
• Nebula Hub: The gaming hub chain on SKALE, home to dozens of games
• Calypso Hub: The innovation hub on SKALE, where new Web3 use cases such as socialfi and DePin thrive
• Titan Hub: Home to AI-dApps taking advantage of SKALE's zero gas fees

Having launched in June 2020, SKALE predates many well known L1 & L2 infrastructure projects, yet remains under many people's radar.

Today we're going to unpack a data-driven look at the network and what is being built & used under the hood. This will very likely be the most well-rounded, data-driven snapshot you’ll find on SKALE anywhere. It covers high-level network health, user trends, a maturing gaming sector, and emerging DeFi, AI & consumer projects using cold, hard onchain data.

Now that we have some context, let's dive into the coverage.

• SKALE is an modular, gas-free, EVM compatible app-chain network. The network is BUILT DIFFERENT to scale high-performance dApps to the masses. SKALE’s ecosystem has witnessed explosive growth over the past year, with a staggering 2,071% increase in unique active wallets (UAW) compared to July 2023! This remarkable growth is a testament to SKALE’s ability to onboard and retain a thriving community of users and developers, driven by the network’s gas-free, invisible blockchain experience.

• The SKALE ecosystem has grown to 74 live dApps, spanning a diverse range of categories, with hundreds more in development. From gaming and AI to DeFi and consumer-focused applications, SKALE is proving to be a versatile platform that supports a wide variety of use cases, thanks to its gas-free architecture.

• SKALE has saved users nearly $8B USD on gas fees since the network’s launch — SKALE eliminates transaction fees for users by requiring developers to pay a monthly chain subscription fee to validators, making the network more accessible and opening up the door to a wide range of use cases.

• The SKALE engineering community is making waves, now ranking second only to Ethereum with 22.5k GitHub commits in the past 7 days! This impressive feat isn’t just about numbers — it reflects the devs who are continuously pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with EVM on SKALE. Many of these commits were from the Pacifica V3 upgrade, which makes the network faster, enhances its Ethereum compatibility, introduces improved contract deployment, and adds wallet integrations.

• Thanks to the Pacifica V3 upgrade, SKALE is even faster, with block mining time slashed to as low as 1.3 seconds. This leap in speed means quicker transactions and a more responsive network, which directly benefits users and developers who need reliable, high-performance blockchain infrastructure.

• SKALE’s Decentralized Revenue Share highlights its supportive role within the Ethereum ecosystem — the program generated 2,708 ETH in revenue shared with the Ethereum mainnet. This revenue comes from the gas fees used to run SKALE’s Manager Contracts on Ethereum, which orchestrates the SKALE network.

• As stated above, SKALE’s zero-gas architecture has saved users nearly $8B in gas fees compared to Ethereum. While some argue that users might avoid such costs by choosing Layer 2 solutions with lower fees, we created a dashboard to address this. It shows that if the 129 trillion units of gas were consumed on one of the eight EVM blockchains studied, the resulting fees would still range from tens to hundreds of millions of USD.

• SKALE’s zero gas fee model uses a unique economic approach. Instead of earning from gas fees, validators are paid through chain subscription payments from dApp/chain owners. This allows the network to limitlessly scale horizontally when needed, as shown by July's 89 million transactions.

• SKALE chain's offer a default block gas limit of 268,435,455, far higher than the typical 30,000,000 on other networks. Having nearly 10x the block size of Ethereum blocks, this enables more compute in each transaction, enhancing EVM flexibility. It also eliminates the need for a gas target, focusing on fast transactions with a consistent base fee.

• The Nebula Hub chain is the home of gas-free gaming on SKALE, and hosts dozens of games. Nebula’s user base has grown to over 40M UAW, with average daily UAW growing 3,205% YoY. If these games launched on Ethereum mainnet instead of the Nebula hub, the same transactions/gas usage would cost users $622M in gas fees. Simply put, these games would not be able to onboard users as seamlessly or cost effectively without SKALE & the Nebula Hub.

• According to the DappRadar Games Report for July, SKALE is a top 5 gaming blockchain, with over 320,000 average daily UAW. Two SKALE-based games were in the top 10 of all blockchain games in July; Motodex (1.98M Monthly UAW) and World Of Dypians (536k Monthly UAW).

• Many games on SKALE have gained serious traction. There are 14 games with Over 10k UAW in the last 30 days on SKALE. Four of these games (Strayshot, Haven's Compass, Fusy Fox, World of Dypians) are listed on the Epic Games store, onboarding non-crypto-native users with SKALE’s invisible blockchain experience.

• The Haven's Compass ecosystem has grown from 2,000 to over 90,000 UAW, driven by a commitment to a hassle-free blockchain experience. Key to this growth is a partnership with SKALE Network, which eliminates gas fees, making transactions seamless and cost-effective. This simplicity has attracted both seasoned enthusiasts and newcomers, positioning Haven as a leader in the Web3 space.

• 100,000 players participated in Haven's questing campaign with Emergify and without downtime, despite high transaction volumes from actions like NFT trading — SKALE’s speed and reliability ensured a smooth experience. SKALE also has the largest amount of holders of CMPS, Haven's key in-game token — the network has also faciliated 35,000 in-game transactions.

• World of Dypians, a MMORG, has seen phenomenal growth on SKALE. Over the last 30 days, UAWs have increased significantly, now totaling around 220k. That's a 34.2% jump over the past month, a clear indicator of the platform’s growing appeal and strong user engagement. SKALE’s scalable, high-performance infrastructure has been key to accommodating this growth without compromising on speed or user experience.

• World of Dypians has been available on the Epic Games Store since December 2023, achieving over 180,000 downloads. Downloads spiked after the game’s launch on SKALE, as the community rushed to play. SKALE streamlines the onboarding process through elimination of complexities such as dealing with gas fees and wallet creation.

• In the past 30 days, World of Dypians has experienced remarkable transaction activity, with around 22M transactions processed on the SKALE network. If these 22M transactions had taken place on Ethereum, users would have incurred approximately $17M in gas fees. This cost-efficiency enhances the overall gaming experience and reinforces World of Dypians as an appealing option for players seeking a dynamic and accessible gaming environment.

• Dmail is the second ranked project in terms of UAW on SKALE in the past month. The dApp has had over 10k daily UAW for 113 consecutive days!

• Dmail Network continues to be a top 10 SocialFi dApp with 556k UAW over the 30 days. Of these 556k UAW, SKALE is responsible for 372k UAW, over half of the user base.

• Dmail’s Subhub channel boasts over 5M subscribers, enabling more than 500 projects to communicate directly with their communities across chains via wallets and decentralized identifiers when connected to the Dmail dApp.

• Exorde’s AI algorithm engages in a high number of transactions as result of the intense data collection that is required to gather sentiment and trend from global social networks. Because of this, Exorde has their own app-chain on SKALE. It would be impossible for the project to operate in a cost efficient manner on any blockchain other than SKALE. In less than 2 years Exorde has saved over $6B in gas fees over using Ethereum, and hundreds of millions over using other EVM blockchains.

• For each of the past 6 months, daily average transactions on Exorde's chain have increased an average of 1,604% year-over-year. Because Exorde has their own app-chain on SKALE, they can scale up transactions limitlessly without ever competing for block space or bearing the burden of gas fees.

• SKALE’s chain payment model has allowed Exorde to secure long-term, dedicated blockspace on SKALE with 17 months remaining from their initial 24-month payment. By pre-paying for their SKALE app-chain, Exorde guarantees stable and predictable operating costs, thanks to zero gas fees on SKALE.

• While most of SKALE's activity has historically come from gaming and AI, activity on SKALE Europa, the DeFi hub chain, has developed rapidly. June and July were the highest transaction months ever for SKALE Europa, with 212K and 188K respectively. Comparing June & July of 2024 to the previous year, the transaction growth is at a staggering 149% YoY, despite the lack of new users entering the DeFi space as a whole. This growth can be attributed mostly to the launch of SushiSwap on SKALE Europa.

• SushiSwap launched on SKALE Europa in June, pushing the TVL on the chain from $80,000 to over $800,000 at the peak. Thanks to SKALE’s gas-free architecture, users can trade, provide liquidity, and farm rewards without worrying about transaction fees, making DeFi more accessible and cost-effective.

• Several SKALE ecosystem projects, such as Haven's Compass (CMPS) and Exorde (EXD), have launched their tokens on Europa, with many pre-TGE projects in the pipeline. The SKALE Europa block explorer shows rising gas usage and contract numbers, indicating increased activity and deployments on the chain. SKALE still uses a gas token to prevent DDOS/spam attacks. It’s called sFUEL. sFUEL has zero economic value and can be obtained at any time via the sFUEL faucet.