Ethereum Gas Fees Are High, But SKALE Network Has a Solution

July 14, 2020
Quantstamp Announcements

Innovation in the DeFi space is proving Ethereum’s utility, but it is also revealing Ethereum’s limits. Yield farming, the latest DeFi craze, placed upward pressure on fees after applications like Compound and Curve started providing users with additional rewards for supplying liquidity and other activities on their platforms. Before yield farming, Tether already contributed to higher fees by migrating its stablecoin onto Ethereum and is currently the highest consumer of gas

High fees are a strong indicator of Ethereum’s success, but also a barrier to other potential applications. For instance, Reddit is interested in onboarding its users to Ethereum but is currently sitting on the sidelines waiting for a scaling solution.

The demand for Ethereum block space is going up. Image source: Etherscan

SKALE Network aims to scale Ethereum with elastic sidechains  

SKALE Network aims to not only scale Ethereum, but do so in a way that vastly improves the user experience. In the future, people using dApps powered by the SKALE Network will largely have no transaction fees and near-instantaneous transaction times, thanks to “elastic sidechains." Potential applications that were crowded out of Ethereum Layer 1 due to high transaction fees and slow confirmation times now have a network designed for them. 


SKALE Network’s elastic sidechains remove Ethereum mainnet storage and computation limitations and are customized to fit the needs of that specific application: each dApp has its own Ethereum as a service sidechain. This enhances user experience because rather than users paying for a transaction every time they use an application, dApp creators pay sidechain node operators a flat fee directly for the resources they need. 

Node operators can run multiple chains. Each chain is dedicated to a single dApp. Image source: SKALE Network

SKALE Network also has a decentralized design. SKALE Network node operators are assigned to a chain using randomness generated by the SKALE manager contract on Ethereum. Layer 1 and their good behavior is incentivized through staking mechanisms. 

SKALE has a clever consensus design. Image source: SKALE Network

48 decentralized applications have already signed up for the SKALE Innovator Program—designed to facilitate their successful onboarding—and are expected to be among the first dApps to utilize the network. 

SKALE Mainnet Phase 1 is complete, Phase 2 coming soon!

The launch of SKALE Network is taking place over 3 phases. On June 30th, SKALE Network Phase 1 went live on Ethereum mainnet. Future phases will enable staking and token transfers. 

SKALE Network hired Quantstamp to secure their contracts before launching on mainnet. We are thrilled to be a part of this project and we look forward to sharing future accomplishments made by the SKALE Network. 

Quantstamp Announcements
July 14, 2020

Innovation in the DeFi space is proving Ethereum’s utility, but it is also revealing Ethereum’s limits. Yield farming, the latest DeFi craze, placed upward pressure on fees after applications like Compound and Curve started providing users with additional rewards for supplying liquidity and other activities on their platforms. Before yield farming, Tether already contributed to higher fees by migrating its stablecoin onto Ethereum and is currently the highest consumer of gas

High fees are a strong indicator of Ethereum’s success, but also a barrier to other potential applications. For instance, Reddit is interested in onboarding its users to Ethereum but is currently sitting on the sidelines waiting for a scaling solution.

The demand for Ethereum block space is going up. Image source: Etherscan

SKALE Network aims to scale Ethereum with elastic sidechains  

SKALE Network aims to not only scale Ethereum, but do so in a way that vastly improves the user experience. In the future, people using dApps powered by the SKALE Network will largely have no transaction fees and near-instantaneous transaction times, thanks to “elastic sidechains." Potential applications that were crowded out of Ethereum Layer 1 due to high transaction fees and slow confirmation times now have a network designed for them. 


SKALE Network’s elastic sidechains remove Ethereum mainnet storage and computation limitations and are customized to fit the needs of that specific application: each dApp has its own Ethereum as a service sidechain. This enhances user experience because rather than users paying for a transaction every time they use an application, dApp creators pay sidechain node operators a flat fee directly for the resources they need. 

Node operators can run multiple chains. Each chain is dedicated to a single dApp. Image source: SKALE Network

SKALE Network also has a decentralized design. SKALE Network node operators are assigned to a chain using randomness generated by the SKALE manager contract on Ethereum. Layer 1 and their good behavior is incentivized through staking mechanisms. 

SKALE has a clever consensus design. Image source: SKALE Network

48 decentralized applications have already signed up for the SKALE Innovator Program—designed to facilitate their successful onboarding—and are expected to be among the first dApps to utilize the network. 

SKALE Mainnet Phase 1 is complete, Phase 2 coming soon!

The launch of SKALE Network is taking place over 3 phases. On June 30th, SKALE Network Phase 1 went live on Ethereum mainnet. Future phases will enable staking and token transfers. 

SKALE Network hired Quantstamp to secure their contracts before launching on mainnet. We are thrilled to be a part of this project and we look forward to sharing future accomplishments made by the SKALE Network. 

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