Gelato Relay is Now Live on Zora: A Blockchain for NFT Artists & Creators

Tl;dr

• Gelato Relay is now live on the Zora network!
• Zora is a fast, cost-efficient Layer 2 solution aiming to bring media on-chain.
• Zora is powered by the OP Stack and secured by Ethereum.
• Builders on Zora can leverage Gelato Relay's capabilities seamlessly.
• Gelato Relay offers gasless transactions with options for app developers to sponsor gas fees or users to pay with native or ERC-20 tokens.

"We've been reaching the upper limit of Ethereum mainnet, with gas price becoming a systemic inhibitor to adoption."

Jacob Horne, CEO of Zora

The emergence of NFTs marks a significant shift in digital art. However, Ethereum's gas fees present major challenges. On Zora, many NFTs, even those priced under $10 or free to mint, become overshadowed by unpredictable gas fees.

Zora Network is unique among Layer 2 solutions, as while most of these networks focus on financial services or DeFi, Zora has set its sights on bringing media onto the blockchain, which puts NFTs first. This means that artists and digital collectors have a dedicated space that understands their needs. It offers the long-awaited "scalable infrastructure for artists" that the NFT community has been looking for!

But why did Zora feel the need to create this?

The primary blockchain layer, known as Layer 1, has its challenges; blockchains like Ethereum are secure and reliable but can sometimes struggle with handling a large number of transactions quickly. This bottleneck not only makes things expensive and slow, especially for smaller transactions like buying or selling cheaper NFTs, but it also limits the overall potential of the blockchain, pushing users away due to high costs and long wait times.

Ethereum-backed, Optimism-empowered

Zora's Layer 2 is a solution built on the open-source OP Stack, aiming for speed and affordability. Securely backed by Ethereum, Zora Network uses the Bedrock release of the OP Stack, which is designed to closely mirror Ethereum's functionalities. This ensures users have a familiar experience while enjoying the advantages of the L2 network.

Key features and benefits:

• A familiar user experience.
• Swift transaction confirmations.
• Cost-effective NFT minting, often under $0.50.
• Broader on-chain opportunities

This means users get the best of both worlds: the unbreakable security of Ethereum and the lightning speed of Zora's network!

Zora’s Layer 2 solution effectively tackles transaction speed and cost challenges. Yet, as the digital art landscape grows, onboarding newcomers remains a significant hurdle. Enter Gelato Relay, designed to simplify this complex initiation process.

Simplified Onboarding with Gelato Relay

Navigating the world of blockchain can be overwhelming for newcomers. They often face a multistep process: registering on a centralized exchange, undergoing KYC verification, purchasing crypto with fiat currency, and then transferring funds to a crypto wallet. This complexity can discourage many from diving deeper.

This is where relaying comes in! Gelato Relay can help bypass the lengthy process of purchasing a network's native token. It sends transactions on behalf of the user, removing obstacles and ensuring a seamless experience. By eliminating the burden of gas fees, it enables secure, gasless transactions.

Gelato Relay works by relaying users' transactions directly on-chain, ensuring secure, gasless interactions. The platform provides two convenient payment handling methods:

User-Paid Gas: Designed for those preferring their users to manage their own gas expenses. It utilizes either the 'callWithSyncFeeERC2771' or 'callWithSyncFee' SDK methods with the SyncFee payment mechanism. Users can cover relay costs using native or ERC-20 tokens.

Developer-Sponsored Gas: For scenarios where developers intend to cover all of their users' gas costs Gelato Relay provides two approaches 'sponsoredCallERC2771' and 'sponsoredCall' . Here, application developers sponsor the costs for their dApp users through the 1Balance system. Users can deposit USDC into their 1Balance on the Polygon network, and this balance can then be used to cover relay costs across all chains, regardless of the target chain.

For artists and creators on the Zora Network, Gelato Relay simplifies their journey. They can immerse themselves fully in creative processes while Gelato Relay handles transactional complexities, enhancing the experience for both creators and their audience.

NFT Art Collaborative Studios

Design a platform where artists can collaborate on NFT projects in real time. As artists make changes or additions, these are minted into new collaborative NFT versions. Gelato Relay ensures that each change or addition is captured as a gasless transaction, making real-time collaboration feasible.

NFT Minting Platform

Develop a platform that allows users to mint NFTs using ERC-20 tokens. Instead of just using Native Blockchain tokens to mint, artists or creators can utilize tokens to create their NFTs. Gelato Relay can be used to facilitate these transactions seamlessly using SyncFee payment method.

Check out our comprehensive developer tutorial for a step-by-step guide on NFT Minting using USDC

Gasless Claims for Whitelisted NFT

Utilizing Zora's layer 2 and Gelato Relay's projects can offer gas-free claims on NFT drops exclusively for whitelisted users, rewarding early supporters or specific community members.

Gelato is web3’s decentralized backend empowering builders to create augmented smart contracts that are automated, gasless & off-chain aware on all major EVM-compatible blockchains including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, zkSync, and many more. Over 400+ web3 projects rely on Gelato for years to power the execution of millions of transactions across DeFi, NFT, and Gaming.

Gelato currently offers four services:

• Web3 Functions: Connect your smart contracts to off-chain data & computation by running decentralized cloud functions.

• Automate: Automate your smart contracts by executing transactions automatically in a reliable, developer-friendly & decentralized manner

• Relay: Give your users access to reliable, robust, and scalable gasless transactions via a simple-to-use API

• Gasless Wallet: A powerful SDK that enables developers to provide a world-class UX by combining Gelato Relay + Safe's Smart Contract Wallet, enabling Account Abstraction

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