ABCDE: Why We Invested in GasZero?
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
ABCDE: Why We Invested in GasZero?
GasZero eliminates the barriers for Web2 users entering Web3—Dapps without seed phrases and without gas fees make the product experience indistinguishable between Web2 and Web3.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsSeptember 12th, 2023 | BMAN & Kris
GasZero is a gas-free Layer 2 blockchain network that enables trusted users to transfer funds and use on-chain applications without paying any gas fees. GasZero’s vision is to bring one billion users into Web3 by offering a zero-gas, frictionless interaction experience.
In Web2 advertising tests, GasZero significantly improved the conversion rate of users onboarding to Web3, achieving a 146x higher efficiency compared to traditional blockchains with gas fees. Moreover, in a zero-gas blockchain environment, user lifetime within dApps is substantially extended, as gas fees have long been a major cost barrier for blockchain usage.
ABCDE led the angel round investment in GasZero.
1. GasZero Increases Web2-to-Web3 New Transaction User Conversion Rate by 146x
We’ve long struggled to onboard Web2 users into Web3, but three major barriers stand in their way:
1. Seed phrases
2. Fiat on-ramps
3. Gas fees
These three obstacles represent steep learning curves for Web2 users—each one alone can deter many potential adopters. During testing, traditional blockchains showed only a 0.15% conversion rate from Web2 ad campaigns, whereas GasZero achieved over 22% (see chart below).
Blockchain will only achieve true massive adoption when even our parents can use it with zero learning curve. Today, solutions like Particle Network have addressed the seed phrase issue via MPC/AA wallets, and services like MoonPay have simplified fiat access. However, until now there has been no systematic solution for gas fees. GasZero is the first solution tackling this at the foundational layer of the blockchain.
By integrating Particle Network’s MPC/AA solution, MoonPay’s fiat payment infrastructure, and its own zero-gas blockchain technology, GasZero increased ad conversion rates from 0.15% to 22% in Google and Facebook campaign tests—a 146x improvement.
GasZero eliminates the barriers between Web2 and Web3, making the product experience indistinguishable. This allows completely new users—like our parents—to enter Web3 seamlessly and “unconsciously.”
2. GasZero Technical Features
On the GasZero network, users’ gas fees are subsidized in the backend. “0 Gas” means trusted end-users are exempt from gas fees during transfers and contract interactions. These waived gas costs are recorded on the network and later covered by dApp developers or GasZero itself through Infra Fees. If a user’s transaction does not meet the exemption criteria, they may still choose to pay gas fees themselves to complete the transaction.
When a user initiates an on-chain interaction in GasZero, their MetaID, MetaShield, and Credibility Oracle are fully analyzed to determine eligibility for gas fee exemption. The analysis includes:
Whether the user is whitelisted by the contract.
Whether the user is flagged as a malicious actor or spammer.
Whether the user has interacted with assets across different EVM chains.
Eligible users enjoy gas-free transactions (customizable by time period, frequency, and contract interaction options).
Note: GasZero’s 0 Gas solution differs from AA wallet-based sponsored transactions. It operates at the node level, providing greater flexibility and security. Compared to pay-first-reimburse-later models, it also delivers a superior user experience.
To achieve 0 gas, GasZero optimizes gas consumption at the base chain level. The team uses an optimized zkEVM architecture, which inherently reduces zk-proof costs. Additionally, DA costs are further reduced through a self-built DA layer. Combined with partial cost coverage from node operators, these optimizations enable the goal of 0 gas.
To prevent abuse by bots or sybil attackers, GasZero has partnered with several DID projects. Existing Web3 users can verify their identity via ZK Me or by integrating the Worldcoin SDK. For new Web2 users, transaction limits per time window are enforced to prevent network congestion and waste. A hardened RPC node version has also been designed to ensure transaction security. Drawing from extensive anti-fraud experience in gaming, the team is well-equipped to minimize bot activity and attacks.
Key components of the product:
MetaID:
MetaShield:
MetaShield is a critical auditing mechanism for GasZero’s 0 GAS service. When a user initiates a transaction in any dApp, MetaShield triggers a comprehensive evaluation, including:
1. First-level dynamic strategy: Filters out users engaged in fraud or operating multiple accounts.
2. Application whitelist: Checks whether the initiating user is whitelisted by the dApp.
3. Reputation Oracle: Evaluates historical on-chain and off-chain behavior data to generate a composite score reflecting user quality.
4. Second-level dynamic strategy: Offers flexible customization, such as daily caps on platform-subsidized transaction fees.
5. Contract whitelist: Verifies whether the user interacting with the contract is on the whitelist.
Credibility Oracle:
The GasZero Credibility Oracle evaluates and scores users across multiple dimensions, including account completeness, wallet address activity, and platform contributions. The oracle performs comprehensive analysis on collected data, assigns weighted scores across different dimensions, and ultimately provides a credibility score for every GasZero user. Once a user’s score exceeds a predefined threshold, they gain access to 0 gas transaction privileges.
3. Restructuring the Web3 Blockchain Business Model
Historically, Web3 blockchain business models relied on charging users and dApps—akin to toll fees—with every transaction requiring gas payments, which became revenue for the chain and miners. However, this rent-seeking model severely degrades user and dApp value experiences. Who wants to pay a fee for every single action? This is precisely one of the reasons Web3 has failed to achieve massive adoption.
GasZero redefines the blockchain business model by subsidizing user gas fees to eliminate entry barriers, then monetizing downstream after acquiring scale. This model has been repeatedly proven in internet history:
In 2005, Shanda revolutionized online gaming with the “free-to-play, pay-for-premium-services” model, adopting a CSP (Come-Stay-Pay) approach that made it the dominant player in the industry.
Qihoo 360 Antivirus defeated rivals like Rising and Kingsoft by going free, then monetizing via ads—becoming the market leader in antivirus software.
We believe that backward monetization through user subsidies will fundamentally reshape blockchain user growth. Only with sufficient user scale can we generate meaningful social value and realize true blockchain innovation.
4. GasZero Roadmap
GasZero deployed its testnet on August 24, completing over 300,000 zero-gas transactions. After an estimated 3–6 months of refinement, the Beta testnet will launch in Q1 2024, followed by the Alpha mainnet in Q2 2024.
(1) Testnet Phase 1:
Test Objective: Era7 game transactions using zk-rollup + 0 gas
Architecture: zkEVM + Opside
dApp: Era7: Game of Truth
Explorer: https://era7.zkevm.opside.info/
Official Marketplace Test URL
https://marketplace-freegas.era7.io/
Game Test URL
ERA Token Contract Address
0xe9Ab1d84a314E7aFf0B06D0Ad39D5F70e0B98988
GOT Contract Address
0x50E84dF0559F4515a88920366d7C623008222BEd
0 Gas Test Guide:
(2) Testnet Phase 2: (Testnet launched on 9.11)
Test Objective: Era7 game with MetaID login (social login + MPC-AA wallet) + 0 gas + stress testing
Architecture: zkEVM + ETH Goerli
dApp: Era7: Game of Truth
Explorer: https://scangoerlitest.gaszero.com/
Official Marketplace Test URL
https://goerli-era7-marketplace.gaszero.com
Game Test URL
https://goerli-era7-game.gaszero.com
ERA Token Contract Address
0xe9Ab1d84a314E7aFf0B06D0Ad39D5F70e0B98988
GOT Contract Address
0x50E84dF0559F4515a88920366d7C623008222BEd
0 Gas Test Guide:
Appendix:
Network Name: GasZero-Goerli-L2
RPC URL: https://goerlitest.gaszero.com
Chain ID: 12021
Currency Symbol: GAS0
5. Team Bridging Traditional Gaming and Blockchain Technology
Adam Zhao, CEO, MBA
● https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamziyuan/
● Cambridge University EMBA
● TCG card battle game ERA7 - CEO & Co-Founder
● High-efficiency interoperable public chain Proton Network - COO & Co-Founder
● Formerly at BT responsible for high-frequency trading networks in finance; founded programmatic advertising platform Zhizhi Cloud upon returning to China, focusing on traffic acquisition and monetization in gaming.
● Web3 Experience:
■ Entered blockchain in late 2017, founded Proton Network, a high-efficiency data interoperability public chain, which once ranked in CMC Top 100.
■ In late 2020, transformed the Web2 game "Fist of Truth" into the Web3 card game Era7: Game of Truth, consistently ranking top 3 on BNB Chain for six consecutive months in DAU, transaction volume, and NFT minting.
XianRui Meng, CTO, PhD
● https://www.linkedin.com/in/xianruimeng/
● https://www.xianruimeng.org/
● 2016–2021
■ Held scientist and tech leadership roles at Amazon, Facebook, and Apple
● 2015
■ Microsoft Research
● At Boston University, member of DBLab and BUSec in the Computer Science Department. PhD thesis: Privacy-preserving queries in encrypted databases
● Past research focused on HE, MPC, ZKP, etc.
● Published multiple papers on privacy and databases
6. Conclusion
After 15 years of development, the blockchain industry remains stuck at around 400 million active users—a bottleneck eerily similar to early internet adoption under licensed service models. The shift to free software and applications enabled the internet to grow from 400 million to 5 billion users, birthing new digital economies. We believe that free models are key to breaking Web3 past the 400 million user ceiling, and zero-gas blockchains are emerging to meet this demand.
GasZero removes all barriers for Web2 users entering Web3. With no seed phrases and no gas fees, dApps feel exactly like Web2 products. We believe this zero-friction, zero-difference experience is the path to true massive adoption in Web3.
About ABCDE
ABCDE is a venture capital firm focused on leading investments in top-tier crypto builders, co-founded by Du Jun, a Huobi co-founder with over a decade of experience in crypto, and BMAN, a former internet and crypto entrepreneur. The co-founders of ABCDE have built billion-dollar companies from scratch in the crypto space. Because we are founders ourselves, we deeply understand what builders need. We have already established a full-stack ecosystem for ABCDE’s Builders—including a public company (1611.HK), an exchange (Huobi), a SaaS company (ChainUP), a media platform (CoinTime.com), and a developer platform (BeWater.xyz).
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ABCDECapital
Website: www.ABCDE.com
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
ABCDE
