The emergence of specialized blockchains in the ‘Layer 0’ interoperability space, such as Polkadot, Avalanche, and Cosmos, enabled many projects to have their own blockchain several years ago. On the other hand, another modular narrative has surfaced, aiming to propose a blockchain whose security is inherited from a more secure and decentralized Layer 1 like Ethereum. Following this model, projects like Arbitrum, Starknet, Optimism, and Polygon have released their stack.
A ‘stack’ is a development kit that allows experienced developers to ‘copy’ the technology of a blockchain to deploy it in a project without starting from scratch.
A good use of the OP Stack comes from Coinbase, which released the BASE blockchain.
The democratization of these solutions creates an ambition for new crypto projects to have their own rollups (Layer 2) and appchains (Layer 3).
This trend reflects not only a search for scalability and transaction efficiency, but also a deep desire for independence and flexibility in the development of decentralized applications.
Naturally, in 2024, after a rapid technological evolution of data storage infrastructures or blockchains themselves, ‘Rollup as a Service’ (RaaS) solutions have emerged.
The History of Gelato
Before delving into the technical functioning of Gelato, it is important to know its history – dating back to 2019.
Gelato was born out of a shared frustration by its founders, facing the limitations imposed by the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) execution environment – particularly regarding off-chain smart contract execution management.
This period was marked by a lack of efficiency in smart contract automation, forcing each web3 project to manage its own centralized, complex, and costly infrastructure to support the necessary computation for smart contract automation.
The need was clear for a generalized network that did not restrict web3 developers to choose between development speed, reliability, and decentralization. It is in this context that Gelato was designed as a response to the need for a more agile and less dependent on centralized infrastructure solution.
Later, and considering the success of this first challenge, Gelato began in 2022 to create a global infrastructure to further facilitate smart contract creation on Ethereum.
The company has developed several solutions, including Relay to allow users to avoid paying gas fees, VRF to create randomness on the blockchain (widely used in NFT generation), and Functions that allow calling APIs from the blockchain.
What is Gelato, the Rollup as a Service?
Gelato noticed early in the year the radical need of the blockchain industry for an infrastructure that enables the easy and fast creation of Rollups.
Gelato offers companies the ability to deploy their own rollup in minutes, significantly simplifying the complex and technical process of launching customized blockchain solutions.
Gelato allows developers to use multiple execution infrastructures such as Polygon CDK, OP Stack, Arbitrum Orbit, zkSync ZK Stack, as well as other data hosting solutions such as Celestia, Avail, and Eigen DA (a component of Eigen Layer).
In addition, Gelato facilitates the integration of independent validators via EigenLayer, thus enabling decentralized verification and increasing network reliability.
This approach offers significant flexibility to companies seeking to maintain the integrity and transparency of their rollup while benefiting from a robust infrastructure and a diverse network of validators.
Gelato Integrations
Gelato stands out from other Rollup-as-a-Service solutions thanks to its comprehensive set of tools and services that the platform provides to developers.
These services include integration of Gelato’s native solutions, ranging from gas relaying to verification functions (VRF), designed to simplify and optimize smart contract development on the blockchain.
Developers using Gelato can also integrate solutions from partner projects such as LayerZero for cross-chain messaging, Blockscout for blockchain exploration, and Safe for secure management of multi-signatures (multisig).
Utility and Tokenomics of Gelato (GEL)
At the core of the Gelato platform lies a democratic governance structure and an economic model embodied by the creation of the Gelato DAO, driven by the Gelato token (GEL).
The GEL token plays a central role in aligning incentives among all network participants. The GEL token serves as both a means of exchange within the Gelato ecosystem and as a way for token holders to express their support or opposition to proposals made within the DAO.
The goal is to allow Gelato users and developers to govern the protocol, providing them with a meaningful voice to align the interests of the team, investors, and token holders, and thus define the ‘rules’ to which the infrastructure must adhere.
Furthermore, a prerequisite for participating in transaction execution on the Gelato network and, therefore, earning rewards, is to acquire and stake GEL tokens.
Staking allows executors to reserve ‘slots,’ granting them exclusive rights to earn fees for transaction execution during specific periods.
This staking mechanism is designed to encourage active participation and ensure reliable and efficient transaction execution while supporting the circular economy within the Gelato ecosystem.
Conclusion
Gelato is proving to be a driving force in the evolution of L2 solutions, offering a Rollup-as-a-Service (RaaS) platform that simplifies the deployment of custom rollups, while integrating democratic governance through the Gelato DAO.
