sFUEL or SKALE Fuel is the token used to transact on a SKALE Chain within the SKALE Network. However, the similiarties between something like ETH and sFUEL are many. These will be covered in the following section, Gas vs sFUEL. For now, it is important to understand the folloiwng:
Now, what is the difference between gas and sFUEL?
|
|Yes
| No | | Network Wide |No
| Yes | | Easy Access |Yes
| No |sFUEL by default is valueless. This means that regardless of the amount, sFUEL never holds any value*.
The value of this to both users and developers is the ability to do most of the things not generally possible on Ethereum:
For the average user, trading on a DeFi platform will result in high fees from possible network congestion or just high volume on many blockchains. Value-less gas means using something like Ruby.Exchange results in no gas fees for trades**.
Blockchains are very complex complex pieces of technology that rely on untrustworthy participants. The ability for malicious users to have a high impact on blockchain has been seen in many parts of the industry. However, the industry is young and new and vulnerabilities are to be expected. One security measure to help protect against this on the SKALE Network is the chain by chain sFUEL setup and distribution. Instead of having all chains in the network share SKALE Fuel; each chain has its own amount that is only usable on that chain.
This means even if someone was able to attain a large amount of sFUEL on a chain; the only chain at risk is the chain where the sFUEL was compromised; shrinking the size of the attack vector on the entire network to effectively 1 (the original chain).
While this is not a fool proof solution, it is a unique security measure that sFUEL provides the interconnected multi-chain network.
Attaining sFUEL to potentially dozens or even hundreds of SKALE Chains would be a nightmare for any user. While many platforms will be able to provide sFUEL on the fly; many of the hubs or large project ports may struggle to get users sFUEL. To solve all of these issues, the sFUEL Station was created allowing users to quickly connect a wallet, and grab sFUEL for any of the supported SKALE Chains without having to switch networks each time.
Once connected on the sFUEL Station, users simply just click Get sFUEL for a chain if they are not already filled up. No transaction signing or payment is required.
Using sFUEL is similiar to gas on nearly every other blockchain. Your wallet will automatically recognize sFUEL as the "required" token for transactions when you are connected to a SKALE Chain. When you transact, you will use sFUEL to "pay" for the transaction. Once again, sFUEL is value-less meaning that payment is really a value of 0. It is used internally by the network to protect itself from malicious entities.