Sign in Subscribe

Gas-Free, Secure Cross-Chain Swaps with Substrate

Gasp Team

• 6 min read
Gas-Free, Secure Cross-Chain Swaps with Substrate

Next in our series of deep dives into Gasp’s underlying technology, we’ll unpack Substrate, the blockchain development framework used to build and strengthen our protocol. 5 years after its creation, Substrate is now a popular framework for building custom, high-performance blockchains because of its flexible framework, enhanced security, and application-specific chain benefits. A number of prominent projects across networks use Substrate, including Octopus Network, a multichain web3 infrastructure deployed on NEAR, and Bittensor, a censorship-resistant and decentralized machine learning network deployed on their own custom blockchain, Subtensor. 

Gasp is a cross-chain communication platform for scaling large amounts of capital and enabling high-speed trading for both individual and institutional users. In building a cross-rollup liquidity protocol, we realized we could leverage Substrate’s modular architecture to facilitate highly secure and gas-free swaps. Let’s explore how Gasp uses Substrate to reduce transaction costs and increase efficiency through customized runtime logic and optimized consensus mechanism.  

What is Substrate?

To understand Substrate, it’s important to understand where Substrate came from and why it was created. The Substrate framework was created by one of the Ethereum co-founders who wanted to focus on the multi-chain thesis. Substrate is a heterogeneous blockchain development framework built to enable interoperability for all the existing blockchains, and most importantly, for blockchains that may not even exist yet. From its inception, Substrate was built to be flexible and modular.   

Substrate was built for interoperability in the past, present, and future of any blockchain, which is why modularity is at the center of its design. A developer with enough knowledge of Substrate can incorporate any two blockchain frameworks together in the same project. 

One of the most unique features of Substrate is forkless upgrades. Developers can fix bugs, upgrade runtime, and experiment without disrupting node operators or users of their projects. Forkless upgradability was built into Substrate from the beginning to enforce the modularity of the framework. Builders can hone in on one specific aspect of their chain or project and seamlessly upgrade without disturbing the rest of their ecosystem.    

Why we chose Substrate?

Conventionally, blockchain platforms have faced common issues due to rigid structures of “one size fits all” approaches that limit both functionality and efficiency in smart contract development. This resulted, amongst other issues, in high latency and low throughput, making many chains unsuitable for any applications with a high frequency of transactions, such as trading, bundling, and bridging. 

Because of this critical problem, blockchains struggle with interoperability and can’t efficiently facilitate the transfer of assets between chains. This also makes them vulnerable due to single points of failure in a smart contract and flawed contract upgrades. Substrate was built to strengthen blockchains against vulnerability to hacks and expand multi-chain capabilities. 

Substrate offers better performance and flexibility without sacrificing security and speed, which is exactly what we were building for at Gasp. Substrate also allows for the development of specialized protocols that could not be efficiently supported by generic smart contract chains. Its modular design and robust features make it ideal for creating single-purpose blockchain solutions.

Gasp was initially built to be a Substrate-based DEX. As we evolved to be EVM-native, we’ve found the benefits of continuing to use Substrate for application-specific benefits far outweighed any tradeoffs. The biggest tradeoff is the extra work it takes to adapt Substrate instead of just switching fully over to EVM/solidity frameworks. Let’s break down each quality of Substrate that sets Gasp apart.  

How Gasp uses Substrate?

Gasp was built for efficiency, security, and upgradeability, and for that reason, building with Substrate was the natural choice. The framework addresses several key issues in blockchain development: customization, efficiency, interoperability, and security. 

Gasp was designed for efficient cross-chain swaps thanks to Substrate's modular design, which enables easy integrations and upgrades. Gasp developers can customize every aspect of the protocol, from the consensus mechanism to the runtime logic, unlocking speedy swaps across chains. Substrate allowed us to easily adapt the chain to be application-specific, optimizing for better performance and resource usage, leading to faster and gasless transactions.

Substrate’s built-in interoperability supports communication with other blockchains, making it easier for Gasp to connect with multiple ecosystems. The modular architecture enables developers to choose advanced security features for their specific use case. The interoperability of the framework allows projects to adopt the security of the blockchains they integrate with. These security features ensure that Gasp can offer secure, trustless transactions across multiple blockchains, protecting against threats that are harder to deal with in cross-chain environments such as double-spending and front-running.

Customization for gas-free transactions

Substrate's support for application-specific chains allows Gasp to optimize performance and resource usage. By tailoring the consensus mechanism and runtime logic to the protocol's specific needs, Gasp achieves faster transaction processing and reduced computational overhead, making gas-free transactions feasible. This unique setup eliminates the need for separate fee structures, giving users access to lower transaction costs and streamlined processes.

Performance optimization

Substrate's application-specific framework allows Gasp to customize its consensus algorithm to optimize transaction throughput and minimize latency. By selecting the most efficient consensus mechanism for high-frequency trading, Gasp ensures rapid transaction finality and avoids network congestion. 

Substrate's parallel processing capabilities and optimized networking allow Gasp to fine-tune every aspect of its protocol for maximum performance. This includes leveraging Substrate's Wasm-based runtime for faster execution and using optimized networking stacks to enhance transaction propagation and finality. 

This is particularly beneficial for high-frequency traders and liquidity providers who require quick and efficient transaction processing. By leveraging Substrate’s powerful capabilities, Gasp can deliver rapid and reliable transaction execution, crucial for maintaining a competitive edge in the blockchain ecosystem.

Interoperability and cross-chain functionality

Substrate’s inherent interoperability features such as light client verification, bridging capabilities, and forkless upgrades are crucial for Gasp’s cross-chain swaps and overall platform health. 

Substrate enables Gasp to easily integrate with various blockchain networks, facilitating seamless asset transfers and communication between different ecosystems. These features ensure that Gasp can efficiently handle cross-chain interactions, providing users with a smooth and reliable experience when moving assets across different blockchain platforms all while vastly minimizing transaction costs.

Enhanced security

Substrate's robust security features, including modular consensus algorithms and fine-grained permissioning, provide a solid foundation for Gasp's secure transactions. The modular architecture of Substrate allows Gasp to combine additional layers of security from the blockchains integrated into the protocol. For Gasp, that means increased security from EigenLayer, which utilizes staked ETH from many validators to secure the Ethereum network, as well as every protocol that interacts with liquid staking tokens (LSTs).  

Moreover, Gasp has integrated it’s own “ferry” mechanism, which enables incredibly fast transaction finality without sacrificing security.

These measures protect against common smart contract vulnerabilities, prevent Sybil attacks, and avoid network downtime, ensuring the integrity and trustlessness of the network. This provides a reliable environment for users, safeguarding their assets, and ensuring that transactions are processed without interference or fraud.

Minimizing MEV (Miner Extractable Value)

Along with speed, security, and interoperability, Gasp has leveraged Substrate to minimize MEV by implementing Themis architecture. Because Substrate has the flexibility and modularity necessary to implement custom blockchain design, the Gasp team was able to design Themis specifically for MEV reduction by combating two major forms of value extraction: Value Extraction by Reordering (VER) and Value Extraction by Denial (VED). Themis splits block building and execution to ensure fair, tamper-proof transactions.

In addition, the Themis architecture utilizes double encryption for transactions to ensure neither block builders nor executors can manipulate or deny transactions to extract value unfairly. This robust approach exemplifies how Gasp, with the aid of Substrate, is pioneering a more fair and tamper-proof cross-chain environment for all users.

Uncapping the future of DeFi: Substrate Summer is here

As you’ve seen, Substrate plays a crucial role in enabling Gasp’s cross-chain communication with gas-free, fast finality transactions. By leveraging Substrate's powerful framework, Gasp provides enterprise and individual retail users with a fast and seamless platform for scaling large amounts of capital and engaging in high-speed trading.

Whether you’re a big DeFi player, regular user, or crypto degen, we encourage you to join the Gasp community. There are opportunities to support the network, offer liquidity, and help grow the Gasp ecosystem for a more interoperable and scalable web3 experience. Follow us on social media to keep the conversation going. Dive into the Gasp community today and contribute to the future of decentralized finance.

We recently launched Gasp Natives, a journey into the Gasp Universe – a land inhabited by powerful creatures and brave adventurers. You can learn more about it by diving into our most recent campaign – The Shopkeeper Path.

It’s a token of thanks to everyone who has so far taken part in the Gasp testnet. If you haven’t already joined, there is still time to participate. If you’re new to Gasp and the community, be sure to read Introducing Gasp — a deep dive into our native cross-chain bridge protocol, why Gasp is building on EigenLayer and Ethereum, and how it all works.  

Sign up for more Gasp updates!

Enter your email
Subscribe