GasToken is a new, cutting-edge Ethereum contract that allows users to tokenize gas on the Ethereum network, storing gas when it is cheap and using / deploying this gas when it is expensive. Using GasToken can subsidize high gas prices on transactions to do everything from arbitraging decentralized exchanges to buying into ICOs early. GasToken is also the first contract on the Ethereum network that allows users to buy and sell gas directly, enabling long-term "banking" of gas that can help shield users from rising gas prices.

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Gas Price at Mint Time: 1 Gwei Gas Price at Free Time: 50 Gwei Gas used by Transaction: 2000000 Gas Number of Tokens Minted & Freed: 0.48 Cost of Minting: Gas Cost of Freeing: Gas Total Transaction Cost: Gas Savings: Eth Efficiency:



GST1 (storage) GST2 (contract)

Compute optimal number of tokens for transaction

GST1 GST2 Refund mechanism SSTORE (deleting storage) CREATE + SELFDESTRUCT (deleting contracts) Required gas price volatility $\mathbf{2.02 \times}$ $2.14 \times$ Most efficient variant when volatility is between $2.01$ and $3.71$ between $3.71$ and $\infty$ Maximal savings/efficiency $2.97$ $\mathbf{3.49}$ Room for further optimization Unlikely Probably Language Solidity Solidity

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if (msg.sender == GST2.address) { SELFDESTRUCT(msg.sender); }

PUSH15 0xb3f879cb30fe243b4dfee438691c04 CALLER XOR PC JUMPI CALLER SELFDESTRUCT

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KECCAK256(RLP_ENCODE([addr, nonce]))

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KECCAK256

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When is the ICO?

There's no ICO, token launch, or whatever your lawyers want to call it today. Just start using GasToken, on the chain, right now.

Who is behind this?

How did GasToken originate?





GasToken is part of a wider initiative headquartered at IC3,



This includes the study of oracle-based and in-protocol futures for Bitcoin block and UTXO space, and for Ethereum state and block space, as well as rigorous study of potential instruments covering network resources. It also includes the exploration of interesting technologies like GasToken, which are only possible due to quirks in distributed-trust based crypto-economic mechanisms on blockchains like Ethereum. Project Chicago is an academic project, and aims at releasing publications, blog posts, and code fostering a better understanding of decentralized resource pricing.



To get more news on GasToken and Project Chicago, follow us on the following platforms:



Follow @projectchicago Follow @projectchicago_ GasToken was originally created in September 2017, when we were investigating two questions: what is the impact of front-running on decentralized exchanges vulnerable to it, and how should blockchain resources be priced ideally? The majority of the pre-release supply of GasToken was created by The Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts , the parent organization of GasToken. IC3 holds a supply of GasToken for research and on-network use, and is actively using GasToken in research projects. The above authors of GasToken did not hold any personal GasToken at release-time.GasToken is part of a wider initiative headquartered at IC3, Project Chicago for the Study of Cryptocommodities. We believe that economically speaking, all blockchains can be viewed as a two-sided market for a set of virtual resources (block space, UTXO space) backed by digital resources (computation, network bandwidth and latency, storage) with physical costs (in power, space, and capital). Project Chicago consequently aims to understand questions of how to price such resources, the consequences of mispricing, and the new generation of financial instruments that can be created around these resources for price discovery.This includes the study of oracle-based and in-protocol futures for Bitcoin block and UTXO space, and for Ethereum state and block space, as well as rigorous study of potential instruments covering network resources. It also includes the exploration of interesting technologies like GasToken, which are only possible due to quirks in distributed-trust based crypto-economic mechanisms on blockchains like Ethereum. Project Chicago is an academic project, and aims at releasing publications, blog posts, and code fostering a better understanding of decentralized resource pricing.To get more news on GasToken and Project Chicago, follow us on the following platforms:

Is your contract secure?





We are a team of experienced Solidity developers with an intimate knowledge of the Ethereum Virtual Machine. We have



We provide this software free of charge. There is no warranty. We do not assume any responsibility for bugs, vulnerabilities, or any other technical defects in the GasToken smart contracts. Use them at your own peril. Maybe.We are a team of experienced Solidity developers with an intimate knowledge of the Ethereum Virtual Machine. We have stared at the code for a long time and don't see any obvious vulnerabilities. Our contract is thoroughly tested , both through unit tests and through a live on-network deployment. That being said, no independent audit has been or will be commissioned. We encourage you to read the code and decide for yourself whether it's secure; it's quite simple!

Is your contract an investment vehicle / security / financial product?

No. We make absolutely no promises of any returns, profit, or other material representations about any market properties of GasToken. GasToken is not based on any currency, asset, or other financial product. GasToken does not represent a shared enterprise, and we encourage our users to expect 0 further effort from its developers. It is not possible to obtain GasToken directly using any form of currency, digital or otherwise.



Furthermore, because the developers are active Ethereum researchers, and GasToken exploits a mechanism detail of the non-finalized economic model of the platform, it is extremely likely that the developers of GasToken will advocate for changes to the network that render GasToken unusable, irredeemable, non-fungible, and/or worthless.



User beware.

Isn't this bad for the network?





Furthermore, GasToken is not a perfectly efficient mechanism. It is possible that widespread use of GasToken will waste substantial block space, driving up gas prices and in-turn driving up GasToken usage, in what has the potential to become a positive-feedback loop. In a severe instance of such a loop, it is likely the authors of GasToken will advocate for the removal of the contract-clearing or storage-clearing refunds, eliminating the market value of GasToken.



GasToken is, however, also a positive technology for the network, providing gas-banking services to users and correspondingly a mechanism aiding price discovery on gas. GasToken can also help users and businesses shield against increases in on-network gas pricing, ensuring that they are able to perform expected transactions even in hostile markets for gas. In Bitcoin, such a technology likely would have improved user experiences for



GasToken can be viewed as an economic exploit in the Ethereum gas model. While we do not consider this a zero-day (the basic arbitrage pattern has been known since 2015) or information-security exploit, we took steps to responsibly inform the Ethereum Foundation of our intent to study this problem and our actions on the blockchain several months in advance of this release. There are certainly some obvious negative implications. For example, GasToken does impose substantial externalities onto the shared network storage commons, as pointed out in original analyses of this arbitrage . Our belief is that the issue is somewhat more fundamental than flaws in the refund mechanism: storage, network, and other commons-based resources in blockchain networks may be severely underpriced given their market value. This means that any price discovery mechanism over these resources, including GasToken, has the potential to massively inflate the cost of such resources, creating a negative user experience for ecosystem participants.Furthermore, GasToken is not a perfectly efficient mechanism. It is possible that widespread use of GasToken will waste substantial block space, driving up gas prices and in-turn driving up GasToken usage, in what has the potential to become a positive-feedback loop. In a severe instance of such a loop, it is likely the authors of GasToken will advocate for the removal of the contract-clearing or storage-clearing refunds, eliminating the market value of GasToken.GasToken is, however, also a positive technology for the network, providing gas-banking services to users and correspondingly a mechanism aiding price discovery on gas. GasToken can also help users and businesses shield against increases in on-network gas pricing, ensuring that they are able to perform expected transactions even in hostile markets for gas. In Bitcoin, such a technology likely would have improved user experiences for many services reliant on the blockchain GasToken can be viewed as an economic exploit in the Ethereum gas model. While we do not consider this a zero-day (the basic arbitrage pattern has been known since 2015) or information-security exploit, we took steps to responsibly inform the Ethereum Foundation of our intent to study this problem and our actions on the blockchain several months in advance of this release.

Isn't this bad for miners?

Miners that execute transactions that include large gas refunds might be paid only half the fee of the same transaction without a refund. Nevertheless, GasToken also helps in stabilizing gas prices thus reducing the variability in miner's rewards.

Doesn't [Metropolis / EIP87 / whatever] nullify this scheme?

It is entirely possible that the Ethereum community will, at some point, decide to change consensus rules in a manner that renders GasToken inoperable. We take no responsibility for any such events.



EIP87 proposes a notion of blockchain-rent, wherein contracts have to continuously pay a fee to keep values in storage. Rent proposals that preserve gas refunds remain compatible with GasToken. For example, GasToken can still be useful if the short-term rent paid on storage is less than the efficiency gain from banking gas at a lower cost (so, any time there is an unpredictable gas market with high fluctuations).



Moreover, even if a non-refundable rental scheme for storage is adopted, an incentive for removing empty contracts should remain. Introducing a rental scheme for contracts themselves may be detrimental (i.e., a contract with no storage would disappear if rent isn't paid) so GST2 or some variant of it is likely to remain useful.

Doesn't [sharding / PoS / plasma / whatever] nullify this scheme?

Partially. Even if Ethereum manages to effectively scale the blockchain to the promised lower transaction prices, fluctuations in gas price are possible and GasToken is useful. That being said, holding GasToken long-term is obviously not economically viable if the network continues to scale and maintain low gas prices. Also, changes to Ethereum's resource model as a consequence of the above scaling strategies may directly render GasToken inoperable or unprofitable, e.g. by changing the rules surrounding the refunds GasToken exploits.

What about Ethereum Classic?





The GST2 contract deployed in Ethereum Classic contains some minor differences compared with the version live in Ethereum (we added a fix for the Solidity compiler bug described mint function). The exact code we deployed can be found Of course we support all derivatives of Ethereum. Our GST1 and GST2 contracts are deployed at 0x88d60255F917e3eb94eaE199d827DAd837fac4cB and 0x0000000000b3F879cb30FE243b4Dfee438691c04 respectively on ETC.The GST2 contract deployed in Ethereum Classic contains some minor differences compared with the version live in Ethereum (we added a fix for the Solidity compiler bug described above , as well as some extra checks and balances for thefunction). The exact code we deployed can be found here