Gasless Verification in Decentralized Proof Systems: Design Patterns and Tradeoffs

Abstract

Blockchain platforms enable transparent and immutable solutions for verification of proofs of digital claims, permissions, states, and events. However, numerous decentralized applications still force their users to operate with wallets, native tokens, and transaction costs, even though they have nothing to do with their verification purpose. This issue makes decentralized systems less user-friendly and constrains their adoption among not technically proficient Web3 users. This paper explores different patterns for gasless verification of proofs on decentralized platforms. The research focuses on five architectural patterns of such decentralized proof systems, including read-only blockchain verification, off-chain signature verification, relayer-based meta-transactions, account abstraction with paymasters, and hybrid on-chain/off-chain proof anchoring. Each architecture is analyzed qualitatively considering its usability, cost-effectiveness, decentralization, security, scalability, and implementation complexity. The results show that gasless verification enhances the usability of such systems, but at the same time transfers responsibility of trust assumptions to relayers, paymasters, backend servers, signature protocols, and off-chain data availability mechanisms. In this regard, potential risks, which include replay attacks, centralization of relayers, malicious paymaster activities, uncertainty of signers’ identity, and dependence on backend servers, are discussed. Besides, the paper offers a decision-making framework for choosing one of gasless verification architectures depending on the presence/absence of state change, authority of proofs, required verification frequency, degree of decentralization needed, and level of technical maturity of system users.