LightLink: A B2B-Focused Layer 2 For Fast and Gasless Transactions

What Is LightLink?

LightLink is an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain designed to provide faster, cheaper, and more scalable transactions than the Ethereum mainnet (Layer 1). LightLink is a Layer 2 scaling solution with a focus on enterprises to offer zero-gas fee transactions for their users.

Key Takeaways

• LightLink uses optimistic rollups to reduce the transactional load on the Ethereum mainnet and facilitate instant user transactions.

• While LightLink is largely geared towards enterprises and decentralized applications (dApps), individual users also benefit from its user-friendly experience with gasless transactions.

• The native LL token that functions as both a utility and governance token powers the whole LightLink ecosystem.

The limited throughput of major blockchains makes it difficult to offer users faster transactions with low gas fees. For example, Ethereum’s average fee required for a transaction spiked to over $30 in March 2024, which is a scary number, especially for beginners.

High fees are likely to restrict the growth of crypto platforms, as adding new users becomes a significant challenge due to the high transaction costs. A smaller user base also limits projects from reaching their full potential by achieving their milestones, which negatively impacts the overall crypto adoption rate. 

The team at LightLink put forward a sensible solution to this high gas fee issue by implementing gasless transactions for users by working with decentralized applications. This innovative method can attract new users to web3 and allows existing users to explore more features available on various platforms. 

In this article, we’ll explore LightLink in detail, including its team, working process, features, native token, and more. 

Enter LightLink

High gas fees charged on Layer 1 blockchains pose an entry barrier for new users, slowing down overall blockchain adoption. LightLink provides gasless transactions that alleviates the user’s burden while boosting the expansion of on-chain blockchain applications.  

LightLink has the potential to support over 10,000 TPS by leveraging the Optimum architecture and a proprietary stack that separates the data availability, consensus, and execution layers. 

This Layer 2 protocol has already grown to over 600,000 wallet addresses and has found its place in the top 10 rollups based on its transaction volume. Additionally, the average block time, as per the LightLink Phoenix Mainnet explorer, is just 0.3 seconds, which is significantly faster compared to major blockchains like Ethereum (12s) and BNB Smart Chain (2.9s), and also other Layer 2s like Optimism (2.0s) at time of writing.

LightLink Team and Fundraising

LightLink is the brainchild of Pellar Technology, a team backed by talented engineers and entrepreneurs. Since 2017, the team has extensive experience building more than 50 blockchain projects.

The core team of LightLink includes the following key personnel:

• Roy Hui: Co-founder and CEO with 20+ years of experience and also founded firms like Market Engine, MMGN, SheSaid, and AutoCult. 

• Olivia Romero: Co-founder and COO with finance and accounting background and co-founded Market Engine.

LightLink raised $6.2 million in its seed funding round, which was led by Web3 venture capitalists NxGen and MH Ventures and dozens of individual investors, including Zoran Kole and Eric Cryptoman.

How Does LightLink Work?

Developers can use LighLink’s Enterprise Mode to provide their users with zero-gas transactions. Even if the developers don’t opt into this mode, the fees charged will only be around $0.01 per transaction.

LightLink utilizes optimistic rollups to reduce the load on the Ethereum mainnet. Here, the users' transactions are batched together and added to the mainnet to offer faster and cheaper transactions while retaining Ethereum’s security benefits.

LightLink also takes inspiration from account abstraction, where one account pays the gas fees for others' transactions, was introduced following the deployment of ERC-4337 on the Ethereum mainnet in March 2023. However, it is still a complicated concept for new users entering the Web3 space. 

So, how does LightLink offer gasless transactions?

LightLink’s Enterprise Mode

LightLink simplifies the gasless transaction concept, where enterprises and dApps cover the gas fee on behalf of their users. Here, crypto projects pay stablecoins upfront to reserve the space in blocks for prospective users.

When the user conducts a transaction on platforms that utilize Enterprise Mode, the reserve stablecoins are converted into native tokens that pay for the service used, facilitating LightLink's operation like an Ethereum-based blockchain. 

Here's how LightLink’s Enterprise Mode (for gasless transactions) works:

1. Subscription: Businesses or dApp developers subscribe to LightLink's Enterprise Mode for a monthly fee.

2. Whitelist: LightLink sets up a smart contract to whitelist the specific contract addresses associated with the business or dApp.

3. Gas Fee Coverage: The monthly subscription fee covers the gas costs for all transactions made through the whitelisted contract addresses.

4. User Experience: Users interacting with the whitelisted dApp or platform experience gasless transactions, meaning they don't need to hold or manage any cryptocurrency to use the service.

DApps need to pay a fixed monthly fee that varies based on LightLink network usage in the Enterprise Mode. Upon reaching the usage limit, additional quotas can be purchased to allow users to continue using the zero-gas fee transactions.

Key Features of LightLink

1. Composability

LightLink has implemented flexibility and composability in its design to support a wide range of applications, offering the best user experience to the crypto community.

Enterprises can use LightLink’s composability feature to develop tailor-made dApps that serve their ideal users the best. One important example of this feature is that a user can mint NFTs on the Layer 2 blockchain that can be used on other supported blockchains' metaverse or gaming platforms.

2. Hybrid Gas Token Mechanics

One major factor that sets LightLink apart from other Layer 2 rollups is that users can pay gas fees using various payment options rather than being restricted to a single method.

LightLink doesn’t limit gas fee payments to its native token (LL), and ETH is also accepted in non-enterprise protocols. Users are offered a 10% cost reduction compared to transactions using ETH to encourage the use of the LL token for transactions.

3. Data Availability

LightLink leverages Celestia's data availability, one of the top data availability networks, to consistently ensure the data required for block verification is available to all network participants. 

This data availability feature, along with replicator nodes, allows the withdrawal of LightLink funds even if its Layer 2 network goes offline. Users have the option to submit their withdrawal transactions directly with Ethereum's Layer 1 smart contract.

LightLink (LL) Token

LL is the native token of LightLink that was officially launched in April 2024 and is available on five exchanges (at the time of writing).

This token, with a maximum supply of 1 billion, is used for governance and utility purposes in the LightLink ecosystem.

The LL token can be used to pay fees and serves as a medium of exchange for activities in the LightLink ecosystem. The tokens collected from their treasury funds are reinvested to fuel the platform's development according to their project's goals.

LightLink provides governance rights to the LL token holders so they can participate in crucial decisions regarding the project's growth and development policies. Holders and stakers of LL tokens also receive transaction fee discounts, which in turn stimulates activity in the ecosystem. 

Holders can become validators on the LightLink network by purchasing a Validator NFT using LL tokens, which act as a license for the holders. This NFT is mandatory to participate in the validation process, and the validators are incentivized to maintain the network’s health with LL tokens. 

The table below gives an overview of the LightLink distribution and vesting schedule.

Explore The LightLink Ecosystem

Here are some popular LightLink dApps.

• deBridge: A bridging platform that allows Ethereum and LightLink with BSC and nine other popular blockchains.

• Carbon: A decentralized web browser that offers a crypto wallet, dVPN, and ad blockers and rewards its users with CSIX tokens. 

• DragonFall: A digital card game with 12,000+ gamers and features battles between dragons, heroes, and monsters using various gaming tactics and strategies.

• Mittaria: A community-driven metaverse platform that allows creative individuals to co-author, co-own, and co-create animations, games, fashion, music, and more. 

LightLink Foundation: Empowering Crypto Projects

LightLink Foundation was launched to foster innovation in the blockchain space and prompt its adoption by collaborating with industry pioneers.

This foundation aims to power various sectors, such as finance, gaming, and public transport, with the help of blockchain technology. 

LightLink Foundation supports blockchain projects through the following:

1. Technical Assistance: Partnered with Pellar Technology, LightLink Foundation provides guidance on the best security practices, smart contract development, and architecture designs. 

2. Grants Programs: Offers numerous grants, including seed funding, to help projects that align with LightLink’s mission.

3. Community Empowerment: The company conducts funding opportunities in blockchain events like hackathons to support the LightLink community, which is an essential part of its ecosystem. 

Conclusion

LightLink offers a clever solution to increase crypto adoption through gasless transactions. This method is a win-win situation for users and enterprises, as users get the opportunity to avail themselves of zero-cost transactions, and platforms can pay for users’ fees gain increased engagement.

The availability of the native token LL and the growing ecosystem itself is proof that LightLink’s vision is becoming a reality. The strong support from its community, developers, and enterprises also positions LightLink as a go-to Layer 2 blockchain for building crypto projects on DeFi, gaming, metaverse, NFTs, and more.

LightLink’s focus on enterprise adoption, user experience, and affordability sets it apart in the Layer 2 landscape.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as financial or investment advice.