LayerZero’s ‘Gas Station’ will simplify cross-chain NFT swaps

Cross-chain messaging protocol LayerZero has revealed a “gas abstraction” tool to facilitate cross-chain NFT swaps.

The news coincides with the integration of NFT marketplace, Magic Eden, with the LayerZero protocol. This means traders can now purchase and sell Omnichain non-fungible tokens (ONFTs) across supported chains.

At launch, these capabilities will be available to Ethereum and Polygon, though they will soon be available to more chains.

In an interview with Blockworks, LayerZero’s head of strategy Irene Wu said that the gas abstraction tool, which they have named “Gas Station,” was designed to help users create a more seamless experience when purchasing and moving NFTs from one chain to another.

“If a collector or an end user is only familiar with one ecosystem, they tend to only have one gas token in their wallet,” Wu said. “Gas abstraction enables the quoting and exchange upfront of gas tokens.”

Gas Station was a collaborative project between Magic Eden and LayerZero, and will enable users to purchase NFTs directly through the Magic Eden app or platform without needing to go to a centralized exchange to swap or borrow their tokens.

“The way Gas Station works is actually quite different from hot wallets who are charging a gas fee upfront. What is unique about this is that it isn’t a service, it’s an entirely open-sourced protocol-based solution, it’s decentralized and doesn’t put the security in the hands of a third party,” Wu said.

Cross-chain NFTs can be especially useful in gaming protocols, Wu explained.

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“If you’re designing your game, you need the gaming assets and the currency to be able to move across all these networks or at least be able to deliver an abstracted user experience that is chain agnostic,” she said. “I would say almost every NFT creator and gaming studio is thinking about interoperability right now.”