Unless you’ve been living under a rock, odds are you’re familiar with the scalability issues of Ethereum. These limitations pose a significant obstacle for Web3 developers looking to build decentralized applications (dapps) on the Ethereum network, making the process both difficult and costly. As a result, developers are turning their attention to more cost-effective solutions and networks to make blockchain development more feasible. One alternative that has been gaining traction over the past few years is Gnosis Chain. But what is this network? And why should you build on Gnosis Chain? If you’re looking for the answers to these questions, join us in this article as we dive into the ins and outs of Gnosis Chain!
Overview
We’ll start today’s article by diving straight into the ins and outs of Gnosis Chain. From there, we’ll explore the benefits of the network to highlight why you should choose to build on Gnosis Chain. Next, we will briefly cover other products and projects within the ecosystem. Then, we’ll introduce you to Moralis’ Gnosis-compatible Web3 API suite, providing the easiest way to build apps on the Gnosis network. Lastly, we’ll explore some prominent Moralis Gnosis API use cases to top things off!
If you want to jump straight into Gnosis development, nothing is stopping you from immediately exploring Moralis’ industry-leading Web3 APIs. A great example is the NFT API, which allows you to seamlessly build Gnosis-compatible NFT projects. However, this is just one example, and we’ll explore a few others in the ”Why Build on Gnosis Chain with Moralis?” section further on in the article!
So, if you want to build Gnosis dapps, take this opportunity and sign up with Moralis. You can create your account entirely free of charge, and you’ll be able to unlock the full potential of Gnosis Chain in a heartbeat!
What is Gnosis Chain? And Why Build on Gnosis?
Gnosis is a prominent blockchain infrastructure provider, and the organization was founded in 2015 by Stefan George and Martin Köppelman. At the time, they started off by building prediction markets. However, in 2020, Gnosis announced its plans to fully transition into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). About a year later, the GnosisDAO and xDAI communities voted to combine forces to create Gnosis Chain!
Gnosis Chain is a community-driven, EVM-based blockchain network, and it’s one of Ethereum’s first sidechains. Since its origins, Gnosis Chain has stayed true to its values: resilience and credible neutrality!
Gnosis Chain is kept secure by a geographically diverse network of 160,000+ validators. This diverse and international set of validators – in combination with a focus on community-driven governance – ensures that Gnosis Chain stays neutral in its operations and true to its original values.
Furthermore, Gnosis Chain is governed by a DAO. Consequently, this means anyone can participate in the decision-making processes regarding the development and future of the network. GNO is the governance token for GnosisDAO and the staking token for Gnosis. As such, holders of this token can weigh in on issues and proposals and shape Gnosis Chain going forward.
All in all, Gnosis Chain offers you and other developers a powerful platform to innovate and build sophisticated decentralized applications (dapps)!
Why Build on Gnosis Chain?
Now, with an overview of what Gnosis Chain is, let’s explore some of the main benefits and reasons why you should build on this network:
- Globally Secured: Gnosis Chain is fortified by 160,000+ validators worldwide.
- Cost-Efficient: Experience efficient operations at the low cost of just $0.000099 per 100K gas.
- 100% Uptime: Keep your dapps running without any issues thanks to Gnosis Chain’s 100% uptime.
- Swift Performance: With Gnosis Chain’s impressive five-second block time, you can experience rapid transaction confirmations to ensure your projects perform at the top level.
- EVM-Compatibility: Gnosis Chain is EVM-compatible. Consequently, when working with this network, you can use Ethereum tools, smart contracts, and wallets you’re familiar with.
Those are five prominent reasons why you should build on Gnosis Chain. Let’s now explore the Gnosis ecosystem a bit further!
Exploring the Gnosis Ecosystem
In addition to the sidechain, Gnosis also hosts a vast ecosystem of other products and projects, and in this section, we’ll explore a few prominent examples:
- Tokens: Gnosis Chain uses a unique and innovative dual-token model featuring two cryptocurrencies: GNO and xDai. GNO is used for staking, protocol protection, and community governance via the network’s Gnosis Beacon Chain consensus layer. On the other hand, xDai is a stablecoin following the USD. This coin is used for transaction fees and payments on the network.
- CoW: CoW – which is an abbreviation for ”coincidence of wants” – is a permissionless decentralized exchange (DEX) on which users can trade fungible tokens.
- Safe: Safe is a smart wallet platform and infrastructure provider leading the charge for account abstraction on the Ethereum network.
The three examples above only scratch the surface of the Gnosis ecosystem, and the network additionally hosts a variety of other dapps. This means that Gnosis already has an established user base from which you can quickly onboard new users to your projects. And this is yet another reason why you should build on Gnosis Chain.
Nevertheless, that gives you a brief overview of the Gnosis ecosystem. Let’s now explore the easiest way to build on Gnosis Chain!
Top Gnosis Chain API
If you want to build on Gnosis Chain, you should know that the easiest way to do so is to leverage Moralis’ industry-leading Gnosis API suite. Our premier interfaces now support Gnosis Chain, enabling you to seamlessly unlock the full power of the network so you can build dapps both faster and smarter!
But why should you build on Gnosis Chain with Moralis?
To answer the query above, let’s explore the main benefits of Moralis’ Gnosis-compatible API suite:
- Instant Setup: Start building in a heartbeat without the cumbersome process of any preliminary setups.
- Accurate Data: Experience data integrity with consistent and precise information directly from Gnosis Chain.
- Real-Time Data: Keep your users up-to-date with real-time data.
- Indexed Data: Access the data on Gnosis Chain perfectly indexed and ready to use in no time.
- Unparalleled Scalability: Moralis’ Gnosis API suite is built to scale, meaning that our interfaces will have no trouble handling the increase in traffic as your projects grow.
- And more!
So, are you ready to innovate and build the next big dapp on Gnosis Chain? If so, jumpstart your Gnosis Chain journey by signing up with Moralis. You can get an account entirely for free, and you’ll gain immediate access to all the interfaces of Moralis’ Gnosis API suite!
Also, if you’d like to learn more about this, join us in the next section, as we’ll dive deeper into Moralis’ Gnosis-compatible API suite!
Why Build on Gnosis Chain with Moralis?
The Moralis Gnosis API suite comprises multiple industry-leading interfaces for various use cases. So, when working with Moralis, you can build everything from a block explorer to a real-time wallet tracker in a heartbeat!
To highlight the unmatched capabilities of Moralis’ Gnosis API suite, we’ll take a closer look at three of our most prominent interfaces to give you a few examples:
- Blockchain API
- Token API
- Wallet API
So, with no further ado, let’s dive straight into Moralis’ Blockchain API!
Blockchain API
Moralis’ Blockchain API is Web3’s most robust interface for blockchain data. With this industry-leading tool, you can effortlessly unlock the power of blockchain data with pace and precision across all major EVM-compatible blockchain networks, including Gnosis Chain!
With only single lines of code, you can easily get block data, contract events, logs, transactions, and much more. Consequently, when working with the Blockchain API, you can seamlessly build everything from block explorers to real-time trading platforms without breaking a sweat.
To highlight the accessibility of the Blockchain API, we’ll provide three examples of prominent endpoints below:
getBlock()– Get the contents of a block by block number or hash:
const response = await Moralis.EvmApi.block.getBlock({
"chain": "0x64",
"blockNumberOrHash": "23233"
});getTransaction()– Fetch the contents of a transaction by its hash:
const response = await Moralis.EvmApi.transaction.getTransaction({
"chain": "0x64",
"transactionHash": "0x0342ba9dfcfe1ba7047ab988518c27734107cf999e827d0ae3dca97972a025f5"
});getContractLogs()– Query the logs of a contract based on its address:
const response = await Moralis.EvmApi.events.getContractLogs({
"chain": "0x64",
"topic0": "0xddf252ad1be2c89b69c2b068fc378daa952ba7f163c4a11628f55a4df523b3ef",
"address": "0x6A023CCd1ff6F2045C3309768eAd9E68F978f6e1"
});To learn more about how this works, check out our Blockchain API tutorial!
Token API
With the Token API, you can seamlessly add and integrate real-time token prices, wallet balances, transfers, and more into your Web3 projects with only single lines of code. Consequently, when working with Moralis’ Token API, you can build everything from DEXs to token analytic tools in a heartbeat!
Furthermore, the Token API supports every single token across ten+ EVM chains. This includes stablecoins, privacy tokens, meme coins, governance tokens, and much more. And some examples of supported chains are Gnosis, Ethereum, Polygon, etc.
Here are three examples of prominent endpoints to highlight the accessibility and power of Moralis’ Token API:
getTokenPrice()– Get the price of a token denominated in both Gnosis Chain’s native coin and USD:
const response = await Moralis.EvmApi.token.getTokenPrice({
"chain": "0x64",
"address": "0x6A023CCd1ff6F2045C3309768eAd9E68F978f6e1"
});getTokenTransfers()– Query an array of all token transactions of a wallet ordered by block number in descending order:
const response = await Moralis.EvmApi.token.getWalletTokenTransfers({
"chain": "0x64",
"address": "0x7bea4af5d425f2d4485bdad1859c88617df31a67"
});getTokenMetadata()– Fetch metadata – including the name, symbol, decimals, logo, etc. – for a token based on its contract address:
const response = await Moralis.EvmApi.token.getTokenMetadata({
"chain": "0x64",
"addresses": [
"0x177127622c4A00F3d409B75571e12cB3c8973d3c"
]
});To learn more about how this tool works, check out our guide on the #1 API for crypto prices!
Wallet API
Moralis’ Wallet API is the industry’s premier tool for building Web3 wallets and integrating wallet functionality into your dapps. This tool boasts impressive features, unparalleled scalability, and high flexibility, allowing you to build a wide range of dapps!
What’s more, the Wallet API supports over 500 million addresses across all major EVM chains, including Gnosis Chain, Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Smart Chain, and many others. With this tool, you can seamlessly get everything from wallet transactions, native balances, ERC-20 token balances, NFT balances, and much more in a heartbeat.
To highlight the power of the Wallet API, here are three prominent endpoints you’ll likely find helpful when building on Gnosis Chain:
getWalletTransactions()– Query an array of all native transactions of a wallet ordered by block number in descending order:
const response = await Moralis.EvmApi.transaction.getWalletTransactions({
"chain": "0x64",
"address": "0x7bea4af5d425f2d4485bdad1859c88617df31a67"
});getNativeBalance– Fetch the native balance of a wallet by its address:
const response = await Moralis.EvmApi.balance.getNativeBalance({
"chain": "0x64",
"address": "0x7bea4af5d425f2d4485bdad1859c88617df31a67"
});getWalletTokenBalances()– Get an array of all tokens held by a wallet based on its address:
const response = await Moralis.EvmApi.token.getWalletTokenBalances({
"chain": "0x64",
"address": "0x7bea4af5d425f2d4485bdad1859c88617df31a67"
});That’s it for our three examples; if you want to explore all interfaces of Moralis’ Gnosis API suite, check out our Web3 API page!
Moralis’ Gnosis API Use Cases
Now that you have familiarized yourself with Moralis’ Gnosis-compatible API suite, let’s look at what you can build using our industry-leading development tools. Here are a few prominent examples:
- Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs)
- DAO Management Tools
- Staking Platforms
- Secure Wallet Platforms
- Governance Platforms
- Prediction Markets
The use cases above are only a few examples, and with the power of Gnosis Chain and the capabilities of Moralis, the only thing stopping you is your imagination!
Summary: Why Build on Gnosis Chain?
In today’s guide, we kicked things off by exploring the ins and outs of Gnosis Chain. In doing so, we learned that it’s a community-run EVM blockchain network and one of the first Ethereum sidechains!
Why build on Gnosis Chain? As we moved forward in this article, we set out to answer that question! And to do so, we explored some of the network’s most prominent benefits:
- Globally Secured
- Cost-Efficient
- 100% Uptime
- Swift Performance
- EVM-Compatibility
From there, we introduced you to the easiest way to build on Gnosis Chain: Moralis’ Gnosis-compatible Web3 API suite. This suite contains a bunch of industry-leading Web3 APIs that allow you to build everything from DEXs to governance platforms on Gnosis Chain in a heartbeat.
If you liked this Gnosis Chain article, consider checking out more content here on the Moralis Web3 blog. For instance, explore our guide on Polygon PoS vs Polygon zkEVM, or learn how to add the Sepolia network to MetaMask. Also, make sure to check out our Etherscan API alternatives article, how to build a real-time wallet tracker, on-chain wallet tracker, or how to create Chiliz Chain dapps with Moralis’ Chiliz API!
Also, if you’re serious about building Gnosis Chain projects yourself, don’t forget to sign up with Moralis. You can set up an account entirely for free and gain access to all our industry-leading development tools immediately. This will allow you to fully harness the power of Gnosis Chain by enabling you to build dapps more efficiently!
