One of the core design goals of Althea L1 is to support machine-to-machine payments, in stablecoins, with high reliability and low operational difficulty. Every component of the chain has been evaluated with this goal in mind, including the iFi DEX and the EVM entry and exit points.

A key challenge in this design is preventing both users and automated systems from being stranded without ALTHEA tokens to pay gas. No one wants a smart electric car charger that requires "dust" (tiny amounts of gas tokens) before it can function.

The Althea L1 Whitepaper covers why paying gas in ALTHEA is essential to operate a sustainable operating environment in a programmable blockchain.Given these requirements we set out to ensure that every component in the Althea L1 ecosystem supported delegated gas (permit) transactions. Where a user or machine can create and sign a transaction that pays a tip, using the tokens they have, to a relayer who pays the actual fee in ALTHEA when submitting the transaction.

This post will cover the various components and strategies we have implemented to enable users to pay transaction fees with stablecoins, or a token of their choice at every step of their on-chain journey.

Bridge In, Bridge Out

As discussed in the original Althea L1 design blog, the chain features two execution environments that coexist within a single blockchain. When a bridge transfer arrives on Althea L1—whether from Ethereum via Gravity Bridge or from any IBC-compatible chain—tokens from that transaction can be used in either the MicroTX environment or within the EVM.

The MicroTX module on Althea L1 directly accepts governance-approved stablecoins as fees. This allows automated machine-to-machine payments to begin immediately upon bridging, with no need for token swaps or additional actions.

All other transactions do require ALTHEA for fees. These are handled through either EIP712 permit transactions or Cosmos SDK transaction tips. Both of these are methods where a user can sign a tx paying fees in a token of their choice and have a relayer submit the actual transaction.

This is where EIP-712 is applicable. Both the iFi DEX and the native ERC-20 implementations for bridged tokens support delegated transaction fees, allowing users to pay for swaps using the assets they’ve bridged in—without needing to acquire ALTHEA first.

If a user only needs to perform a single swap and then exit the EVM, they can swap and return to the MicroTx layer without directly paying gas fees. Once out of the EVM, users can bridge out of the chain using a Cosmos SDK transaction tip funded IBC send.The iFi DEX is just the first DeFi application on Althea L1. Moving forward, we strongly encourage all iFi ecosystem applications to implement the EIP-712 standard and integrate with Althea L1’s relaying infrastructure.

Canonical Relaying Infrastructure

Without an active marketplace of transaction relayers, EIP-712 or Cosmos tip transactions wouldn’t be that practical.In the past the relaying infrastructure like this has been exclusively the domain of the app operator. With each app operator making their own infrastructure and backend to execute the transactions. For Althea L1 this is insufficient. 

Althea L1 users can submit their transaction to any one of several “indexing” endpoints. These endpoints do not perform the relaying themselves. Instead, they validate transactions and serve the set of submitted transactions for any relayer to request and relay.

By creating this separation between the relayer and the indexer, and providing them as infrastructure rather than a bespoke part of an application, relayers can easily enter and exit a market that represents the combined relaying needs of all applications on Althea L1 with no significant barrier to entry beyond setting up the reference relayer implementation.

Indexers, on the other hand, offer a low-cost public service by simplifying the user experience. Instead of requiring users to hunt for active relayers, they can submit their transaction to one or two indexers and be assured that it will reach every available relayer.

On-Chain Indexer List

Althea L1 governance can provide a canonical list of active indexers through a simple smart contract. This allows DeFi applications on Althea L1 to fetch the latest indexer list dynamically, rather than hardcoding a list of indexers that may change over time.

This ensures long-term reliability and makes it easier for new relayers to integrate seamlessly into the network.

Conclusion

Building sustainable blockchain infrastructure requires long-term vision. Instead of rushing to launch quick fixes like a token faucet, Althea L1 is creating an ecosystem where permit transactions are seamlessly integrated at every level and the flow of these transactions is open to a relayer community.

A true machine economy demands automation, reliability, and seamless execution. Each point of friction that requires human intervention diminishes the value of decentralized innovation.

By designing long-term solutions for fee payments, relaying, and governance, Althea L1 ensures that developers can build high-reliability applications—without being blocked by bootstrapping limitations.