The Challenge
Traditional DVN operation requires significant infrastructure:- Maintaining funded wallets on every supported chain
- Acquiring and managing native tokens across diverse blockchains
- Building and maintaining reliable transaction submission systems
- 24/7 monitoring of gas balances, transaction failures, and chain-specific issues
The Gasolina Solution
Gasolina introduces a separation of concerns:
With Gasolina, operators maintain full control over the security-critical aspects while delegating gas logistics to LayerZero’s Essence service.
Architecture
The Gasolina system consists of three components working together:1. DVN Contract (Onchain)
The smart contract deployed on each supported blockchain:- Maintains the list of authorized signer addresses
- Enforces multisig quorum requirements
- Validates signatures before accepting verifications
- Grants ultimate control to the signer quorum
2. Gasolina Service (Offchain)
A lightweight REST API that operators deploy:- Connects to RPC providers for each supported chain
- Verifies source chain events independently
- Waits for required block confirmations
- Signs verification payloads with secure keys
- Returns signatures to requesting parties
- AWS: gasolina-aws
- Google Cloud: gasolina-gcp
3. Essence Service (Gas Abstraction)
LayerZero’s infrastructure that:- Monitors for cross-chain messages requiring verification
- Requests signatures from Gasolina nodes
- Aggregates signatures to meet quorum requirements
- Submits verified transactions onchain
- Handles all gas payments across chains
Message Flow
When a message is sent through LayerZero with a Gasolina DVN configured: Key steps:- OApp emits
PacketSentevent on source chain - Essence monitors for messages requiring Gasolina DVN verification
- Essence waits for required block confirmations
- Essence calls Gasolina API with message details
- Gasolina verifies the event via its own RPC providers
- Gasolina signs the payload after confirming finality
- Essence submits signatures to DVN contract on destination
- DVN contract validates signatures against registered signers
Signer Sovereignty
A key design principle of Gasolina is that signers maintain ultimate control over the DVN. This is enforced through the contract architecture:Key Guarantees
- Signer set is sovereign: The signer quorum has complete control over the DVN, including the ability to change admins, modify the signer set, and adjust quorum thresholds.
-
Admin role is delegated authority: While Essence typically holds the admin role for gas-efficient operations, this is a revocable privilege. Signers can use
quorumChangeAdminto reassign this role at any time. - No external dependencies for control: The DVN cannot be held hostage by any party, including LayerZero. If Essence becomes unavailable, signers can immediately take over transaction submission.
- Quorum prevents single-key compromise: An attacker would need to compromise more than the configured threshold of signer keys to control the DVN.
Emergency Takeover
If signers need to take direct control:- Generate a signed
quorumChangeAdmininstruction - Submit directly to the DVN contract (no Essence required)
- Assign admin role to an operator-controlled address
- Resume operations with full control
Security Model
The Gasolina architecture ensures security through separation of concerns:Gasolina Operator Responsibilities
Essence Responsibilities
Benefits
For Security Providers
For OApp Developers
When to Choose Gasolina
Ideal Use Cases
- Professional security providers entering the DVN space
- Organizations without existing multi-chain infrastructure
- Teams wanting to focus on verification quality over operations
- Multi-signature security models requiring distributed trust
- Rapid deployment and proof-of-concept scenarios
Consider Traditional DVN When
- You need complete control over every operational aspect
- Custom gas optimization strategies are required
- Regulatory requirements mandate full infrastructure control
Getting Started
Prerequisites
- Cloud provider account: AWS or Google Cloud
- RPC providers: Reliable endpoints for each chain you’ll support (2+ per chain recommended)
- Development tools: Node.js, Git, cloud CLI tools
Quick Setup Overview
- Clone the infrastructure repository (AWS or GCP)
- Configure your signer type (mnemonic or HSM-backed)
- Add RPC providers for supported chains
- Deploy using CDK (AWS) or Terraform (GCP)
- Share your Gasolina URL with LayerZero for contract deployment
- Receive DVN contract addresses for OApp configuration
Repository Links
Next Steps
- Implementation Guide - Step-by-step deployment instructions
- DVN Technical Reference - Contract methods, events, and errors
- DVN Overview - General DVN concepts
- Security Stack DVNs - How OApps configure DVNs