Case Study: Mithraeum

Zyfi's integration with the fully on-chain game Mithraeum marks a major breakthrough in blockchain gaming, enabling uninterrupted gameplay by eliminating gas fee payments.

What's Mithraeum?

Mithraeum is a fully decentralized, real-time strategy game recently launched on ZKsync, incorporating core blockchain principles like decentralization. In Mithraeum, players are immersed in historical periods, participating in large battles, sieges, and alliances on a unique world map.

The game is supported by prominent blockchain partners, including Gnosis Chain, Arbitrum, ZKsync, and is dedicated to maintaining decentralization while allowing community contributions to its development.

Despite its decentralization, Mithraeum faces a significant challenge: gas fees. Every action performed on-chain requires a transaction, leading to frequent gas fee payments that can disrupt gameplay and diminish the user experience. Users often encounter numerous MetaMask pop-ups to approve transactions and pay gas fees, which detracts from the game's immersion and appeal.

Zyfi: Paymaster on ZKsync

Zyfi offers a solution to these issues on ZKsync. By leveraging ZKsync’s native Account Abstraction (AA) and Zyfi's sponsored paymaster, Mithraeum users can avoid gas fees entirely, providing a smooth, uninterrupted experience. Zyfi's paymaster smart contracts cover the gas costs for users' transactions, allowing Mithraeum to deliver a seamless gaming experience without frequent interruptions for gas payments.

As part of the launch initiative, Zyfi has sponsored 20,000 gas-free transactions, equivalent to $2,000 worth of gas. This initial funding ensures that early Mithraeum users can enjoy the game without worrying about transaction costs, thereby boosting adoption and engagement within the Mithraeum ecosystem.

Overview of the Mithraeum on-chain game.

UX/UI Implementation and Sybil Prevention

The UX/UI implementation time depends on the design choices. As a gaming platform, Mithraeum decided to use the sponsored paymaster:

• Full Sponsorship: They chose to cover 100% of gas fees for users to ensure a seamless experience.

• Sybil Prevention: To prevent Sybil attacks, they implemented a credit system per address, allowing each user to enjoy a certain number of free transactions.

• UI Update: A simple checker (see image below) at the beginning of the game was added to let users choose if they want to enjoy free transactions or not.

The UX/UI implementation for Mithraeum took around 1 development day to complete, with sybil prevention being one of their biggest concerns. The credit system for each address was an effective method to offer the best on-chain gaming experience while preventing Sybil attacks.

Onboard Step into the Mithraeum game where users can decide to activate gas-free fees.

Conclusion

The integration of Zyfi's paymaster solution into Mithraeum significantly enhances the user experience by eliminating gas fee interruptions, addressing one of the major barriers to on-chain gaming. This approach also allows Mithraeum to remain committed to its decentralized principles while offering a smooth and engaging experience.