Paymaster: The Secret to Making dApps Feel Like Web2

Paymaster is a Starknet-native feature—pioneered by AVNU—that abstracts away gas fees by letting users pay with tokens like USDC or USDT instead of ETH or STRK. It supports both gasless (user pays with non-native tokens) and gas-free (dApp sponsors the fee) transactions, dramatically improving onboarding and UX for Web3 apps.

Key Ideas

Flexible gas payments and sponsorship: Paymaster enables dApps to cover gas fees or let users pay with supported tokens. This removes the ETH/STRK barrier, simplifies onboarding, and makes dApps feel more like Web2 apps.
Developer-friendly integration: AVNU’s Paymaster SDK supports both default and sponsored modes, with optional API keys for advanced features. It’s compatible with SNIP-9 accounts and SNIP-29-compliant backends, making it easy to integrate into Starknet apps using tools like starknet.js or Starknet React.