Quicknode

May 19, 2026 — 5 min read

Consumer apps die at the gas step. Users sign up, get to the wallet prompt, see "approve gas fee," and leave. Onchain teams have been routing around this for years with custom relayers, off-chain signers, and brittle in-house infrastructure that's expensive to build and harder to operate.

Quicknode and Hedera are removing that step entirely. Hedera built native paymaster support into its JSON-RPC relay. Quicknode operates it in production. This is the first production deployment of Hedera's multi-paymaster relay feature, which shipped in Hiero JSON-RPC Relay v0.75.

What Are Sponsored Transactions on Hedera?

Sponsored Transactions let you pay gas for your users from a funded HBAR wallet, against a whitelist of contracts you control. No bundler infrastructure. No custom relayer. No off-chain signing service.

It runs on Hedera's native paymaster support in the Hiero JSON-RPC Relay, deployed and operated by Quicknode across mainnet and testnet. You bring the HBAR. We run the relay.

Hedera processes transactions in 3 seconds with fixed, predictable fees. The chain itself is already a good fit for consumer applications. Gas sponsorship was the missing piece.

Account abstraction on EVM chains achieves the same outcome through ERC-4337: bundlers, paymasters, and smart contract wallets. Hedera takes a different path. Sponsorship is built directly into the JSON-RPC relay. No bundler. No EntryPoint contract. No UserOps. Just standard EVM transactions with the gas payer abstracted away.

Key Features

• No Gas Prompts for End Users: Users sign transactions without holding HBAR. They never see a gas prompt, never bridge, and never top up.

• Per-Contract Whitelisting: You control which contracts get sponsored. Per-contract whitelist, per-account spending caps, no general-purpose gas drain.

• Fully Managed Relay: Quicknode runs the relay, applies the whitelist, and submits signed transactions to Hedera.

• BitGo Custody: Your sponsor wallet stays in your BitGo custody. Quicknode never holds the keys to your HBAR account.

• One-Line Integration: No SDK migration, no new wallet flow, no new signing pattern. Set gasPrice: 0 and the relay handles the rest.

• Mainnet and Testnet Support: Available across both networks with low-latency routing from Quicknode's global infrastructure.

How It Works

Three components do the work, with custody you control:

• Your Sponsor-Funded HBAR Account: Custodied in BitGo. You top it up and set the spending cap. Quicknode never holds the keys to your sponsor wallet.

• The Quicknode-Operated Hiero JSON-RPC Relay: Matches each incoming transaction against the contracts you've whitelisted and draws the gas fee from your BitGo-custodied HBAR account.

• Hedera Settlement: The network settles the transaction with the gas paid by your wallet, not the end user's.

The integration is a one-line change for developers already on Hedera EVM:
javascript

// Before
const tx = await contract.mint(tokenId, { gasPrice: ethers.parseUnits("1", "gwei") })

// After, paymaster pays
const tx = await contract.mint(tokenId, { gasPrice: 0 })

Setting gasPrice to 0 is the signal. The relay checks your contract is on the whitelist, draws the gas fee from your BitGo-custodied HBAR account, and submits the transaction. Standard ethers, Viem, or web3.js code, with one parameter changed.

What You Can Build with Sponsored Transactions

• Branded NFT Drops: Large-IP brands running seasonal mint campaigns where end users mint without ever touching HBAR.

• Consumer Onboarding Flows: Apps abstracting the wallet experience entirely behind email or social login.

• Marketplace Transactions: Secondary trades where the marketplace operator sponsors gas to remove friction.

• Agentic Payment Flows: Automated systems and AI agents transacting at machine speed without managing gas balances.

The shared pattern: teams building for non-crypto-native users, who need the chain to disappear from the UX. This is the same builder motion driving account abstraction on EVM and gasless transactions on Solana via Kora. Quicknode now offers the equivalent primitive on Hedera, operated end-to-end.

Why Builders Choose Quicknode for Hedera

• Enterprise SLAs: 99.99% uptime SLA on enterprise plans, backed by Quicknode's globally distributed infrastructure.

• Fast Onboarding: Under 1 business day to whitelist a new contract or activate Sponsored Transactions on a new account.

• Spending Controls: Per-account HBAR allowance caps so no single contract can drain your wallet.

• Custody You Control: Sponsor wallet custodied in BitGo. You hold the keys, Quicknode never touches your HBAR account credentials.

• Unified Dashboard: Manage Hedera alongside your other blockchain endpoints and Marketplace add-ons in a single interface.

Get Started

Hedera Sponsored Transactions are available on Quicknode enterprise plans. If you're building consumer apps, NFT drops, or any onchain product where gas friction is killing your conversion rate, this is the fastest path to remove it.

Start Building on Hedera with Quicknode