Users interact with dapps without tokens

The biggest hurdle almost all blockchain face is the need to create a wallet and hold tokens if users want to interact with smart contracts. Once a user created a wallet and loaded it with tokens, they are required to pay for each interaction with smart contracts in the form of gas fees. The Internet Computer allows users to interact with canister smart contracts without the need for any wallets by employing several unique design choices.

Reverse Gas Model (AKA "canister pays")

Internet Computer dapps adopt a "Reverse Gas model" where developers load canisters with computation cycles in advance which in turn allows users to interact with a dapp without having to pay in tokens. Cycles are stable in cost are obtained by converting ICP tokens. This allows developers to know in advance how much they will need to spend on computation.

As an example, the Motoko Playground dapp is hosted and executed entirely on-chain and it does not require visitors to pay for the computation: https://m7sm4-2iaaa-aaaab-qabra-cai.raw.ic0.app/. The Internet Identity app is also a free to use application running on the IC.

Examples

There are many IC applications that allow to interact without tokens. One of the forerunning apps is Internet Identity app which allows to authenticate to many other apps. NFT Marketplaces like Entrepot allow to sign in with various wallets without the need of tokens.