What is Gnosis Chain?

Gnosis Chain is an Ethereum-compatible blockchain that uses a dollar-pegged token, xDAI, to pay transaction fees, so gas costs stay steady in dollar terms. It is a layer 1 blockchain secured by validators who stake the GNO token. It grew out of the earlier xDai chain, which the xDai and GnosisDAO communities voted to combine with Gnosis in November 2021.

How does Gnosis Chain work?

Gnosis Chain has two token roles. xDAI is the fee token, used for gas and smart contract execution. GNO is the staking token that validators lock up to produce and confirm blocks. Each validator needs a deposit of 1 GNO, and Gnosis says the network has more than 145,000 validators as of November 2026.

Blocks come every 5 seconds, and the docs list finality at about 2.7 minutes. The chain moved to a beacon-chain proof-of-stake design in a merge completed on December 10, 2022, similar to Ethereum's own change. Because it runs the Ethereum Virtual Machine, most Ethereum wallets, tools and smart contracts work on it with little or no change. Apps built on it include Gnosis Pay, and Gnosis says the chain will move to an Ethereum-linked design it calls the Ethereum Economic Zone in 2027.

What is xDAI and how does the Gnosis Chain bridge work?

xDAI is created when DAI is sent from Ethereum to the xDai Bridge, and bridge validators then mint the matching xDAI on Gnosis Chain. Native xDAI is not an ERC-20 token, so apps often use wrapped xDAI (wxDAI) instead.

The docs list three official bridges: the xDai Bridge for DAI and xDAI, the AMB Bridge for messages, and the OmniBridge for other tokens. General bridge risks are covered in how to bridge crypto. Small amounts of xDAI are also available from faucets for testing and first transactions.

How do you add Gnosis Chain to MetaMask?

The quickest route is a one-click add through ChainList, which the Gnosis docs link to. To add it by hand, open MetaMask, choose to add a custom network, and enter:

• Network name: Gnosis
• RPC URL: https://rpc.gnosischain.com
• Chain ID: 100
• Currency symbol: XDAI
• Block explorer: https://gnosisscan.io

The testnet, Chiado, uses chain ID 10200. Always check details against the official docs, since copy-and-paste network settings are a common phishing trick.

What is the Gnosis Chain RPC and explorer?

An RPC endpoint is the server your wallet talks to. The docs list rpc.gnosischain.com and rpc.gnosis.gateway.fm as public endpoints, with more providers on a separate page. To look up transactions, you can use gnosisscan.io or gnosis.blockscout.com. A separate beacon explorer shows validator and staking data. If you are new to explorers, see how to use a blockchain explorer.