Taiko just made covering someone else's gas break even. Actually doing it is still optional.
On Oct 19 the based rollup executed a DAO proposal raising block proposers' share of the L2 base fee from 75% to 100%. Users pay exactly the same.
Why it matters: a proposer sponsoring a user's gas used to get only three quarters back, so every "gasless" transaction was a guaranteed loss. Now the round trip is exact. Taiko's own words: it "doesn't commit anyone to offering it."
The same proposal rotated the chain's provers to raiko2 v0.9.0 across RISC0, SP1 and SGX. Proofs from the old version are no longer accepted.
The excuse for not doing gasless onboarding is gone. The volunteers are pending.