Do I need to purchase cryptocurrency?

You do not need to purchase any Ether, token or cryptocurrency to run environments and execute transactions. Kaleido provides private blockchain implementations. Transactions must specify a value to the gas parameter in order to be a properly formed object, however, unlike typical Mainnet transactions, the gasPrice parameter can be set to 0. In scenarios where transaction fees are desired, members can take advantage of the Kaleido Ether Pool; an environment-specific pool of 1 Billion ether, that is automatically generated in the genesis block of the chain. Any member of the consortium can access this pool through the UI or via the /fundaccount API. The pool can be utilized in one of two ways. Users can access the ether on a need-by-need basis, or the pool can be immediately drained by the environment creator and then disseminated in accordance with some agreed upon policies.