How to Use a
Crypto Bridge
If you’re new to the cryptocurrency world, you may be wondering what a “crypto bridge” is.
Crypto bridges, blockchain bridges, or just bridges, are tools that let you move your crypto assets from one blockchain to another.
You may want to bridge assets to take advantage of performance benefits on different chains, such as faster speeds or lowest transaction costs. There are also certain assets and protocols that are only available on select blockchains. If you want to use these, well, bridging is your answer!
Even though bridging is one of the most fundamental skills in DeFi, it can be tricky to get the hang of at first, and one wrong move can render your assets lost and unrecoverable!
Let’s jump in and learn how to bridge so you can start exploring the thousands of exciting dApps on the market today.
Quick Start – The Easy Version
In a bit we’ll outline the full process to move assets from one place to another, but if you don’t want to take the time to plot the most efficient route like a road trip using Mapquest in 1998, there’s an easier option!
To quickly move assets to and from Boba, simply go to bobabridges.com. Select if you’re bridging to or from Boba, and select the source or destination chain from the drop-down menu.
The tool will automatically populate the available bridges, and even show you which tokens are available to bridge! Simply click the link to be redirected to the bridge.
Step 1. Identify Your Destination Chain and End Asset
The most important thing to remember when planning a bridge transaction is that planning is the most important part! It’s possible to get stuck with assets on a chain where you don’t have gas tokens, there’s no liquidity for your assets, or even worse, get stuck on the wrong end of a one-way bridge path. Make sure you know what assets you’re moving, where they’re going and how they’re getting there, all before you click confirm on the first transaction.
Whether you’re wanting to bridge to try out a hot game, mint that new NFT, or try out the DeFi dApp that’s only available on select chains, figuring out where you’re headed is the first step.
Step 2. Identify Your Bridge Options
This is one of the hardest steps, because there are so many great bridges out there!
If you’re coming to or from Boba, you can start at bobabridges.com to quickly find all the available bridges.
Another good place to start is gateway.boba.network. Visit the ecosystem tab and select bridges to display all of Boba’s official bridge partners!
Boba’s Official Bridge Partners:
BoringDAO – Safely move your Bitcoin & other crypto assets between Ethereum and different blockchains to maximize utilization rate of crypto assets in DeFi world.
Multichain (formerly Anyswap) – Cross-Chain Router Protocol, envisioned to be the ultimate router for Web3.
Synapse – A widely used cross-chain liquidity network connecting all blockchains.
LayerSwap – Bridge Crypto from CEX to Layer2 faster and cheaper.
Across – Across is a fast, cheap, and secure bridge between L1 and L2s.
We’ve listed some other bridges below, but please note these are not official partners of Boba and their inclusion here do not serve as official endorsements. They are provided simply as a resource: please do your own research and understand the risks associated with using any protocol before using!
cBridge – “cBridge is a multi-chain, cross-layer asset bridge offering instant transfer with the most number of chains, lowest fee and zero trust.”
EvoDefi – “Cross-chain ecosystem with the best bridge in DeFi.”
Hop Protocol – “A protocol for sending tokens across rollups and their shared layer-1 network in a quick and trustless manner.”
Bridge Fees
Bridges typically charge a fee to use their service, and there may also be slippage depending on the bridge liquidity. It’s worth punching your numbers into a couple different bridges to see which one makes the most sense for you.
What Tokens Can I Bridge?
Not all bridges offer the same token options, so unless you’re using a bridge aggregator tool like bobabridges.com, you might have to check a few different bridges to find the right one for you!
Step 3. Plot the Most Efficient Route
Say you have ETH, but you want to wind up with USDC in the end.
Should you swap your ETH first to USDC and then bridge? Bridge and then swap? Take two bridges and swap in the middle?
The answer to that will largely depend on liquidity on your source and destination chains, plus the bridge fees and liquidity. Use a tool like dexscreener.com to check the liquidity on various DEXs. Sort by liquidity to quickly identify the most liquid pairs.
In the example above, you can see that on OolongSwap on Boba Network, USDC/WETH has $5.7M liquidity.
Meanwhile, over on Ethereum, Uniswap has more than $220M for the same pair.
Now you can visit Uniswap and OolongSwap, punch in a test transaction, and see if your slippage + gas fees are better on one side or the other.
Step 4. Cross the Bridge
Once you’ve calculated the most economical route, considering bridge and DEX costs, you’re ready to make the transaction!
- Go to the bridge site
- Select your “From” chain
- Select your “To” chain
- Select your “From” asset
- Select your “To” asset
- Approve the transaction
In the example below, we’re showing a sample transaction of 1 ETH from Ethereum to WETH on Boba Network using Synapse.
Before approving anything, double check to make sure the amount you’re receiving matches your expectations – in the example above we’re sending 1ETH and receiving ~0.99 WETH, so everything checks out!
If it’s the first time you’re using this token on this bridge, you’ll have two transactions to approve – first to give the bridge permission to use the token, and second to make the transaction itself.
After that, you just have to wait! Take a deep breath – if you did everything right, your funds should arrive soon. Most bridges will give some sort of tracking system to show you the status of your transaction, plus you can always check the status on-chain if you know how to read tools such as Etherscan.
Test Transactions
Anytime you’re using a new bridge or doing something important or with larger amounts, it’s usually a good practice to do a test transaction first. Send a small amount just to make sure everything works as expected. This will give you a lot of peace of mind while you wait for your assets to arrive later on, and help avoid any surprises!
Expert Mode
Some bridge dApps, like DEXs, have a feature called Expert Mode, which allows for added control of your transaction, such as setting a different receiving address than your sending address. If you decide to use Expert Mode features, make sure you know what you’re doing!
Conclusion
Even though bridging can be scary at first, it’s a fundamental DeFi skill, and it’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. There are lots of opportunities and cool things to do once you have the confidence to move your assets around as you wish!
Have questions? Let us know on Twitter or jump in our Discord, we’re always happy to help!
About Boba Network
Boba Network is an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution and hybrid compute platform offering lightning fast transactions and fees up to 60x less than Ethereum.
Our Hybrid Compute brings the power of Web2 on-chain, with smarter smart contracts that allow developers and creators to leverage off-chain compute and real-world data to offer an enriched experience unlike anything else on the market today.
We’re delivering a faster, cheaper, smarter experience for Ethereum’s next billion users.
How to Use a
Crypto Bridge
If you’re new to the cryptocurrency world, you may be wondering what a “crypto bridge” is.
Crypto bridges, blockchain bridges, or just bridges, are tools that let you move your crypto assets from one blockchain to another.
You may want to bridge assets to take advantage of performance benefits on different chains, such as faster speeds or lowest transaction costs. There are also certain assets and protocols that are only available on select blockchains. If you want to use these, well, bridging is your answer!
Even though bridging is one of the most fundamental skills in DeFi, it can be tricky to get the hang of at first, and one wrong move can render your assets lost and unrecoverable!
Let’s jump in and learn how to bridge so you can start exploring the thousands of exciting dApps on the market today.
Quick Start – The Easy Version
In a bit we’ll outline the full process to move assets from one place to another, but if you don’t want to take the time to plot the most efficient route like a road trip using Mapquest in 1998, there’s an easier option!
To quickly move assets to and from Boba, simply go to bobabridges.com. Select if you’re bridging to or from Boba, and select the source or destination chain from the drop-down menu.
The tool will automatically populate the available bridges, and even show you which tokens are available to bridge! Simply click the link to be redirected to the bridge.
Step 1. Identify Your Destination Chain and End Asset
The most important thing to remember when planning a bridge transaction is that planning is the most important part! It’s possible to get stuck with assets on a chain where you don’t have gas tokens, there’s no liquidity for your assets, or even worse, get stuck on the wrong end of a one-way bridge path. Make sure you know what assets you’re moving, where they’re going and how they’re getting there, all before you click confirm on the first transaction.
Whether you’re wanting to bridge to try out a hot game, mint that new NFT, or try out the DeFi dApp that’s only available on select chains, figuring out where you’re headed is the first step.
Step 2. Identify Your Bridge Options
This is one of the hardest steps, because there are so many great bridges out there!
If you’re coming to or from Boba, you can start at bobabridges.com to quickly find all the available bridges.
Another good place to start is gateway.boba.network. Visit the ecosystem tab and select bridges to display all of Boba’s official bridge partners!
Boba’s Official Bridge Partners:
BoringDAO – Safely move your Bitcoin & other crypto assets between Ethereum and different blockchains to maximize utilization rate of crypto assets in DeFi world.
Multichain (formerly Anyswap) – Cross-Chain Router Protocol, envisioned to be the ultimate router for Web3.
Synapse – A widely used cross-chain liquidity network connecting all blockchains.
LayerSwap – Bridge Crypto from CEX to Layer2 faster and cheaper.
Across – Across is a fast, cheap, and secure bridge between L1 and L2s.
We’ve listed some other bridges below, but please note these are not official partners of Boba and their inclusion here do not serve as official endorsements. They are provided simply as a resource: please do your own research and understand the risks associated with using any protocol before using!
cBridge – “cBridge is a multi-chain, cross-layer asset bridge offering instant transfer with the most number of chains, lowest fee and zero trust.”
EvoDefi – “Cross-chain ecosystem with the best bridge in DeFi.”
Hop Protocol – “A protocol for sending tokens across rollups and their shared layer-1 network in a quick and trustless manner.”
Bridge Fees
Bridges typically charge a fee to use their service, and there may also be slippage depending on the bridge liquidity. It’s worth punching your numbers into a couple different bridges to see which one makes the most sense for you.
What Tokens Can I Bridge?
Not all bridges offer the same token options, so unless you’re using a bridge aggregator tool like bobabridges.com, you might have to check a few different bridges to find the right one for you!
Step 3. Plot the Most Efficient Route
Say you have ETH, but you want to wind up with USDC in the end.
Should you swap your ETH first to USDC and then bridge? Bridge and then swap? Take two bridges and swap in the middle?
The answer to that will largely depend on liquidity on your source and destination chains, plus the bridge fees and liquidity. Use a tool like dexscreener.com to check the liquidity on various DEXs. Sort by liquidity to quickly identify the most liquid pairs.
In the example above, you can see that on OolongSwap on Boba Network, USDC/WETH has $5.7M liquidity.
Meanwhile, over on Ethereum, Uniswap has more than $220M for the same pair.
Now you can visit Uniswap and OolongSwap, punch in a test transaction, and see if your slippage + gas fees are better on one side or the other.
Step 4. Cross the Bridge
Once you’ve calculated the most economical route, considering bridge and DEX costs, you’re ready to make the transaction!
- Go to the bridge site
- Select your “From” chain
- Select your “To” chain
- Select your “From” asset
- Select your “To” asset
- Approve the transaction
In the example below, we’re showing a sample transaction of 1 ETH from Ethereum to WETH on Boba Network using Synapse.
Before approving anything, double check to make sure the amount you’re receiving matches your expectations – in the example above we’re sending 1ETH and receiving ~0.99 WETH, so everything checks out!
If it’s the first time you’re using this token on this bridge, you’ll have two transactions to approve – first to give the bridge permission to use the token, and second to make the transaction itself.
After that, you just have to wait! Take a deep breath – if you did everything right, your funds should arrive soon. Most bridges will give some sort of tracking system to show you the status of your transaction, plus you can always check the status on-chain if you know how to read tools such as Etherscan.
Test Transactions
Anytime you’re using a new bridge or doing something important or with larger amounts, it’s usually a good practice to do a test transaction first. Send a small amount just to make sure everything works as expected. This will give you a lot of peace of mind while you wait for your assets to arrive later on, and help avoid any surprises!
Expert Mode
Some bridge dApps, like DEXs, have a feature called Expert Mode, which allows for added control of your transaction, such as setting a different receiving address than your sending address. If you decide to use Expert Mode features, make sure you know what you’re doing!
Conclusion
Even though bridging can be scary at first, it’s a fundamental DeFi skill, and it’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. There are lots of opportunities and cool things to do once you have the confidence to move your assets around as you wish!
Have questions? Let us know on Twitter or jump in our Discord, we’re always happy to help!
About Boba Network
Boba Network is an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution and hybrid compute platform offering lightning fast transactions and fees up to 60x less than Ethereum.
Our Hybrid Compute brings the power of Web2 on-chain, with smarter smart contracts that allow developers and creators to leverage off-chain compute and real-world data to offer an enriched experience unlike anything else on the market today.
We’re delivering a faster, cheaper, smarter experience for Ethereum’s next billion users.
