How To Use Ethereum Scaling Arbitrum Bridge To Escape High Fees

Arbitrum One publicly deployed its beta version of the Ethereum L2 scaling solution alongside the Arbitrum bridge onto the mainnet on Sep 01. This is a significant attempt to scale the Ethereum blockchain using the roll-ups technology and will have long-lasting effects on the smart contract platform’s future. A lot of users recently got priced out of the Ethereum blockchain, because of high fees and slow tx times. Arbitrum is attempting to solve that in a decentralized manner, inheriting full security from the Ethereum base layer. Let’s see how to use the Arbitrum bridge to migrate funds over to the other side.

What is Ethereum Blockchain?

The Ethereum mainnet launched in 2015. The biggest pioneers in the development of Ethereum were Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood and Jeffrey Wilke. The market capitalization grew very fast and it didn’t take too long before ETH was one of the biggest projects in the cryptocurrency space.

Ethereum started with the same consensus mechanism as Bitcoin did, the proof-of-work. But the project wants to shift to proof-of-stake. At Ethereum, this new protocol is named Casper. Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum has a Turing-complete virtual machine. This machine can be used to create impactful decentralized programs, better known as smart contracts. These programs are written down on the blockchain with transactions. The users then should be able to access the features of these programs via transactions. With this, the conditions of the program can be changed depending on the logic and situations. 

What is Arbitrum One

Arbitrum One is an Ethereum scaling solution, utilizing the roll-ups solutions to super-scale the world’s largest smart contracts blockchain. It’s directly secured by the Ethereum base layer and doesn’t have its own proprietary token. The EVM compatibility is there and Arbitrum supports Ethereum RPC interfaces too. Arbitrum reduces tx cost and speeds up tx processing time. It allows sending funds over to the other side through Arbitrum bridge.

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How To Add Arbitrum Bridge Onto MetaMask

1. Visit Arbiscan, scroll down, and click Add Arbitrum Network. Authorize via MetaMask.

2. Alternatively, you can manually enter the following information in the Custom RPC addition feature on MetaMask.

• Network Name: Arb1
• RPC: https://arb1.arbitrum.io/rpc
• Chain ID: 42161
• Currency Symbol: ETH
• Block Explorer URL: https://arbiscan.io

Sending Funds Over Arbitrum Bridge

1. Access Arbitrum Bridge here.

2. If you installed your MetaMask, it will now show you a prompt to connect your wallet. If not, please connect it manually by opening the MetaMask screen. Then, enter the amount of ETH to send across the bridge.

3. Click deposit. The system will show the following prompt. Click Proceed.

4. Authorize the tx on your MetaMask wallet.

5. Wait for the transaction to be confirmed on the blockchain. Congratulation! Your funds have been sent over to the Arbitrum Bridge. The deposited Ether can be withdrawn from the second box. If you want to deposit Ethereum based tokens, select ERC-20, open Add Token dialog box and enter the contract address. You can find them on CoinGecko. Select the amount and click deposit. Authorize transaction.

What can you do now with the funds after sending them over the Arbitrum bridge? Check out this list on Arbitrum Portal. You can open any DApp available there, then simply select the Arbitrum Network on your MetaMask and start enjoying the low fees / fast tx times on the Arbitrum L2 Ethereum scaling solution. You can try Uniswap, Sushiswap, Aave, Balancer, etc. The product is still under beta, so be careful. All withdrawals take around a week or seven days to be processed and sent back to the base layer.

Does Arbitrum One have a Token?

The protocol Arbitrum does not have a token currently. Rather than having its own native token, users pay rollups transactions via ETHER (ETH). There is no current information about an upcoming native token, even from the creators of the project “Offchain Labs”.