HELLO CAPPIES! Few months is a long time in crypto land and the exciting news is the launch of Ethereum Layer 2 — Arbitrum. Arbitrum will bring scalability to a whole new level on Ethereum and gas fees will be alot more affordable for the retail and defi degens. This is an absolute game changer and I would imagine there will be a lot more lucrative farms, yield optimizers, innovative protocols and money-making opportunities on Arbitrum in the upcoming weeks.
Drawback
However, the drawback for Arbitrum is in its “fraud-proof” mechanism which takes at least 7 days. In other words, this would mean any standard withdrawal from Arbitrum (L2) to Ethereum (L1) takes at least 7 days via the official Arbitrum bridge. 7 days is an eternity in crypto land BUT trust the community to create various magical bridges 🌉 to make bridging assets (from L1-L2 and L2-L1) as fast as it can be! #TheGrowthofThirdPartyBridges
Third-party bridges for Arbitrum
*Spoiler alert: DeGate bridge is by far the best so far!*
I stumbled upon this bridge discussion on Reddit and I decided to set out and find the BEST bridge to bridge assets on to and off Arbitrum (L1->L2 and L2->L1). Some factors to consider includes;
- Time needed to complete transaction
- Assets received
- Cost of gas fees
- Ease of use
Summary of bridges
I understand you guys probably do not have the time to read through the entire article so I have attached a quick summary above. DeGate bridge performed the best, followed by Hop Exchange and Synapse Protocol. Details of my entire user experience on the various bridges can be found below! 🤨
DeGate Bridge
Overall: The website is pretty simple and clean. Would prefer something more crypto or modern-looking though. Instructions were clear and the website was easy to navigate. The bridge works VERY WELL! Gas fees were the lowest, speed was reasonable and transactions were all accurately shown on both etherscan and arbiscan. I got EXTRA ETH while bridging from L1–>L2 too. #freemoney
Note: DeGate did not mention which countries the Bridge was available in, I had to use a VPN in order to access the bridge, try NordVPN — its my favorite so far!
L1–>L2 process
L2–>L1 process
DeGate bridge was fairly straightforward to use. Another plus point — I also get to see all my input/output transactions in my Metamask activity which made me feel safe. I noticed the slippage was VERY high if I were to bridge above 10 ETH, do take note if you are a whale 🐳 and bridging higher amounts of ETH.
Transactions:
L1->L2: https://etherscan.io/tx/0x89665eb56f02c20154f09bf438d986435ad8bd543d6ffa506b6afc394e8699a9
L2->L1:
https://arbiscan.io/tx/0x302e884283eb86c906805df077dfcd9a424ecc8b4ffaf380c410f092d6c18ab1
Hop Exchange
Overall: Another clean and refreshing website! Fonts were big and clear which definitely helps brings the user experience to another level. The bridge works VERY WELL too! Only negative point was that I noticed the gas fees were much higher than DeGate, I am not sure how the bridges work backend but it is definitely a fairly important point to defi users from a cost perspective. Anyhow, I got EXTRA ETH while bridging from L1–>L2 too so not too complaints from me😆
L1–>L2 process
L2–>L1 process
The bridge on Hop Exchange was another positive experience. They have more assets on their bridge too such as DAI, USDT, MATIC which might appeal to more users. Slippage was equally good at amounts above 10 ETH too!
Transactions:
L1->L2:
https://etherscan.io/tx/0x110405548d083c87737e6f693374e32b151ba46f26dae842018e3ebb99456dd4
L2->L1:
https://arbiscan.io/tx/0x962d4f55f2ef4a614ab40b8929d1bad581102634c590c616e70f464d30c2c154
Celer Bridge
Overall: The experience was less than desirable on the c-bridge.. There was a bridge volume tracker on the website which offered me some comfort though! #ComfortInTheMasses Website is clean and direct but the user experience was very poor. There were a couple of instances where I had to perform more transactions which made me “lose money”. For example,
- c-Bridge only accepts WETH. Had to spend $16 to wrap/unwrap on SushiSwap. WETH cannot be used to pay gas fees on ETH/ARBI.. 😭
- Had to pay extra transaction fees to “release funds” on c-Bridge
Note: c-Bridge have other assets such as USDC, USDT etc. But using c-Bridge to bridge your ETH over is definitely not ideal for defi users.
L1–>L2 process (Part 1)
L1–>L2 process (Part 2)
L2–>L1 process
c-Bridge was very diffcult to use. The user flow was so complicated with the various approval steps, release funds steps, wrap/unwrap steps which will confuse any new defi users. Not a pleasant experience at all.
Note: I was bridging ETH over, so the experience might improve if I were to bridge stablecoins.
Transactions:
L1->L2: 0x4c42def5b70a8f5c723d7fbfaa7eb0d4fe2d278776846d354abbcbc2209d950c
L2->L1:
https://arbiscan.io/tx/0x4886b102d5aea13d065a0ccbbcf8622c33cdf105bfdb33e391686146f5602d33
Synapse Protocol
Overall: Very modern looking website! Their bridge is available on many different chains which brings about a better sense security when using it. However, when bridging ETH over to Arbitrum -> I realised I will only get back Synapse nETH instead which created complication and confusion within me. I did get more ETH on Arbitrum but those gains were mostly negated as there were other transactions fees I needed to pay for.. 😭
L1–>L2 process
L2–>L1 process
Synapse Protocol Brige was fairly smooth. L1->L2 was abit more complicated with their own version of the wrapped ETH (nETH) whereas L2->L1 was pretty seamless. Wrapped tokens usually translates to higher transaction costs so there is something to watch out for. Gas fees are higher too.
Note: If you are a new user on Arbitrum, DO NOT use the Synapse Protocol bridge as you will need ETH to pay for gas fees in order to unwrap nETH -> ETH on Arbitrum.
Transactions:
L1->L2:
https://etherscan.io/tx/0xe3d224785f76a1b930e181dab543decb21600034be09d4bb9ba8d6b7d8a53a54
L2->L1:
https://arbiscan.io/tx/0xe3714df69ea0d8a7b18147b9cf74599181de240db50876fd7f3a08244b453890
Arbitrum Official Bridge
Overall: They updated their bridge page, it looks alot better now! This is Arbitrum official bridge so naturally I feel alot more confident using it. On top of that, I noticed they placed extra care in showcasing instructions and footnotes to users which is very much appreciated! Alot of thought put into ensuring defi users have a peace of mind when using their bridge. L2->L1 was impossible for me as I really cannot imagine waiting 7 days just to get my assets back 😟
L1–>L2 process
L2–>L1 process
As expected, Arbitrum official bridge (L1->L2) was very smooth and simple to use. Clear instructions with exact tokens received on Arbitrum (L2). A good choice if you are a new defi user with funds security as your priority concern. As for L2->L1, I would definitely recommend the other third-party bridges to avoid the 7 day
Transactions:
L1->L2:
https://etherscan.io/tx/0xa79f4973ff0191902c23fd9b7fd35d94f02fc41537150c81a5835a04aa58ea20
L2->L1:
https://arbiscan.io/tx/0xef7618c9b0bb3b9e26b845413c009a7590498d205c8733150a658df2bdeb6ed8
Conclusion
DeGate bridge wins hands down!! 🎉 🎉 This is the best bridge to use if you are bridging your assets BOTH ways (from L1->L2 or L2->L1). However, DeGate bridge has its own set of limitations too. Slippage is poor for transactions >10 ETH (you can consider breaking them up into batches of smaller transactions).
This bridge comparsion experiment was performed using ETH as the asset. Other bridges might be more useful to you if you are bridging other stablecoins or assets. Do take note! Also, avoid using Arbitrum official bridge when bridging from L2->L1 in order to avoid the 7 day wait. #TimeIsMoney
Arbitrum is an absolute game changer for Ethereum. As scability improves, transaction fees goes down on Etherum, expect many innovative projects to be launched and TVL to skyrocket! Ethereum is here to stay for years so get ready CAPPIES! To end off, Google is your best friend and th3cappy is always here to help! 😃 #staysafe
