How To Bridge Your Assets Using Connext's Bridge Protocol

As we learned earlier, blockchain bridges are necessary to facilitate communication and movement of assets between one network and another. This technology streamlines cross chain activity from L1 → L2, L2 → L2, L2 → L1, and even L1 → L1. In today’s tutorial, we take a look at trustless interoperability protocol Connext, which facilitates bridging and cross chain dApp deployment.

Why Connext?

Connext enables fast, non-custodial communication between chains and rollups. Their bridge protocol currently supports the transfer of funds between 17 networks. Unlike most other interoperability systems, Connext enables this without introducing any new trust assumptions or external validators, making the system more secure than architectures that use external validators. 

They also suggest that “bridging is just the beginning of the story” in the next paradigm shift of Web3 interoperability, prompting them to launch an extensive toolkit not merely limited to bridges, but also cross chain dApp implementation. Builders can execute instructions from one central xApp (pronounced zap)—a decentralized app that performs operations between independent chains—instead of deploying on multiple chains.

For the purposes of this post, we’ll dive into the bridging component of their tech stack.

Sending Assets Using Connext

Ready to bridge your assets over? Head over to Connext’s bridging portal here.

Make sure to have your MetaMask wallet with the assets you’d like to transfer. And remember, you can always fund your wallet directly within MetaMask by hitting the blue “BUY” button in your home screen.

Connect your wallet in the top right corner and select MetaMask. Once connected, you can choose what network you want to bridge TO and FROM in the dropdown menu.

In this example, I bridge ETH from Ethereum Mainnet to Optimism.

After selecting your network and token you want to bridge, input the token amount in the box and select ‘Swap’.

Review the amount and fees and select ‘Confirm Swap’ on the box that pops up, then approve the transaction in your MetaMask wallet. Note: if you’re using a hardware wallet like I am, you will need to confirm the transaction in your hardware device after approving it in MetaMask.

A progress window will appear and prompt you to ‘Sign to Claim Funds’. Click that and confirm in your MetaMask (and hardware wallet if using). 

The claim should be instantly successful and you will notice the network you bridged to funded with your tokens. This was a swift process and I was done transferring my ETH in under 5 minutes.

You can bridge from any of the 17 networks—you could bridge from Optimism to Arbitrum or Ethereum Mainnet, and even to alt L1 chains like BNB Chain—using Connext to transfer your assets takes a few minutes on any provided route.

How It Works

Connext’s infrastructure makes cross chain activity possible, whether it’s through bridging funds or enabling cross chain applications, referred to as xApps. 

Connext’s Amarok protocol upgrade works quite similar to Hop—there are Routers that forward tokens to the user on the destination chain then claim their funds back from a liquidity pool when eventually a slower batched transfer arrives on the destination chain. 

In Amarok Connext partners with Nomad—an optimistic cross-chain communication protocol.

The Amarok protocol defines four core actors—(1) the user, (2) the Connext Router, (3) the Nomad Updater, and (4) the Nomad Watcher. 

More actors are involved, though we can leave them aside for now. 

Let’s take a look at the simplified process flow and how these actors work together:

1. The user (let’s call her Alice) sends a transaction to the Connext Smart Contract on the source chain signalling the Connext Routers that she wants to bridge.
2. A Connext Router—there are several—will see Alice’s transaction including the instructions. The Router will send the intended amount to Alice on the destination chain minus a fee. Now Alice is fine, but how does the Router get the money back?
3. Under the hood and on the source chain, the Connext Smart Contract will forward Alice’s funds to the Nomad Smart Contract. The Nomad Smart Contract batches several transactions together into an update in the form of a merkle tree and the root of the tree is signed by the Nomad Updater.
4. When signed, the update is being sent to the destination chain to another Nomad Smart Contract. Now, the Nomad Watcher has 30 minutes to step in if the update is fraudulent. The watcher can compare the state at home and the signed state and will detect fraud. 
5. If nothing is fraudulent, then the Connext Router can claim its tokens back on the destination chain using the proof that it has already sent tokens to Alice in Step 2.

Connext Routers need to stake tokens ($NEXT) in order to participate in the network and earn a proportional share of work from the network in return. 

“NEXT keeps the network running by ensuring that all routers are beholden to the same set of rules around fair transaction ordering, and a router’s NEXT is slashed if they violate these rules.” – What’s $NEXT?

Final Thoughts

Connext’s extensive list of networks is likely to keep growing and they allow you to bridge cheaply and rapidly without introducing any new trust assumptions. If you’re looking for a secure, trustless protocol to transfer your assets, consider Connext your next (🥁) protocol to try out. 

Here’s a recap: 

1. Go to bridge.connext.network
2. Connect your MetaMask wallet 
3. Select the network you want to transfer TO and FROM
4. Select the asset you want to transfer 
5. Click “Swap” and “Confirm Swap” and sign the transactions in MetaMask (and hardware wallet if using) to start the transfer
6. Click “Sign to Claim Funds” and voila!

While a lot of bridges have popped up in the space, the ones that have a heavy emphasis on security will prevail. 

Enjoy connecting your way around Web3!