AllianceBlock Bridge 2.0: Bridge NFTs, Inspect the Cross-Messaging Protocol and More
Since the release of the AllianceBlock Bridge back in early June 2021, we’ve had a very clear goal — to unify the fragmented DeFi space with a secure, fast and decentralized interoperability solution.
In less than a year, we’re well on our way to achieving this objective. AllianceBlock Bridge now supports seven major blockchain layer 1 and 2 networks — Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Arbirtrum, Optimism and Energy Web. Thousands of transactions have been completed using our bridge, with 44M+ ALBT bridged and 7000+ ALBT collected in bridging fees.
To extend the adoption of this product, blockchains supported by the bridge will be offered bridging fees in their native tokens, which are then swapped to ALBT in a shared pool. This feature will be implemented as we continue the release rollout — you can get a sneak peak of it in action with Energy Web, a major layer 1 network, which recently recognized our bridge as the preferred third-party solution for their entire ecosystem.
Needless to say, AllianceBlock Bridge is a key element of our end-to-end infrastructure and a key player in driving up the utility of our token, $ALBT. Today, we’re excited to announce that we are unveiling a new chapter for our bridge, with the release of AllianceBlock Bridge 2.0. The deployment of new features opens up new opportunities for the Bridge to support interoperability across the entire cryptocurrency market — NFTs included.
Read on to find out about some of the most exciting features you can now look forward to, including implementing the long-awaited Cross-Messaging Protocol and NFT Bridging features. You can also check out the Bridge yourself here.
Cross-Messaging Protocol Deployed To Open Up New Use Cases for dApps
As outlined in our December update, implementing the Cross-Messaging Protocol in our Bridge enables the connection between different networks and allows arbitrary data to be exchanged. This will allow various types of information to be bridged and open up to even more use cases for dApps that want to use our bridge. The consensus mechanism will continue to be based on the Hedera Consensus Service and guarantee that the messages will be transferred securely and in a trustless manner.
The Cross-Messaging Protocol is designed to be a piece of infrastructure that other projects can use and build their dApps on top of. We will provide technical documentation to enable them to do so in the future. Individual users will be able to benefit from the features this protocol allows us to deploy, beginning with the NFT Bridging described below.
NFT Bridging Opens Up the Bridge to a New, $40 Billion Sector
The implementation of the Cross-Messaging Protocol into our Bridge will allow us to help many more areas of our industry achieve interoperability. One of them is the exciting world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). As NFTs get more popular, they start to face the interoperability problem. The NFT Bridge functionality will be built on top of the Cross-Messaging Protocol and will allow users to bridge non-fungible tokens to and from multiple networks and use them on the different dApps built on those networks.
Below, you can find the key steps to how to bridge your ERC-721 NFTs. After connecting your wallet on the AllianceBlock Bridge page, head to the NFT Bridge tab and click on the ‘Transfer’ subsection.
Select the NFTs that you want to transfer. The NFTs are fetched from OpenSea, so if the NFTs are not present there, you won’t be able to see them. In this case you have to enter/paste the NFT contract address manually. You also have the option to enter the specific token ID, if you’re bridging a specific NFT in the collection.
After you have provided the information, you can click on ‘Go to Transfer’ to proceed to the next step to transfer. There, you can select which network you want the tokens to be sent to. By default, the recipient wallet address will be the wallet you’re connected with, but you can also set a different wallet address. When you’ve entered and reviewed the information, click ‘Next’.
On the next step you have a confirmation screen to review the information you have provided. You will also see information about the bridge fees and the transaction fees. Note that the network transaction fees are calculated at the time the screen is loaded, you can confirm the final transaction fees in your wallet.
If you’re bridging this NFT collection for the first time, you will have to confirm two transactions through your wallet — first to approve the spending of the tokens and then to transfer them. When you’ve reviewed the information you have to click ‘Transfer’ and confirm that you have read the information in a pop-up window.
Then you have to click ‘Transfer’ again and confirm the transaction through your wallet. You will get a notification when the transaction is processed. To claim the NFTs, you have to switch the network to the selected target chain and go to the ‘Claim’ page. Note that if you are bridging to another recipient address, make sure to connect the wallet with that address and you will be able to see the bridged NFTs in this section.
There, you have to click ‘Claim’ next to the NFTs you want to claim. Keep in mind that it might take several minutes before the NFTs appear on the ‘Claim’ page.
Brand New Design Aligns the Bridge with Our Most Recent User Experience
We also took this opportunity to update the user interface of our interoperability solution, in alignment with the AllianceBlock style that you have seen in the LMaaS V2.0 update and the upcoming DEX release on Mainnet. To make sure you make the most out of the protocol, get up to speed with the changes below:
Now you can see the number of bridge transfers that are waiting to be claimed in the main menu.
The bridging flows include a ‘Review’ step, where you can make sure that you’ve entered the correct information. There you can also see what tokens you are about to receive:
Before submitting a transaction, you can see an estimation of the gas fees the bridging will need:
What’s Next — Improving Performance, Adding New Features and Increasing Adoption
The 2.0 version of the Bridge is now live and you can check it out yourself here. In the next releases, we’ll be focusing on providing a backend that will help us reduce ‘Claim’ time, enable a ‘View Full Transaction History’ option and migrating the ERC-20 bridge on top of the Cross-Messaging Protocol.
Leveraging the Cross-Messaging Protocol for the ERC-20 bridge will enable users to pay for bridge fees in the native tokens of the underlying blockchain that they are using. For example, when bridging from Ethereum to Polygon, users will only need $ETH to pay for the bridging fee and the gas fees (in addition, $MATIC on the destination chain when claiming). The bridging fees are then swapped to $ALBT in a shared pool, just like it is on the NFT bridge.
This makes it easier for users to use the Bridge and increases adoption of our interoperability solution, while creating more utility for the AllianceBlock token. Combined with our plans to continue extending support to more major blockchain networks, we’re excited for Bridge to become the foundation for future ALBT utility, and expand our ecosystem.
About AllianceBlock
AllianceBlock is bridging the gap between decentralized finance and traditional finance, by remedying issues that exist in both spheres and linking them more closely together. They see the future of finance as an integrated system in which the best of both worlds can work together to increase capital flows and technological innovation.
Building this future by bridging traditional finance with compliant, data-driven access to new decentralized markets, DeFi projects and ecosystem-scaling tools such as funding and interoperability. As such, they are building a next-generation financial infrastructure that aims to provide regulated financial entities around the world with the tools they need to seamlessly access the DeFi space.
You can also find us on:
Telegram · Twitter · Instagram · Website · LinkedIn · YouTube · Medium
