Tl;dr — New bridge ALPH <> BSC / The Faucet / I’m new, coming from BSC/BNB — What do I do in $ALPH’s ecosystem? / Contracts & tokens / FAQ
Alephium’s commitment to the multichain world is renewed! A year after the bridge to/from Ethereum, Alephium is proud to announce its newest bridge to the BSC chain, connecting to the huge and rich world of the BNB Chain!
Alephium’s core contributors have invested significant efforts to build & test properly that second bridge, which is erected on the same battle-tested foundations as the first one.
Bridge now! New bridge ALPH <> BSC
Access the bridge directly here:
It works exactly the same way as Ethereum’s one, so you won’t be surprised if you’ve already used the other one before. If you didn’t, here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to connect with the Bridge.
If you’re using the front-end, you’ll need a BSC wallet (like Metamask for example), and an Alephium Wallet.
I don’t have ALPH for the gas, what do I do?
We have a faucet! When bridging from BNB to ALPH, you will automatically receive 0,01 ALPH on top of the amount you have bridged! That should be way enough for your first few transactions!
I just got here from BNB chain ecosystem, what do I do?
We've got you covered! First, welcome to Alephium!
Want to discover @Alephium‘s tech & general vibe? Read our onboarding thread.
Do you need an Alephium wallet? We have them on desktop (Mac, Windows, Linux), mobile (iOS & Android) & browser extensions (Chrome & Firefox).
Want to discover our ecosystem? The Alephium Gazette prepared something special for you here! We’ve prepared a special recap of our ecosystem recap here:
Some of the ecosystem projects even prepared special & juicy incentives for BSC bridgoooooors! Head here:
If you’re a degen and want to dive deep, the @alephiumgazette prepared something special!
If you want to dive deeper into dapps, head to alph.land. If you have any questions, we’re easy to get on Discord, Telegram, or Twitter. Ping us!
What are the contracts, pools & tokens?
How to use the bridge? Anyone can use the bridge directly via smart contracts (Alephium and BSC), without any front-end interface. This will be very useful for dApps & other services that might want to use the bridge programmatically, with no human interaction. Anyone can run their front-end if they so wish. You can even fork the bridge (that is open source) and create your own guardian network!
What are the contract addresses? The Wormhole Bridge governance address on BSC is 0xE674e61111ecE5988113DA56f0b2Cc3CB22D5304 / Check it on BSCscan here.
The TokenBridge address on BSC is 0x2971F580C34d3D584e0342741c6a622f69424dD8 / Check it on BSCscan here. And here’s the wrapped ALPH token on BSC.
Where are the pools? On BSC side, liquidity is deployed on pancakeswap (ALPH/BNB — ALPH/USDT - contract addresses are here & here). On ALPH’s side, there are pools on @ayincoin, @CandySwapALPH, @ElexiumFinance (ALPH/BNB — USDTeth/USDTbsc — ALPH/USDTbsc) & @alphswaps. Most of the DEXs will have pools at the bridge’s launch or soon after.
Which tokens can I bridge through the ALPH <> BSC bridge?
Alephium’s front end is just one of the ways one can bridge tokens. Because it is run by the core contributors, for operational and legal reasons, there are some constraints on which tokens can be bridged through it:
Alephium to BSC — $ALPH is bridgeable right away. And all tokens on the token list can be registered and become available for bridging.
BSC to Alephium — at launch, $BNB, $USDT, and $USDC will be bridgeable on Alephium’s front-end bridge UI. They will also appear as “verified” on Alephium’s family of wallets (desktop, mobile, and browser extension). If you want to bridge another token, you’ll need to register it. You can register all tokens on this list.
Side note — because non-native stable coins are not fungible, we’re introducing naming changes. On Alephium, USDT & USDC bridged from BSC will be named respectively USDTbsc & USDCbsc. The same goes for Ethereum-bridged stables, which are renamed USDTeth & USDCeth. Before bridging for swapping purposes, please make sure there’s liquidity on the DEX for the token you’re bridging!
How long does it take to cross the bridge?
From @BNBCHAIN to @alephium, bridging is fairly fast! Get the transaction validated on $BSC side, let the guardians do their magic, et voilà! You should be out in no time, or roughly 20 minutes.
From Alephium to BSC, it will take a bit more time. For security reasons, and because the max chain reorg on ALPH is 200 blocks, the transaction needs to meet two conditions: at least 205 blocks and at least 55 minutes. Then, after the user starts the redeeming process, the transaction goes through the guardians and on the BSC side, taking more or less 15 minutes. So in total, the full process takes a little bit more than 1 hour.
This might evolve to be shorter as the hashrate increases, (as it already did!) but for now, the decision was taken to ensure the best trade-off regarding security vs transaction time.
What kind of bridge is this?
The Alephium Bridge is a sophisticated system with various components that work together to achieve efficient cross-chain communication. It is what’s called a lock & mint bridge, built on top of a fork of Wormhole. Out of all the available options (and there are many), Alephium chose to build on wormhole precisely because it’s open source with considerable TVL and has survived multiple incidents in the past; it has shown resilience and strength like no other bridge protocol. It is also very well documented!
You can find the Alephium Bridge code here & additional information, including the guardians here.
Are you stopping here? Will there be more bridges?
No. Yes.