Ultimate Performance: The Aurora Layer2 Network
Deploying and onboarding users to the Aurora Network powered by NEAR Protocol
We've covered several Layer 2 sidechains before:
But today might be the fastest of them all. On top it's tightly connected to the NEAR protocol ecosystem, a PoS chain with a scalable sharding design. And of course they have a bridge to Ethereum!
What is the Aurora Chain?
You can send regular Ethereum transactions to the Aurora Chain. NEAR has implemented a fully functioning EVM on top of its NEAR platform. The EVM is fully functioning with all precompiles and opcodes, but some opcodes are slightly modified to fit the architecture. Transactions are executed in the EVM runtime Sputnik VM which is an efficient EVM implementation written in Rust. For increased performance some operations of the EVM runtime may be moved to the NEAR protocol level.
Funds can be transferred using the decentralized Rainbow Bridge from near. Users can transfer ETH onto Aurora which must be used to pay for transactions. This was done to confuse users less keeping the same EVM currency as Ethereum. The ETH balance will also be duplicated inside the NEAR runtime allowing you to use it on NEAR and Aurora.
All code for Aurora can be found here.
Why choose Aurora?
Extremely low fees up, one example given by the team was a single ERC-20 token transfer for Ethereum being about 5.40$ (50 Gwei gas price) and only 0.01$ on Aurora. That’s more than 500x cheaper!
2000+ transactions per second (more than 50x faster than ETH1.0).
Decentralization through DAO governance.
Future-proof sharing design of NEAR core infrastructure.
Fast finality.
How to deploy to Aurora
Deploying to the Aurora Chain is very simple. If you're using Truffle, simply add the Aurora Chain network configuration like this:
aurora: {
provider: () => new HDWalletProvider(mnemonic, ' https://mainnet.aurora.dev'),
network_id: 1313161554,
},
},
aurora-testnet: {
provider: () => new HDWalletProvider(mnemonic, ' https://testnet.aurora.dev'),
network_id: 1313161555,
}
You'll also need funds in the chain of course. For the testnet you can use the faucet here. For how to transfer funds from the public chain, read on.
How to onboard users to your Aurora Dapp
1. Choice of wallet
These days you have much more than just MetaMask as possible wallets to support available. Take a look at Yearn Finance for example. They are supporting 11 different wallets alone at the time of this writing.
2. MetaMask example live in action
We'll focus on MetaMask as the biggest wallet with the most features. With MetaMask you can nowadays actually request to connect directly to a custom network.
If you want to see this live, check out Pancake Swap as example. Unless you already have Aurora Chain added, it will request to add this network. Or simply click 'Add network' in the Aurora bridge.
3. How to add Aurora automatically for users
You can see on the right how to add the Aurora Chain automatically to the wallet for the user. This will show the popup you see above. If the user confirms, the network is added and automatically switched to.
This is all thanks to EIP-3085 with the new RPC method wallet_addEthereumChain
. See also the MetaMask docs here.
const params = [{
"chainId": "0x4e454152", // 1313161554 in decimal
// testnet alternative: "chainId": "0x4e454153", // 1313161555 in decimal
"chainName": "Aurora",
"rpcUrls": [
"https://mainnet.aurora.dev" // testnet alternative: "https://testnet.aurora.dev"
],
"nativeCurrency": {
"name": "Ether",
"symbol": "ETH",
"decimals": 18
},
"blockExplorerUrls": [
// not yet available
]
}]
try {
await ethereum.request({
method: 'wallet_addEthereumChain',
params,
})
} catch (error) {
// something failed, e.g., user denied request
}
Using the Aurora Bridge
You can use the bridge here to transfer funds in and out of the Aurora Chain from the Ethereum network directly. It will lock the tokens on the bridge contract in the Ethereum mainnet. The bridge works bidirectionally, meaning you can transfer assets
- from Ethereum to Aurora an
- from Aurora to Ethereum
However it currently only supports the testnet. The mainnet functionality should be added very soon. (if you read this and mainnet already works, dont hesitate to contact me for correction)
Lastly, you can participate in the town hall event to ask further questions happening on July 12th. I will be updating this post with any potentially interesting new information coming from this event.
Solidity Developer
More great blog posts from Markus Waas
How to use ChatGPT with Solidity
Using the Solidity Scholar and other GPT tips
How to integrate Uniswap 4 and create custom hooks
Let's dive into Uniswap v4's new features and integration
How to integrate Wormhole in your smart contracts
Entering a New Era of Blockchain Interoperability
Solidity Deep Dive: New Opcode 'Prevrandao'
All you need to know about the latest opcode addition
How Ethereum scales with Arbitrum Nitro and how to use it
A blockchain on a blockchain deep dive
The Ultimate Merkle Tree Guide in Solidity
Everything you need to know about Merkle trees and their future
The New Decentralized The Graph Network
What are the new features and how to use it
zkSync Guide - The future of Ethereum scaling
How the zero-knowledge tech works and how to use it
Exploring the Openzeppelin CrossChain Functionality
What is the new CrossChain support and how can you use it.
Deploying Solidity Contracts in Hedera
What is Hedera and how can you use it.
Writing ERC-20 Tests in Solidity with Foundry
Blazing fast tests, no more BigNumber.js, only Solidity
ERC-4626: Extending ERC-20 for Interest Management
How the newly finalized standard works and can help you with Defi
Advancing the NFT standard: ERC721-Permit
And how to avoid the two step approve + transferFrom with ERC721-Permit (EIP-4494)
Moonbeam: The EVM of Polkadot
Deploying and onboarding users to Moonbeam or Moonriver
Advanced MultiSwap: How to better arbitrage with Solidity
Making multiple swaps across different decentralized exchanges in a single transaction
Deploying Solidity Smart Contracts to Solana
What is Solana and how can you deploy Solidity smart contracts to it?
Smock 2: The powerful mocking tool for Hardhat
Features of smock v2 and how to use them with examples
How to deploy on Evmos: The first EVM chain on Cosmos
Deploying and onboarding users to Evmos
EIP-2535: A standard for organizing and upgrading a modular smart contract system.
Multi-Facet Proxies for full control over your upgrades
MultiSwap: How to arbitrage with Solidity
Making multiple swaps across different decentralized exchanges in a single transaction
The latest tech for scaling your contracts: Optimism
How the blockchain on a blockchain works and how to use it
What is ecrecover in Solidity?
A dive into the waters of signatures for smart contracts
How to use Binance Smart Chain in your Dapp
Deploying and onboarding users to the Binance Smart Chain (BSC)
Using the new Uniswap v3 in your contracts
What's new in Uniswap v3 and how to integrate Uniswap v3
What's coming in the London Hardfork?
Looking at all the details of the upcoming fork
Welcome to the Matrix of blockchain
How to get alerted *before* getting hacked and prevent it
The Ultimate Ethereum Mainnet Deployment Guide
All you need to know to deploy to the Ethereum mainnet
SushiSwap Explained!
Looking at the implementation details of SushiSwap
Solidity Fast Track 2: Continue Learning Solidity Fast
Continuing to learn Solidity fast with the advanced basics
What's coming in the Berlin Hardfork?
Looking at all the details of the upcoming fork
Using 1inch ChiGas tokens to reduce transaction costs
What are gas tokens and example usage for Uniswap v2
Openzeppelin Contracts v4 in Review
Taking a look at the new Openzeppelin v4 Release
EIP-3156: Creating a standard for Flash Loans
A new standard for flash loans unifying the interface + wrappers for existing ecosystems
Tornado.cash: A story of anonymity and zk-SNARKs
What is Tornado.cash, how to use it and the future
High Stakes Roulette on Ethereum
Learn by Example: Building a secure High Stakes Roulette
How to implement generalized meta transactions
We'll explore a powerful design for meta transactions based on 0x
Utilizing Bitmaps to dramatically save on Gas
A simple pattern which can save you a lot of money
Using the new Uniswap v2 as oracle in your contracts
How does the Uniswap v2 oracle function and how to integrate with it
Smock: The powerful mocking tool for Hardhat
Features of smock and how to use them with examples
How to build and use ERC-721 tokens in 2021
An intro for devs to the uniquely identifying token standard and its future
Trustless token management with Set Protocol
How to integrate token sets in your contracts
Exploring the new Solidity 0.8 Release
And how to upgrade your contracts to Solidity 0.8
How to build and use ERC-1155 tokens
An intro to the new standard for having many tokens in one
Leveraging the power of Bitcoins with RSK
Learn how RSK works and how to deploy your smart contracts to it
Solidity Fast Track: Learn Solidity Fast
'Learn X in Y minutes' this time with X = Solidity 0.7 and Y = 20
Sourcify: The future of a Decentralized Etherscan
Learn how to use the new Sourcify infrastructure today
Integrating the 0x API into your contracts
How to automatically get the best prices via 0x
How to build and use ERC-777 tokens
An intro to the new upgraded standard for ERC-20 tokens
COMP Governance Explained
How Compound's Decentralized Governance is working under the hood
How to prevent stuck tokens in contracts
And other use cases for the popular EIP-165
Understanding the World of Automated Smart Contract Analyzers
What are the best tools today and how can you use them?
A Long Way To Go: On Gasless Tokens and ERC20-Permit
And how to avoid the two step approve + transferFrom with ERC20-Permit (EIP-2612)!
Smart Contract Testing with Waffle 3
What are the features of Waffle and how to use them.
How to use xDai in your Dapp
Deploying and onboarding users to xDai to avoid the high gas costs
Stack Too Deep
Three words of horror
Integrating the new Chainlink contracts
How to use the new price feeder oracles
TheGraph: Fixing the Web3 data querying
Why we need TheGraph and how to use it
Adding Typescript to Truffle and Buidler
How to use TypeChain to utilize the powers of Typescript in your project
Integrating Balancer in your contracts
What is Balancer and how to use it
Navigating the pitfalls of securely interacting with ERC20 tokens
Figuring out how to securely interact might be harder than you think
Why you should automatically generate interests from user funds
How to integrate Aave and similar systems in your contracts
How to use Polygon (Matic) in your Dapp
Deploying and onboarding users to Polygon to avoid the high gas costs
Migrating from Truffle to Buidler
And why you should probably keep both.
Contract factories and clones
How to deploy contracts within contracts as easily and gas-efficient as possible
How to use IPFS in your Dapp?
Using the interplanetary file system in your frontend and contracts
Downsizing contracts to fight the contract size limit
What can you do to prevent your contracts from getting too large?
Using EXTCODEHASH to secure your systems
How to safely integrate anyone's smart contract
Using the new Uniswap v2 in your contracts
What's new in Uniswap v2 and how to integrate Uniswap v2
Solidity and Truffle Continuous Integration Setup
How to setup Travis or Circle CI for Truffle testing along with useful plugins.
Upcoming Devcon 2021 and other events
The Ethereum Foundation just announced the next Devcon in 2021 in Colombia
The Year of the 20: Creating an ERC20 in 2020
How to use the latest and best tools to create an ERC-20 token contract
How to get a Solidity developer job?
There are many ways to get a Solidity job and it might be easier than you think!
Design Pattern Solidity: Mock contracts for testing
Why you should make fun of your contracts
Kickstart your Dapp frontend development with create-eth-app
An overview on how to use the app and its features
The big picture of Solidity and Blockchain development in 2020
Overview of the most important technologies, services and tools that you need to know
Design Pattern Solidity: Free up unused storage
Why you should clean up after yourself
How to setup Solidity Developer Environment on Windows
What you need to know about developing on Windows
Avoiding out of gas for Truffle tests
How you do not have to worry about gas in tests anymore
Design Pattern Solidity: Stages
How you can design stages in your contract
Web3 1.2.5: Revert reason strings
How to use the new feature
Gaining back control of the internet
How Ocelot is decentralizing cloud computing
Devcon 5 - Review
Impressions from the conference
Devcon 5 - Information, Events, Links, Telegram
What you need to know
Design Pattern Solidity: Off-chain beats on-chain
Why you should do as much as possible off-chain
Design Pattern Solidity: Initialize Contract after Deployment
How to use the Initializable pattern
Consensys Blockchain Jobs Report
What the current blockchain job market looks like
Provable — Randomness Oracle
How the Oraclize random number generator works
Solidity Design Patterns: Multiply before Dividing
Why the correct order matters!
Devcon 5 Applications closing in one week
Devcon 5 Applications closing
Randomness and the Blockchain
How to achieve secure randomness for Solidity smart contracts?