How to Bridge to Aurora on NEAR

How to Bridge to NEAR Aurora Protocol

The only way to bridge to the NEAR Protocol is to go to the NEAR native Aurora chain. Aurora is the EVM-compatible network that sits on-top of the NEAR Protocol and is the first implementation in NEAR's sharding network.

The easiest way to bridge to NEAR and Aurora is through the NEAR Bridge, or Synapse Protocol. We recommend Synapse for lower fees and a smoother experience.

1. Create a Metamask Wallet and fund your wallet with ETH or a stablecoin like USDC or USDT.
2. Visit the Synapse Protocol bridge.
3. Select 'Aurora' as your destination chain.
4. Input the amount of tokens you want to bridge and finalise the transaction.

Can I bridge to NEAR Mainnet?

Yes, you can bridge to the NEAR Mainnet through the Rainbow Bridge developed by the NEAR team. With that said, there is very little to do on NEAR Mainnet as all of the main applications are built and deployed on Aurora.

This is because Aurora is EVM compatible and easy to build and deploy applications. NEAR on the other-hand, is built in RUST, which is a new and difficult programming language that is the same as Solana's.

NEAR vs Aurora

Aurora provides an ETH Layer-2 kind of experience on the NEAR blockchain with low fees and familiar EVM dapps. The key difference between NEAR and Aurora is that there is very little deployed on NEAR as at time of writing, and quite a few applications like Bastion Protocol (lending) on Aurora.

NEAR Protocol Bridging Fees

When you bridge to either NEAR Protocol or Aurora via the Rainbow Bridge, or Synapse - you will spend very little fees. For example, if you move from AVAX to NEAR you can expect to pay as little as $10 to transfer your tokens.

If you bridge from ETH to NEAR, you may be expected to pay a little more because the transaction fees on Ethereum mainnet are slightly higher.

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How to add NEAR to Metamask

The NEAR token itself is not an ERC-20 and is not based on the Ethereum Virtual Machine, so you cannot add the token to a Metamask Wallet. You can however add the Aurora network to your Metamask wallet by adding their custom RPC to your Metamask Wallet. You can follow this guide to add Aurora to Metamask.

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Final Thoughts

The NEAR Protocol provides a promising blockchain platform for developers and users, with Aurora serving as the EVM-compatible network that sits on top of NEAR's sharding network. The easiest way to bridge to NEAR and Aurora is through the Synapse Protocol bridge, which offers lower fees and a smoother experience.

By creating a Metamask Wallet, funding it with ETH or a stablecoin, and using the Synapse Protocol bridge to select Aurora as your destination chain, you can bridge your tokens to NEAR's Aurora network. While you can bridge to NEAR's Mainnet through the Rainbow Bridge, there is very little to do on the mainnet as most applications are built and deployed on Aurora.