Across V2 Sneak Peek (Fixed)

Overview: V2 is coming, scheduled for release on May 24th. The new version supports L2 to L2 cross-chain, adding a new chain, higher capital efficiency, and of course, extremely low fees. Across will still maintain the same look and safety level you know and love, and you will notice its increased functionality as you use the V2.

Across Protocol is a cross-chain bridge that allows you to quickly send assets between L2 and L1 . The use of Across's secured relayers, one-sided liquidity pools, and UMA optimistic oracles allow for cost-effective, fast, and secure transfers of assets between chains.

Below, we'll take a look at what you can expect in V2 launching on May 24, along with some additional features.

These are what you can expect from the V2 release

omnipresent

With V2, you will be able to bridge with more chains. V2 will support L2 to L1, L2 to L2 and L1 to L2 cross-chain.

Users will no longer need to shop around to find the most cost-effective and fastest bridge for different chains. Especially with larger transactions, we know that every percentage counts. The process of this comparative study would be tedious. With V2, Across will be your one-stop solution wherever you want to cross.

Improve capital efficiency

The capital efficiency of V2 is incredible. V2 uses an "instant" liquidity mechanism to bring funds where they are needed, only when needed. This allows most of the funds to remain on the safest L1 layer.

Typically, other bridges need to allocate their liquidity to each additional chain. This results in more slippage and higher fees. Across doesn't make that sacrifice. Immediate liquidity concentrates liquidity on L1. Centralizing liquidity in this way not only makes our bridge more secure, but also makes funds available for larger transfers on any given chain. More funds available in these pools = larger transfers.

netting

We can transfer more money back and forth with netting. If two people happen to send funds in opposite directions at the same time, we just pair this coincidental demand.

Here is an example:

Alice wants to send $100 from Ethereum to Optimism, and Bob wants to send $100 from Optimism to Ethereum. None of these people actually need to do "bridging", but can cancel each other out on their respective chains via Across V2. Either way, Bob and Alice don't have to change anything they normally do as a bridge, because that's done through the backend. The only difference they might notice is a reduction in fees.

Rewards: Bridge pools still collect fees from all these transactions, so with this new method we may get higher APY from liquidity providers’ pools.

Keep our low fee promise

Across has always prided itself on being affordable. In V2, we will continue to offer very competitive fees due to batching and bundling transactions.

Batching works by "batching" multiple payments into a single transaction. By doing just one transaction instead of multiple, the gas fees are lower, allowing us to maximize cost-effectiveness for our users while maintaining the speeds that Across is proud of.

We can also use UMA's optimistic oracle in a more targeted manner by bundling transactions. To give some context, optimistic oracle participation is required every time a repeater is repaid in V1. In V2, transactions are aggregated and validated together (ie "Is this batch of repayments valid?")

All of these options contribute to the lowest possible fee environment.

Our goal is for our fees to continue to be extremely cost-effective across the board, no matter how much you want to bridge, no matter what chain you use and in what direction.

Same security assumptions, increased functionality

Across V2 uses a hub-and-spoke model with the center on L1. By concentrating most of the liquidity on L1 in V2, we are able to ensure that most of the funds are protected by L1.

Why is this important?

When users spread their funds across other chains, this adds to the assumption of trust they must have in those chains, in addition to their assumption of trust in funds on L1.

Our hub-and-spoke model keeps liquidity in the safest place, allowing transfers without exposing liquidity providers to higher risk. If a chain is hacked, only funds in that spoke pool or funds returned to L1 are at risk. Assets on L1 and in other spoke pool locations will be safe.

Many bridges require a lot of money to support the spokes, but we didn't. This allows us to provide higher security compared to other bridges.

Across will also continue to use UMA's optimistic oracle, which has been running for over a year without malicious exploitation.

To learn more about how the optimistic oracle can contribute to the security of the Across protocol, click here .

Partial pool of funds

V2 also allows smaller players with less capital to participate as relays for part of the pool. Relay participants can participate in part of the pool, not the entire pool. One benefit to users of the bridge: The size of the transaction is not limited by a single maximum relayer balance, but rather the cumulative sum of all relayer balances. This allows larger transfers for a more consistent user experience.

Something to get you even more excited:

simple user interface

Our designs are for everyone. It's easy to use, useful, honest and minimalistic. As our design lead Jesper Gisslen puts it, our designs aim to exude a "simple, user-friendly vibe". V2 doesn't change that. Across V2's mechanics are high-level, but the interface will be as simple as ever - the only thing you'll notice is better functionality.

Transaction Tracker

V2 will also include a page to track the status of your transactions. This page will include the deposit date, fill status percentage, etc. Everything you need to know about a deal will be displayed in an easy-to-understand deal list.

Looking to the future

Our engineers are getting more and more excited as they build the Across' bridge. Building this general bridge structure and strengthening our foundation early allows us to think about a world of possibilities, such as NFT bridges in V3 and beyond.

In the future, as we learn more about the L1<->L2<->L2 process, we can also choose to upgrade the rebalancing strategy to fully optimize netting. The main point is that we don't yet know how L2 will be used. Maybe there will be a new farm on one chain that will make it more popular than others. There are a number of factors that can lead to high traffic or balance in one way or another. Right now, it's hard to predict. We could consider upgrading our rebalancing strategy to push and pull funds so users will always know there is enough liquidity.

Across V2 strives to be the best bridge for all types of transactions. We know our users want low fees, more chains to choose from, and better capital efficiency. We believe we've implemented all of this and more, with the same high-end safety and simple looks you love in Across, plus the behind-the-scenes improvements you'll notice.

If you want to stay up to date with our V2 release, join us on Discord and follow us on Twitter .

Liquidity Providers: Don't forget to migrate your liquidity on May 23rd!