Users can now bridge ERC721 & ERC1155 tokens from Ethereum to Harmony and vice versa
Harmony blockchain continues its quest to become the one bridge to connect all blockchains. An open platform for NFTs, collectibles, game items, and also identity governance, it now seamlessly bridges Ethereum NFTs.
Users can now bridge ERC721 tokens, more commonly known as the Ethereum standard for NFTs, to the Harmony blockchain as part of a significant update. Over 8,000 NFTs are ripe for the picking, including some of the most popular collections. The bridge-able tokens include football cards for the fantasy football game Sorare, the web3 domain names by Unstoppable Domains and the bluechip NFT collection CryptoPunks.
Crucially, once NFTs cross the bridge, fees tumble in price on the Harmony blockchain. With this feature, Harmony users can now also take their Harmony ONE tokens and HRC20s (Harmony network items) to Ethereum. These tokens and NFTs can tap into the ecosystem and dapps available on Ethereum. The low-fee bridge works in both directions, from Ethereum to Harmony and vice versa. There’s a handy help document from Harmony on bridging chains, here.
Working in Harmony
The bridge is an important step for Harmony in building a more robust cross-chain infrastructure. Harmony will eventually enable a multi-chain ecosystem across several blockchains, vital for connectivity and accessibility in the metaverse. A bridging infrastructure may encourage the creation of new dapps, such as games, across multiple chains.
Harmony’s vision for blockchains is absolute interoperability. As a result, they’re consensus agnostic: it can be Proof-of-Work or Proof-of-Stake blockchains, from Bitcoin to Ethereum and everything in between. So far, Harmony’s FlyClient cross-chain solution supports Bitcoin, bringing Wrapped BTC (wBTC) to Harmony, while Harmony is now of course fully EVM compatible.
With the bridge, Harmony is flexing its muscles, ready for future connections to other blockchains and their dapps. Check out Harmony’s strong progress as an interoperable, connected blockchain through DappRadar’s coverage, here.
Bridging the Gap
This is Harmony’s first implementation of a cross-chain NFT bridge. Users pay just one gas fee for the creation of the bridge and afterward the gas fees are minimal. The initial cost is high due to costly Ethereum gas fees on the expensive Ethereum network. However, subsequent transactions won’t incur high transaction fees. It’s an important point to address because high-frequency trading NFTs such as GameFi equipment or outfits are growing in usage and popularity.
While it may seem less important to chase lower gas fees for the likes of CryptoPunks or BAYC which trade less frequently, there are advantages. Firstly, use-cases such as NFT lending or fractionalization could benefit from lower fees as they reduce fee friction. Plus, being able to swiftly and cheaply move between blockchains is a way of enabling future, undiscovered innovation.
Vitalik Buterin, the genius behind Ethereum, acknowledges gas fees are too high, so it makes sense to bring NFTs to a blockchain where 2-second transaction finality is the norm and fees are 1000 times lower. If users really want to, they can easily send their NFTs back to the Ethereum blockchain from Harmony. As an added bonus, the current implementation of the cross-chain NFT bridge also supports verified checking of NFT in OpenSea API to identify verified NFT collections on Ethereum.
Finally, Harmony has its own, growing NFT collection. While relatively new, the space is picking up speed. CryptoPigs and the DaVinci NFT Marketplace are popular areas, amassing thousands of monthly viewers according to DappRadar.
Given Harmony’s expertise in bridging and linking blockchains, it’s a strong starting point. What happens when Harmony becomes the go-to bridging blockchain for other protocols? What happens to Harmony’s ONE token?
DappRadar is a big fan of Harmony’s approach to the blockchain ecosystem as it aligns sweetly with DappRadar’s vision for a multichain future. Check out the DappRadar ranking for the Harmony blockchain here and learn more about Harmony bridging here.
Disclaimer — This is a sponsored article. DappRadar does not endorse any content or product on this page. DappRadar aims to provide accurate information, but readers should always do their own research before taking action. Articles by DappRadar can not be considered as investment advice.
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