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How to bridge tokens via Arbitrum’s custom generic gateway

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In this how-to you’ll learn how to bridge your own token between Ethereum (Layer 1 or L1) and Arbitrum (Layer 2 or L2), using Arbitrum’s custom generic gateway. For alternative ways of bridging tokens, don’t forget to check out this overview.

Familiarity with Arbitrum’s token bridge system, smart contracts, and blockchain development is expected. If you’re new to blockchain development, consider reviewing our Quickstart: Build a dApp with Arbitrum (Solidity, Hardhat) before proceeding. We will use Arbitrum’s SDK throughout this how-to, although no prior knowledge is required.

We will go through all steps involved in the process. However, if you want to jump straight to the code, we have created this script in our tutorials repository that encapsulates the entire process.

Step 0: Review the prerequisites​

As stated in the token bridge conceptual page, there are a few prerequisites to keep in mind while using this method to make a token bridgeable.

First of all, the L1 counterpart of the token, must conform to the ICustomToken interface. This means that:

  • It must have a isArbitrumEnabled method that returns 0xb1
  • It must have a method that makes an external call to L1CustomGateway.registerCustomL2Token specifying the address of the L2 contract, and to L1GatewayRouter.setGateway specifying the address of the custom gateway. These calls should be made only once to configure the gateway.

These methods are needed to register the token via the gateway contract. If your L1 contract does not include these methods and it is not upgradeable, registration could alternatively be performed in one of these ways:

  • As a chain-owner registration via an Arbitrum DAO proposal.
  • By wrapping your L1 token and registering the wrapped version of your token.

Keep in mind that this registration can only be done once.

Also, the L2 counterpart of the token, must conform to the IArbToken interface. This means that:

  • It must havebridgeMint and bridgeBurn methods only callable by the L2CustomGateway contract
  • It must have an l1Address view method that returns the address of the token in L1

Step 1: Create a token and deploy it on L1​

We‘ll begin the process by creating and deploying on L1 a sample token to bridge. If you already have a token contract on L1, you don’t need to perform this step.

However, you will need to upgrade the contract if it doesn’t include the required methods described in the previous step.

We first create a standard ERC20 contract using OpenZeppelin’s implementation. We make only 1 adjustment to that implementation, for simplicity, although it is not required: we specify an initialSupply to be pre-minted and sent to the deployer address upon creation.

We’ll also add the required methods to make our token bridgeable via the custom generic gateway.

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;

import "./interfaces/ICustomToken.sol";
import "@openzeppelin/contracts/token/ERC20/ERC20.sol";
import "@openzeppelin/contracts/access/Ownable.sol";

/**
 * @title Interface needed to call function registerTokenToL2 of the L1CustomGateway
 */
interface IL1CustomGateway {
    function registerTokenToL2(
        address _l2Address,
        uint256 _maxGas,
        uint256 _gasPriceBid,
        uint256 _maxSubmissionCost,
        address _creditBackAddress
    ) external payable returns (uint256);
}

/**
 * @title Interface needed to call function setGateway of the L2GatewayRouter
 */
interface IL2GatewayRouter {
    function setGateway(
        address _gateway,
        uint256 _maxGas,
        uint256 _gasPriceBid,
        uint256 _maxSubmissionCost,
        address _creditBackAddress
    ) external payable returns (uint256);
}

contract L1Token is Ownable, ICustomToken, ERC20 {
    address private customGatewayAddress;
    address private routerAddress;
    bool private shouldRegisterGateway;

    /**
     * @dev See {ERC20-constructor} and {Ownable-constructor}
     *
     * An initial supply amount is passed, which is preminted to the deployer.
     */
    constructor(address _customGatewayAddress, address _routerAddress, uint256 _initialSupply) ERC20("L1CustomToken", "LCT") {
        customGatewayAddress = _customGatewayAddress;
        routerAddress = _routerAddress;
        _mint(msg.sender, _initialSupply * 10 ** decimals());
    }

    /// @dev we only set shouldRegisterGateway to true when in `registerTokenOnL2`
    function isArbitrumEnabled() external view override returns (uint8) {
        require(shouldRegisterGateway, "NOT_EXPECTED_CALL");
        return uint8(0xb1);
    }

    /// @dev See {ICustomToken-registerTokenOnL2}
    function registerTokenOnL2(
        address l2CustomTokenAddress,
        uint256 maxSubmissionCostForCustomGateway,
        uint256 maxSubmissionCostForRouter,
        uint256 maxGasForCustomGateway,
        uint256 maxGasForRouter,
        uint256 gasPriceBid,
        uint256 valueForGateway,
        uint256 valueForRouter,
        address creditBackAddress
    ) public override payable onlyOwner {
        // we temporarily set `shouldRegisterGateway` to true for the callback in registerTokenToL2 to succeed
        bool prev = shouldRegisterGateway;
        shouldRegisterGateway = true;

        IL1CustomGateway(customGatewayAddress).registerTokenToL2{ value: valueForGateway }(
            l2CustomTokenAddress,
            maxGasForCustomGateway,
            gasPriceBid,
            maxSubmissionCostForCustomGateway,
            creditBackAddress
        );

        IL2GatewayRouter(routerAddress).setGateway{ value: valueForRouter }(
            customGatewayAddress,
            maxGasForRouter,
            gasPriceBid,
            maxSubmissionCostForRouter,
            creditBackAddress
        );

        shouldRegisterGateway = prev;
    }

    /// @dev See {ERC20-transferFrom}
    function transferFrom(
        address sender,
        address recipient,
        uint256 amount
    ) public override(ICustomToken, ERC20) returns (bool) {
        return super.transferFrom(sender, recipient, amount);
    }

    /// @dev See {ERC20-balanceOf}
    function balanceOf(address account) public view override(ICustomToken, ERC20) returns (uint256) {
        return super.balanceOf(account);
    }
}

We now deploy that token to L1.

const { ethers } = require('hardhat');
const { providers, Wallet } = require('ethers');
const { getL2Network } = require('@arbitrum/sdk');
require('dotenv').config();

const walletPrivateKey = process.env.DEVNET_PRIVKEY;
const l1Provider = new providers.JsonRpcProvider(process.env.L1RPC);
const l2Provider = new providers.JsonRpcProvider(process.env.L2RPC);
const l1Wallet = new Wallet(walletPrivateKey, l1Provider);

/**
 * For the purpose of our tests, here we deploy an standard ERC20 token (L1Token) to L1
 * It sends its deployer (us) the initial supply of 1000
 */
const main = async () => {
  /**
   * Use l2Network to get the token bridge addresses needed to deploy the token
   */
  const l2Network = await getL2Network(l2Provider);

  const l1Gateway = l2Network.tokenBridge.l1CustomGateway;
  const l1Router = l2Network.tokenBridge.l1GatewayRouter;

  /**
   * Deploy our custom token smart contract to L1
   * We give the custom token contract the address of l1CustomGateway and l1GatewayRouter as well as the initial supply (premine)
   */
  console.log('Deploying the test L1Token to L1:');
  const L1Token = await (await ethers.getContractFactory('L1Token')).connect(l1Wallet);
  const l1Token = await L1Token.deploy(l1Gateway, l1Router, 1000);

  await l1Token.deployed();
  console.log(`L1Token is deployed to L1 at ${l1Token.address}`);

  /**
   * Get the deployer token balance
   */
  const tokenBalance = await l1Token.balanceOf(l1Wallet.address);
  console.log(`Initial token balance of deployer: ${tokenBalance}`);
};

main()
  .then(() => process.exit(0))
  .catch((error) => {
    console.error(error);
    process.exit(1);
  });

Step 2: Create a token and deploy it on L2​

We’ll now create and deploy on L2 the counterpart of the token we created on L1.

We’ll create a standard ERC20 contract using OpenZeppelin’s implementation, and add the required methods from IArbToken.

// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;

import "./interfaces/IArbToken.sol";
import "@openzeppelin/contracts/token/ERC20/ERC20.sol";

contract L2Token is ERC20, IArbToken {
    address public l2Gateway;
    address public override l1Address;

    modifier onlyL2Gateway() {
        require(msg.sender == l2Gateway, "NOT_GATEWAY");
        _;
    }

    constructor(address _l2Gateway, address _l1TokenAddress) ERC20("L2CustomToken", "LCT") {
        l2Gateway = _l2Gateway;
        l1Address = _l1TokenAddress;
    }

    /**
     * @notice should increase token supply by amount, and should only be callable by the L2Gateway.
     */
    function bridgeMint(address account, uint256 amount) external override onlyL2Gateway {
        _mint(account, amount);
    }

    /**
     * @notice should decrease token supply by amount, and should only be callable by the L2Gateway.
     */
    function bridgeBurn(address account, uint256 amount) external override onlyL2Gateway {
        _burn(account, amount);
    }

        // Add any extra functionality you want your token to have.
}

We now deploy that token to L2.

const { ethers } = require('hardhat');
const { providers, Wallet } = require('ethers');
const { getL2Network } = require('@arbitrum/sdk');
require('dotenv').config();

const walletPrivateKey = process.env.DEVNET_PRIVKEY;
const l2Provider = new providers.JsonRpcProvider(process.env.L2RPC);
const l2Wallet = new Wallet(walletPrivateKey, l2Provider);

const l1TokenAddress = '<address of the l1 token deployed in the previous step>';

/**
 * For the purpose of our tests, here we deploy an standard ERC20 token (L2Token) to L2
 */
const main = async () => {
  /**
   * Use l2Network to get the token bridge addresses needed to deploy the token
   */
  const l2Network = await getL2Network(l2Provider);
  const l2Gateway = l2Network.tokenBridge.l2CustomGateway;

  /**
   * Deploy our custom token smart contract to L2
   * We give the custom token contract the address of l2CustomGateway as well as the address of the counterpart L1 token
   */
  console.log('Deploying the test L2Token to L2:');
  const L2Token = await (await ethers.getContractFactory('L2Token')).connect(l2Wallet);
  const l2Token = await L2Token.deploy(l2Gateway, l1TokenAddress);

  await l2Token.deployed();
  console.log(`L2Token is deployed to L2 at ${l2Token.address}`);
};

main()
  .then(() => process.exit(0))
  .catch((error) => {
    console.error(error);
    process.exit(1);
  });

Step 3: Register the custom token to the custom generic gateway​

Once both our contracts are deployed in their respective chains, it’s time to register the token in the custom generic gateway.

As mentioned before, this action needs to be done by the L1 token, and we’ve implemented the function registerTokenOnL2 to do it. So now we only need to call that function.

When using this function two actions will be performed:

  1. Call function registerTokenToL2 of L1CustomGateway. This will change the l1ToL2Token internal mapping it holds and will send a retryable ticket to the counterpart L2CustomGateway contract in L2, to also set its mapping to the new values.
  2. Call function setGateway of L1GatewayRouter. This will change the l1TokenToGateway internal mapping it holds and will send a retryable ticket to the counterpart L2GatewayRouter contract in L2, to also set its mapping to the new values.

To simplify the process, we’ll use Arbitrum’s SDK. We’ll call the method registerCustomToken of the AdminErc20Bridger class, which will call the registerTokenOnL2 method of the token passed by parameter.

/**
 * Register custom token on our custom gateway
 */
const adminTokenBridger = new AdminErc20Bridger(l2Network);
const registerTokenTx = await adminTokenBridger.registerCustomToken(
  l1CustomToken.address,
  l2CustomToken.address,
  l1Wallet,
  l2Provider,
);

const registerTokenRec = await registerTokenTx.wait();
console.log(
  `Registering token txn confirmed on L1! 🙌 L1 receipt is: ${registerTokenRec.transactionHash}`,
);

/**
 * The L1 side is confirmed; now we listen and wait for the L2 side to be executed; we can do this by computing the expected txn hash of the L2 transaction.
 * To compute this txn hash, we need our message's "sequence numbers", unique identifiers of each L1 to L2 message.
 * We'll fetch them from the event logs with a helper method.
 */
const l1ToL2Msgs = await registerTokenRec.getL1ToL2Messages(l2Provider);

/**
 * In principle, a single L1 txn can trigger any number of L1-to-L2 messages (each with its own sequencer number).
 * In this case, the registerTokenOnL2 method created 2 L1-to-L2 messages;
 * - (1) one to set the L1 token to the Custom Gateway via the Router, and
 * - (2) another to set the L1 token to its L2 token address via the Generic-Custom Gateway
 * Here, We check if both messages are redeemed on L2
 */
expect(l1ToL2Msgs.length, 'Should be 2 messages.').to.eq(2);

const setTokenTx = await l1ToL2Msgs[0].waitForStatus();
expect(setTokenTx.status, 'Set token not redeemed.').to.eq(L1ToL2MessageStatus.REDEEMED);

const setGateways = await l1ToL2Msgs[1].waitForStatus();
expect(setGateways.status, 'Set gateways not redeemed.').to.eq(L1ToL2MessageStatus.REDEEMED);

console.log(
  'Your custom token is now registered on our custom gateway 🥳  Go ahead and make the deposit!',
);

Conclusion​

Once this step is done, your L1 and L2 tokens will be connected through the custom generic gateway.

You can bridge tokens between L1 and L2 using the origin L1 token and the custom token deployed on L2, along with the router and gateway contracts from each layer.

If you want to see an example of bridging a token from L1 to L2 using Arbitrum’s SDK, you can check out How to bridge tokens via Arbitrum’s standard ERC20 gateway, where the process is described in steps 2-5.

Frequently asked questions​

Can I run the same register token process multiple times for the same L1 token?​

No, you can only register once an L2 token for the same L1 token. After that, the call to registerTokenToL2 will revert if run again.

What can I do if my L1 token is not upgradable?​

As mentioned in the concept page, the token registration can alternatively be performed as a chain-owner registration via Arbitrum DAO proposal.

Can I set up the custom generic gateway after a standard ERC20 token exists on L2?​

Yes, if your token has a standard ERC20 counterpart on L2, you can go through the process of registering your custom L2 token as outlined in this page. At that moment, your L1 token will have 2 counterpart tokens on L2, but only your new custom L2 token will be minted when depositing tokens from L1 (L1-to-L2 bridging). Both L2 tokens will be withdrawable (L2-to-L1 bridging), so users holding the old standard ERC20 token will be able to withdraw back to L1 and then deposit to L2 to get the new custom L2 tokens.

Resources​

  1. Concept page: Token Bridge
  2. Arbitrum SDK
  3. Token bridge contract addresses