TUTORIAL
How to Use the Secret Ethereum Bridge
Learn how to bridge crypto and tokens from Ethereum to Secret Network, make them privacy-preserving, and start using Secret dApps.
What we’ll cover in this tutorial:
- What to do before bridging
- How to connect your wallets to the Secret Ethereum Bridge
- How to bridge your assets from Ethereum to Secret Network
- How to bridge your tokens from Secret Network to Ethereum
- Frequently asked questions
GETTING STARTED
What to do before you bridge your crypto
Before bridging your tokens, you need to have a few things in place:
- Wallets to store your (Secret) tokens
- Crypto to pay for “gas” fees
STEP 1
Get a wallet
Get a wallet to store your SCRT, ETH, and Secret Tokens or wrapped SCRT (wSCRT), depending on whether you’re bridging from Ethereum to Secret or vice versa.
We recommend:
- The Keplr wallet—the Cosmos ecosystem’s interchain wallet—to hold your SCRT and Secret (ERC-20) Tokens. Go here to install the app or watch this tutorial
- Metamask wallet is an open-source browser extension wallet that holds your ETH and wrapped SCRT. Go here to install the app
The Secret Ethereum Bridge is public, so if you want to keep your wallet private, you’ll need a separate, non-private wallet to connect to the bridge.
Note: 💡 Check out our Secret Wallet Guide to create a wallet that can’t be linked to your identity.
STEP 2
Gather your gas fees
To use the Secret Ethereum Bridge, you’ll need to pay fees on Ethereum (ETH) and Secret Network (SCRT).
STEP 3
Connect your wallets to the bridge
Now that you’ve gathered your fees, it’s time to connect your wallets to the bridge.
- Go to the Secret Bridge app
- Click on “ Connect Keplr” and “ Connect Metamask” to allow the Secret Bridge app to access both wallet accounts
- The app will ask you to select the account address with the ERC-20 tokens you want to use and confirm that you grant the Secret Bridge app permission to access your account
BRIDGING TO SECRET
How to bridge your tokens from Ethereum to Secret Network
Here are the steps you need to take to bridge your ERC-20 tokens to Secret Network, turn them into Secret Tokens, and start transacting, trading, and more—privately!
STEP 1
Head over to the Secret Bridge app
- Navigate to the Secret Bridge app
- Click the dropdown link, scroll down, and select “Ethereum”
- Make sure that “Ethereum” is displayed on the left and “Secret Network” is on the right
To get the best trade possible, we recommend checking available liquidity to avoid slippage. If you want to make a swap or use Secret DeFi tools, we advise checking for sufficient liquidity on Secret DEXs. Go to Secret Analytics and click on one of the DEXs on the left to view liquidity for different assets.
STEP 2
Select the funds you want to transfer, the amount, and destination
- Click on the token dropdown and select the coin or token that you’d like to bridge over
- Enter the number of tokens you want to transfer
- Fill out the wallet address you’d like to transfer your tokens to in the “Destination Secret Address” box (you can click “Use my address” to automatically fill out the wallet address of your connected Keplr account)
STEP 3
Allow the contract to access your tokens
If you’re trying to bridge an ERC-20 token that you haven’t bridged over before, you’ll need to allow the Secret Ethereum Bridge contract to access these specific tokens. You’ll only have to do this once per token.
- Click on “Approve” at the bottom of the page. This option should appear once you’ve selected a token in the dropdown menu
- Click “Confirm” in the Metamask popup menu prompt
If everything went as planned, you should get a confirmation screen reading that the token has been approved. Now you can start bridging over your crypto!
STEP 4
Confirm your transaction and wait for your funds to show up
Click “Bridge to Secret Network.” You’ll be asked by Metamask to “Confirm” the source and destination addresses and the number of tokens you want to transfer.
Wait for the bridge to confirm your transaction was successful. If so, your assets should appear in your wallet as Secret Tokens and are now entirely privacy-preserving!
Is your transaction stuck? A Secret Ethereum bridge transaction should take about 15–30 minutes, depending on the network’s activity. You can check whether your transaction came through with the Secret Bridge explorer and the Etherscan.
If the bridge transaction does not complete within 1–2 hours, go to our Discord #🎟open-a-ticket (under “Support”) and open a ticket. Please mention the operation id, transaction hash, and the addresses of the sending and receiving wallet (do NOT post this in the #🌉bridge-support channel!).
STEP 5
Create a viewing key
On Secret Network, encrypted token balances are the default, so you’ll first need to create a viewing key to access them.
The last step in creating your viewing key is to click “Submit” (do not use the advanced setting) to confirm.
Congrats! You created your viewing key! Wait a few moments, and you should see the corresponding Secret versions of your Ethereum assets (sAAVE, sDAI, etc.) show up in your Keplr wallet.
STEP 6
Start using your Secret Tokens!
Now that you’ve converted your Ethereum tokens into Secret Tokens, you can use Keplr to send it to other Secret addresses, use Secret Apps, and earn more tokens by providing liquidity.
- Explore all the Secret apps you can use on our DApps page
- Check out the SiennaSwap guide to find out how to earn off your Secret ERC-20 Tokens by providing liquidity
- Want to learn more about Secret Finance? Check out our Secret DeFi page
BRIDGING TO ETHEREUM
How to bridge tokens from Secret Network to Ethereum
Ready to bridge your Secret Tokens back to Ethereum? Here are the steps to unlock your tokens on Ethereum again and start using them.
STEP 1
Head over to the Secret Eth Bridge app
- Navigate to the Secret Bridge app
- Make sure that “Secret Network” is displayed on the left and “Ethereum” is on the right
STEP 2
Select the funds you want to transfer, the amount, and destination
- Click on the token dropdown and select the Secret ERC-20 tokens you’d like to bridge back to Ethereum
- Enter the number of tokens you wish to transfer
- Fill out the wallet address you’d like to transfer your Secret ERC-20 Tokens to in the “Destination Secret Address” box. You can click “Use my address” to fill out the wallet address of your connected Metamask account
STEP 3
Confirm your transaction and wait for your funds to show up
Click “Bridge to Ethereum.” You’ll be asked by Keplr to “Confirm” the source and destination addresses and the number of tokens you want to transfer.
Wait for the bridge to confirm your transaction was successful. If so, your assets should show up in your Metamask wallet!
Is your transaction stuck? A Secret Ethereum bridge transaction should take about 15–30 minutes. You can check whether your transaction came through with the Secret Bridge explorer and the Etherscan.
If the bridge transaction does not complete within 1–2 hours, go to our Discord #🎟open-a-ticket (under “Support”) and open a ticket. Please mention the operation id, transaction hash, and the addresses of the sending and receiving wallet (do NOT post this in the #🌉bridge-support channel!).
FAQ
What is the Secret Ethereum bridge?
The bridge allows users to lock their ETH or ERC20 tokens in a smart contract on Ethereum and mint secretETH or secretERC20 on Secret Network. These “Secret Tokens” are wrapped tokens based on the SNIP-20 standard and feature encrypted input, output, and state by default.
Something happened! Are my funds gone?
No worries! Whatever happens, your Ethereum assets are safely stored in a multisig contract. Your funds are safe if you’ve entered a Secret Network address you control.
With that said, our legal team requires us to say that no bridge operators take any responsibility for direct or indirect damages that may be caused by using this software. Interacting with the Bridge is solely up to the user’s discretion.
What’s the cost of using the Secret Eth bridge?
For an entire journey (ETH -> SCRT -> ETH), users need approximately 500K gas on Ethereum. This amount is approximately ⅓ of the cost of using Tornado Cash.
Sending ETH/ERC20 to Secret Network
Alice spends <100K gas on Ethereum (ERC20s will need a one-time spending approval TX). The multisig committee covers gas on Secret Network.
Sending Secret Tokens to Ethereum
To burn her tokens, Alice pays a gas fee on Secret Network in SCRT
SCRT users also pay a fee deducted from their assets on Ethereum. This fee covers the gas cost of the multisig transaction to unlock the Ethereum assets of the multisig and accounts for the volatility in gas prices. It’s denominated in the base currency and is roughly equivalent to the cost of 500,000 Ethereum gas in the denomination of tokens you are withdrawing.
How does the multisig bridge work?
Ethereum
Ethereum uses a multisig lock/release smart contract. A 3-of-5 multisig transaction unlocks Ethereum assets sent to their deposit contract. The contract receives ETH and ERC20 assets from the holder of these tokens. The smart contract only releases these assets when the bridge operators collect the threshold number of three signatures on the Ethereum blockchain.
Secret Network
Minting on Secret Network requires the multisig committee to collect valid off-chain signatures and broadcast signed transactions to Secret Network. The difference is due to the multisig implementation on Ethereum and Secret Network — however, they both have an equal level of security. Two Secret Contracts manage each pair of assets (e.g., ETH<->sETH): The first is the swap contract to mint and burn tokens, and the second is the SNIP-20 contract, which manages the token.
For more information on SNIP-20, please refer to the standard’s documentation. In addition, you can see the bridge code here.
Who are the bridge operators?
The bridge operators are very reputable staking operators: Figment, Staked, B-Harvest, Citadel.one, and Enigma.
Which tokens are supported?
Currently, the bridge supports ETH, OCEAN, YFI, UNI, TUSD, SNX, MKR, DAI, BAND, LINK, AAVE, COMP, KNC, USDT, WBTC, and BAC. Please fill out this form if you want to see support added for other tokens.
However, we can’t guarantee liquidity for all tokens on Secret DeFi platforms. We recommend checking whether the token you want to bridge has enough liquidity on Secret DEXs. Go to Secret Analytics and click on one of the DEXs on the left to view liquidity for different assets.
What are the risks involved with Secret — Ethereum bridge?
Smart Contract risk
The multisig contract on Ethereum is based on an updated version of Gnosis MultiSigWallet, one of the most well-known and trusted multisig contracts on Ethereum. The code itself is very simple, meaning that the contract’s attack surface is minimal and provides a high degree of trust that locked funds are secure.
Multisig-bridge risk
If the majority of the bridge operators, which are regulated and well-respected entities in the space, decide to collude, users are at risk of losing their funds. Similarly, suppose the operators, which are professional validator service providers, go offline. In that case, the users will be unable to move their funds before three of the five operators are online again. We have specifically chosen professional entities to minimize such risk, and requiring only 3-out-of-5 means occasional outages will not compromise service availability.
Other risks
Ethereum Network congestion: The volatility of gas prices on Ethereum means that your cost of privacy will fluctuate based on network congestion. In addition, this may affect the time it takes to approve transactions and swaps.
Why do I have to unlock Secret Tokens? What is a Viewing Key?
Tokens on the Secret Network, based on the SNIP-20 standard, are private. Therefore, all transactions and balances are encrypted. Even your wallet software can’t know your balance without permission, which viewing keys provide. Unlocking a token means unlocking it.
Viewing Keys give your wallet or a site viewing permissions. The Viewing Key is a string stored by the SNIP-20 contract and is used to grant access to read-only queries. The Keplr wallet has built-in support for these Viewing Keys, and you can create them using the native interface. In addition, it is essential to know that each token requires a separate Viewing Key.
How can I get help?
Report any issues in the #🌉bridge-support channel on the Secret Network Discord server with one or more pieces of the following information:
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Transaction id, e.g., 7fa14f19–219f8220–1f209e61–8911e539 in . Every bridge operation is associated with a unique transaction id, which is available in your web page URL. If you didn’t store the transaction id, it’s okay. Follow steps two or three.
-
Transaction hashes on Ethereum or Secret Network. You can find this information under the Transactions tab.
-
ETH or Secret account address you used for the bridge.
Please allow 24–48 hours for your issue to be resolved. Happy bridging!
What does it mean if Secret support mentions you need to push a stuck transaction again?
A database manages the pending and unsigned transactions. In that database, we can retry swaps if they have not been processed. When a user has a problem, the database is manually checked for consistency to ensure that the funds are not released, and that retrying the swap will not cause a double-mint.
Once we’re sure a retry is in order, we try again, and all the bridge nodes try to agree on signing it again. The process fails in the first place when network issues inhibit the consensus process and causes transactions to get left behind.