In this blog, we show you how to add Arbitrum to MetaMask wallet. First, we talk a bit about what Arbitrum is and what it does, etc. If you do not want to read about that and directly want to see how to add Arbitrum to MetaMask. You can go down this page and start reading “Getting Arbitrum on MetaMask”.
What is Arbitrum Layer 2
Arbitrum is a cryptocurrency Roll up system that functions as a smart sidechain to Ethereum. Arbitrum runs the smart contracts without the limitations of scalability and privacy that users run into on blockchains such as Ethereum. Just like on Ethereum, Arbitrum allows users to create smart contracts by using code. This to specify the behavior of a virtual machine (VM) that runs the so-called smart contract’s function. The Arbitrum layer 2 offers 4 main benefits. Benefits such as:
- Trustless security: Because Arbitrum has its security rooted in Ethereum, with any party able to ensure correct Layer 2 results.
- The chain has compatibility with Ethereum. Meaning it is able to run unchanged EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) contracts and unchanged Ether transactions.
- It has scalability. So moving contracts, computation, and storage off of the Ethereum main chain, allowing much higher numbers of transactions.
- It minimizes the cost. This by making it designed and engineered so as to minimize the Layer 1 gas cost of the system, and minimizing the cost per transaction.
Because of the simple fact that Arbitrum can interact with Ethereum as an EVM chain. This means that anything on Ethereum can simply move to Arbitrum and back. This goes for both smart contracts as well as for tokens.
How to pay fees on Arbitrum
You may wonder, does Arbitrum have its own token? The answer is simple. No, it does not. To transact on the Arbitrum L2 chain users need only Ether. The ETH token works on Ethereum as the token used for paying for transaction fees. Because Arbitrum has not launched its own token it only uses ETH. Just like Ethereum does. However, there exists a possibility that more similar chains go live in the future. All of the new chains can choose for themselves what kind of token they will use for gas fees. Because they can choose for themselves, no one can say whether they choose ETH or maybe a new token for gas.
Smart Contracts on Arbitrum
Because Arbitrum uses Ethereum as its security layer and works as an EVM. It can easily deploy the same smart contracts on it as Ethereum can. This makes it super easy for developers and users alike to switch from one chain to the other. Because of this, we expect that most of the smart contracts currently deployed on Ethereum, eventually switch to Artbitrum. But only if they run into scaling and gas fee problems on ETH. Switching to an L2 can really help scale most projects. But not necessarily all projects. Besides that most smart contracts are expected to run on both chains with probably a big chunk of their traffic still on the main chain.
Dapps moving to Arbitrum
Many of the popular Dapps on Ethereum already expressed their support for Arbitrum. With some big shots also planning on launching their Dapps on the L2. One of the biggest of all, UniSwap had a vote about it and its community voted to also launch on Arbitrum. This besides the plans of already launching on the Optimism L2 sidechain. Some other much-used Dapps moving to Arbitrum are SushiSwap, Aave, Curve, and Balancer. And not only Dapps switch to the network, but even Etherscan also plans on supporting the chain through their website. Integration of these kinds of big Dapps is very important for the whole L2 ecosystem. Because the popularity of these Dapps most likely brings a lot of volume/users with them. Without this, the network can not grow. So the importance of more and more Dapps and tokens launching on the sidechain is very important. Besides that it is good for Arbitrum it can also take the load of Ethereum. If this happens the gas fee prices on Ethereum can also go down to a more reasonable level.
Wallets that support Arbitrum
As of now already many wallets offer support for the L2 chain. Like always, you can of course find all these wallets on our wallet finder page. Just simply use the Arbitrum filter, which you can find under sidechains. This filter shows you only wallets that support the Arbitrum L2 sidechain. As you might already suspect, Metamask can also be found there. But because the Arbitrum chain is still quite new we expect many wallets to announce their support for the chain as well into the future. Now if you plan on sending tokens from Ethereum to Arbitrum. Watch out to not just send them directly like you would send a transaction on Eth. To move tokens from one chain to another you need a token bridge. Because if you do not use a bridge it could result in a loss of funds which you do not want. With a token bridge, you can move any type of token like ERC-20, ERC-721, ERC-1155, etc.
Getting Arbitrum on MetaMask
So to add the Arbitrum to MetaMask you have to open the MetaMask wallet (In case you don’t have MetaMask yet, please get it on this page). Once you have MetaMask installed, open it up on the full screen. So you will have the same screen as in our example here.
Now go to the top right of the screen where it says “Ethereum Mainnet” and click on the little arrow pointing down next to it. This opens the network’s tap where you can select all different types of EVM blockchains (Ethereum virtual machine) networks. Now here you can click on the Custom RPC to add a new custom EVM blockchain network of your choice. In this case, the Arbitrum.
Now Metamask will ask you for the data needed to connect the wallet to the Arbitrum. Please fill in the list below.
Network Name - Arbitrum
New RPC URL - https://arb1.arbitrum.io/rpc
Chain ID - 42161
Symbol - ETH
Block Explorer URL - https://arbiscan.io/
When you have done this, you can just click save. And now you have added the Arbitrum to your MetaMask wallet. If you would like to switch between the EVM blockchains. Simply click on the Network button in the top right of the screen to select another blockchain. Because adding different types of EVM blockchains works the same, you can add any EVM blockchain in the same way. But instead of the list given in this blog, you replace that with another network’s ChainID, symbol, etc. We hope this blog post helped you to integrate a new EVM into your MetaMask crypto wallet. So that you can now use Arbitrum as much as you want.
Find your wallet here
In case you want to see all the other wallets supporting Arbitrum. You can simply take a look here to filter between all wallets that do!
So we hope this article taught you more about how to add Arbitrum to MetaMask wallet. But in case you have Questions regarding Crypto or Ethereum? Feel free to ask them on our online Facebook or Telegram groups. Because we are happy to help whenever we can! So are you ready to start using your own Blockchain wallet?
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