In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to use Uniswap on Arbitrum. We will be transferring some ETH over to the Arbitrum network and then use Uniswap on Arbitrum to swap our ETH for ARB tokens. Of course, the same principles also apply if you wish to swap for different tokens on Uniswap.
Arbitrum is the most popular layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum. It offers an almost identical user experience to Ethereum and benefits from the Ethereum network’s immense security, while offering much cheaper and faster transactions than the Ethereum mainnet.
Please note that there’s actually two networks under the Arbitrum banner — Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova. Arbitrum One is the more popular of the two at the moment, and it is the network we’re referring to whenever we say “Arbitrum”.
Without further ado, let’s get into our step-by-step guide to using Uniswap on Arbitrum.
Bridge funds from Ethereum to Arbitrum
Before you can use Uniswap on Arbitrum, you’ll need to move some funds over to the Arbitrum network. Thankfully, this process is fairly straightforward thanks to the Arbitrum Bridge, a platform that allows users to easily move their tokens from the Ethereum mainnet over to Arbitrum.
In order to get started, you’ll need some ETH and an Ethereum wallet. In this tutorial, we’ll be using the MetaMask wallet, but you can also use other wallets such as Rainbow, Coinbase Wallet and Trust Wallet. If you’re wondering about how different wallets compare to each other, we offer helpful comparisons like MetaMask vs. Coinbase Wallet and MetaMask vs. Trust Wallet.
Go to the Arbitrum Bridge
To connect your wallet with Arbitrum, you can visit the Arbitrum Bridge website at https://bridge.arbitrum.io/ and opt for “Arbitrum One” from the dropdown menu. By doing so, your MetaMask wallet will automatically prompt a connection request to Arbitrum.
All the required details are already pre-filled for your convenience. Once you click “Approve,” you will receive a prompt to switch your MetaMask network from Ethereum to Arbitrum. You can switch back to Ethereum whenever you prefer.
Optional: connect to Arbitrum manually
Alternatively, if you prefer a manual setup, you can connect your MetaMask wallet to Arbitrum manually. Go to your MetaMask wallet and select your profile picture, then choose “Settings.”
Within the “Settings” menu, navigate to “Networks” and click on “Add Network.” Choose “Add network manually.”
Here are the details you need to connect your MetaMask to Arbitrum manually:
- Network Name: Arbitrum One
- New RPC URL: https://arb1.arbitrum.io/rpc
- Chain ID: 42161
- Currency symbol: ETH
- Block explorer URL: https://arbiscan.io
Bridge tokens to Arbitrum
Note: Moving ETH from the Ethereum mainnet to Arbitrum is very fast. However, please keep in mind that moving ETH from Arbitrum back to the Ethereum mainnet takes approximately 7 days.
Once your MetaMask is configured to utilize the Arbitrum network, you are prepared to transfer ETH from the Ethereum mainnet to Arbitrum.
Ensure that the “From” network is set to “Mainnet,” and the “To” network is set to “Arbitrum One.” Specify the amount of ETH you wish to transfer to Arbitrum, taking into account the gas fee (for instance, $2.13 in our example) before approving the transaction.
If everything appears satisfactory, click on “Move funds to Arbitrum One.”
Your MetaMask wallet will display the transaction details. If all the information is accurate, proceed by selecting “Confirm.”
Upon confirming, the Arbitrum bridge website will inform you that the bridging transaction is currently in progress and provide you with an estimated duration
Use Uniswap on Arbitrum
After you have some ETH on Arbitrum, you’re ready to use Uniswap on Arbitrum. On Arbitrum, you can access Uniswap v3, which is the latest version of the Uniswap protocol.
Uniswap is a decentralized protocol on the blockchain, which means that it can be accessed in a variety of ways. However, the most common way to access it is through a graphical user interface (GUI). For the purposes of this article, we’ll be using the app.uniswap.org interface to access Arbitrum.
Select Arbitrum network
After we head over to app.uniswap.org, we can select the network we wish to use. The default option is the Ethereum mainnet, but we’ll be choosing Arbitrum in the dropdown menu.
Just like what we saw when using the Arbitrum Bridge, our wallet will ask us if we wish to switch the network from the Ethereum mainnet to Arbitrum One. Click “Switch network” to proceed.
After we switch over to Arbitrum, you will see that the color scheme of the Uniswap app interface will change slightly, featuring more of a blue color. This is a nice touch to let us know that we’ve successfully switched over to Arbitrum. You’ll also see the Arbitrum logo in the top right corner of the interface.
Choose the tokens and amount you want to swap
Now that we’re on the right network, we’re ready to swap some tokens. In our example, we’ll be switching from ETH to ARB, but you can choose from a wide variety of tokens.
After we enter the amount of ETH we wish to spend, the interface will provide us with an estimate of how much ARB we’re expected to receive in return. It will also display the estimated gas fee ($1.22 in our example), which is quite a bit cheaper than what you’d get if you used the Uniswap protocol on the Ethereum mainnet.
Review and confirm swap
When you’re ready to make the swap, click “Swap”. Then, you will be asked to review and confirm the swap.
After this, a MetaMask popup will appear asking you to confirm the transaction. Take a close look at the information provided here because you won’t be able to reverse the transaction once you confirm the swap. If everything looks fine, click “Confirm”. Your transaction should be completed in just a few seconds.
Import token information
After the transaction is completed, you won’t see the new tokens in your wallet just quite yet. But don’t worry, this is normal because MetaMask doesn’t yet offer automatic token detection for tokens on Arbitrum. This means that you’ll need to manually import the information about the token you just swapped for.
In our example, we have to import information about the ARB token. We’ll head over to the Arbiscan block explorer to find the contract address of the ARB token and copy it.
Go to your MetaMask wallet again and click “Import tokens”. Then, paste in the token contract address of the token you wish to add. The “Token symbol” and “Token decimal” should be filled in automatically.
After we import the token information, we will be able to see our ARB tokens in our wallet. We won’t have to import ARB again if we make additional swaps, but if you’ll want to swap for other tokens, you’ll have to import them manually using the same process.
Hopefully, MetaMask will add automatic token detection on Arbitrum soon so that you’ll be able to skip this tedious step!
The bottom line
As you can see, the process of using Uniswap on Arbitrum is quite simple and doesn’t require advanced knowledge, even though the process of bridging tokens and then adding new token information to MetaMask can be a bit tedious. Hopefully, our article cleared up any questions you might have had on the topic.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Ethereum ecosystem, check out our article exploring Ethereum as an investment in 2023.
Source: https://coincodex.com/article/28810/how-to-use-uniswap-on-arbitrum-a-step-by-step-guide/