Longer posts talking about the subject in detail
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In the previous article we have deployed our first virtual chain with a custom token. Let's now deploy some NFTs to it!
To do this we will use SpeedrunEthereum first challenge. We won't cover it here fully, as instructions are great in their NFT tutorial.
Instead, we will talk in detail about specifics of going through SpeedrunETH challenges in the context of your own virtual chain. So you will be able to pass all of them on it!
In this short tutorial we will show how by using Omnibridge and AuroraCloud, you can start your own EVM chain with a custom token from other chains (e.g., Solana, Base, Ethereum).
To do this we will create a custom token, bridge it to NEAR and use corresponding fungible token (NEP-141 on NEAR) as a gas token for a virtual chain.
In this short tutorial we will show how by using Omni Bridge you can bring your custom token from other chains (e.g., Solana, Base, Ethereum) to NEAR ecosystem.
To do this we have created a custom token called VGAS on Base already in previous tutorial.
Now, we want to bridge it to NEAR and use corresponding fungible token (NEP-141 on NEAR) as a gas token for a virtual chain in the next article.
If a developer wants to have their own base token for a [virtual chain] launched via AuroraCloud, they can use, for example, OpenZeppelin or Aurora Contracts.
But what if you're just a beginner in the web3 world? thirdweb comes to the rescue here and provides an easy UI to do exactly that - deploy, mint, burn your own ERC-20, and even allows conducting airdrops with it.
Of course, to be used as a base token for your [virtual chain] that token will need to be bridged to NEAR first via [OmniBridge], but we will discuss that in the next article.
In this article, we will discuss how, by using Chain Signatures on Aurora, a Safe Wallet could control Bitcoin accounts and their assets.
This is an example of how a virtual chain could be a runtime environment for another blockchain lacking native smart contracts. The idea could generally be applied to any virtual chain and any accounts or contracts on it.
In this article, we will discuss how to bridge liquidity to Aurora in the most convenient way. We will focus on stablecoins, explain why we have four types of these on Aurora, and take a look at how to bridge them in different ways. Note that this whole bridging process also applies to the ERC-20 tokens.
Recently, we became aware of this issue and the lack of a way to do it in the Bastion UI, so we decided to create a tutorial for everyone to use independently. Big thanks to the people in the community who helped me create and test this tutorial and provided invaluable insights and feedback!
To formulate the problem more precisely, a user has some cUSDCcUSDTLP tokens and wants to convert these back to stables. The Bastion project's UI doesn't allow this today, so the only way is to call smart contracts directly.
We will go through the next steps:
cUSDC and cUSDT into regular stables?We will use the most convenient way for users to interact with smart contracts—the Explorer. However, devs can always write a script to perform the steps described in this article with Ethers or Web3.js.
Let's go!
In this article, we will discuss how to manage your staking on the Aurora Validator. To recap quickly, Aurora is an EVM-compatible blockchain running as an L2 on the Near Protocol. In the heart of it is an Aurora Engine smart contract. That is why every transaction on Aurora is relayed to the Near and has the corresponding Near transaction. You can read more about this here. That is why Aurora doesn’t have its own validators – we’re just re-using the Near ones.
Some common functionality is required for many smart contracts. Examples are temporarily pausing certain features, staging and deploying a new version of the contract, and restricting access to contract methods. While such functionality is out of scope for an SDK like near-sdk-rs, ideally it is not implemented anew for every smart contract.
The most obvious benefits of an open-source library are reusability and the value it adds to the ecosystem. The smart contract features mentioned above can be tricky to implement and cumbersome to test. Without a library, developers might gloss over functionality that does not add business value but still is critical for security. As near-plugins is open-source and used by many developers, there are more engineering hours and eyeballs dedicated to it compared to a solution specific to a single smart contract.
In previous posts, we have written about the cross-contract calls (XCC) feature on Aurora. These include an overview, an application, and a deep dive into writing tests.
In this post, we continue with the XCC technical deep dive by discussing in more detail handling XCC results using callbacks. In particular, we focus on the concrete example of needing to refund tokens to a user in the event of an error. Along the way, this example will reveal a bit of a “gotcha” which developers new to the XCC feature may come across, and we’ll discuss how to overcome it.
In this article, we will learn how to write local tests for the Aurora contracts, which use XCC calls to Near ecosystem. I will use a simple example to demonstrate it, step by step, we will write:
sandbox.git action for running this test automatically.The example described in this article: https://github.com/olga24912/AuroraToNearXCCExample
Recently, Michael Birch gave a talk at a virtual Rust conference about some work we have done here at Aurora to enable our technology. In case you missed it, this blog post is a written version of the talk.
That talk was aimed at a more general audience, giving background about Aurora, Near, and blockchain technology in general. However, this post assumes you are already familiar with most of the Aurora/Near/blockchain background (you are here on our website, after all) and instead focuses more on the Rust side of things.
This article is a practical guide for beginners who want to learn how to work with the Aurora blockchain. It covers various aspects such as the connection of Aurora with Ethereum and Near blockchains, setting up an account on the Aurora's testnet using MetaMask, writing a small smart contract, and interacting with it using the Hardhat. Additionally, it includes writing a simple test and exploring different explorers to view transaction details.
The article assumes no prior knowledge of Ethereum or experience working with it. However, it does expect basic programming skills, familiarity with the command line, and a general understanding of blockchain and smart contracts. All commands provided in the article will be specific to the Linux operating system.
At Aurora Labs, we encourage everyone to use mainnet.aurora.dev or testnet.aurora.dev to build and deploy their apps. Those endpoints are scalable and reliable. When registering at https://aurora.plus you can even get a bunch of free transactions (soon through the Aurora Pass wallet).
That said, many dapps that are deployed on Aurora rely on running their own JSON-RPC Etherium-compatible server. Here we call this server – a relayer. You've probably already read the details about our new version of it in How the Aurora Relayer 2.0 works?
In this blog post, we explore building a simple Tic Tac Toe game using the Near ecosystem’s tech stack. This includes using Aurora for a seamless onboarding experience (free transactions), Near for complex smart contract logic, and BOS for the front end. The final result is a free-to-use, fully decentralized application that anyone can pick up and play.
Aurora Chains are dedicated blockchains that go beyond mere Ethereum compatibility through a set of industry-first innovations like:
Every Aurora Chain is based upon the Aurora smart contract. Aurora Chain is just another instance of it that can be configured in way that will work in the best way possible to be aligned with your business model and goals. The Aurora Labs team will gladly help you maintain and support your chain.
If you feel your business could benefit from its own blockchain, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].
Let's do a walkthrough demo of Aurora Innovation Chain to see how it benefits your users.