Bridge MATIC tokens from Ethereum to Polygon

August 16th, 2022

SHARE is a protocol built on blockchain that enables creators to choose the price per stream of their audio or video content, distribute the content directly to consumers, make it accessible on any web application, and receive payments instantly when their content is streamed. SHARE has a wide variety of applications including music, video, and podcasts.

Introduction

There is a learning curve to navigating web3, but once you understand some of the fundamental concepts, you will have the know-how and skills that can be easily transferred across tokens, chains, and wallets!

In the Ethereum ecosystem, fungible tokens comply with the ERC-20 standard and can be stored and transacted on any Ethereum-compatible blockchain. However, sometimes you may have a token, like MATIC on a chain like Ethereum, rather than on its native blockchain called the Polygon Network. The MATIC on Ethereum is an ERC-20 token, however, in order to function for transactions on Polygon it needs to be MATIC on Polygon, which is different from an ERC-20.

On SHARE, Polygon is currently the most efficient way to transact, and avoid paying high transaction costs, and if you have MATIC on Ethereum or any other blockchain that’s not the Polygon Network you may want to transfer your tokens to transact on Share.

This article provides the steps for bridging MATIC tokens from Ethereum to the Polygon Network.

Prerequisites

Select and set up a digital wallet to start using SHARE

The Polygon Network

Polygon, formerly known as Matic network, provides an easy framework for new and existing blockchain projects to build on Ethereum without scalability issues. The Polygon network addresses the network’s challenges by handling transactions on a separate Ethereum-compatible blockchain. This results in low transaction fees, higher throughput, and a better overall user experience.

Transfer tokens to Polygon

To transfer tokens from one blockchain to another, you can use the Polygon Bridge.

Here are the steps to move tokens from Ethereum to Polygon.

1. Go to Polygon’s bridge and connect your wallet.

2. Click “Polygon Bridge”. You’ll be directed to the Polygon bridging portal.

3. In the bridging portal:

Select Ethereum as the network you want to send “From”
Select Polygon as the network you want to transfer “To”.
Choose the name of the token you want to transfer. In this case MATIC.
Enter the quantity of tokens you want to transfer. In the example screenshot, you can see 5 MATIC tokens are being transferred. The most important thing is to do this with a very small amount of MATIC to verify that things are working correctly before moving any larger quantities.
Select “Transfer”. It should take about 7-8 minutes to deposit your funds.

4. Approve the transaction in your wallet. The transaction cost (gas fees) is shown before you approve the transaction, and you will see a progress tab bar indicating when your transfer is complete.