Building Crosschain Dapps: 10x Your UX with Across

User experience (UX) isn't just important—it's everything. A seamless, frictionless UX facilitates higher engagement, more conversions, and, ultimately, more success.

Unfortunately, fragmentation in Ethereum’s L2 ecosystem has led to fragmented experiences, making it difficult and tedious for users to interact across chains. That’s why native crosschain experiences are the new meta that every web3 developer should be paying attention to. The dApps that embrace it will thrive, while those that don't will fall behind.

The good news? It's easier than ever to integrate crosschain functionality directly into your dApp.

Let’s explore how easy it is to 10x your UX with Across.

How easy is it for users to complete a task in your dApp? If the process feels clunky or forces them to jump between apps, they won’t stick around. Studies show that friction hurts conversion rates. The more steps users have to take, the more likely they are to drop off.

Think about it. Even for something as simple as swapping tokens, you have to click “Connect Wallet,” select your wallet, choose the token you want to swap and enter the amount. Then, you need to click "Approve," approve the transaction in your wallet, click Confirm, and confirm the transaction again in your wallet. That’s a total of eight steps for a basic swap—and it gets even worse when bridging is involved.

If you need to bridge funds first, you have to leave your app, switch to a third-party bridging service, complete the bridging process elsewhere, and then come back. That’s a nightmare. It adds extra friction, extra decisions, and extra chances for you to give up. In fact, traditional bridging adds about 10 extra steps (yes, we counted)!

Every extra step adds friction, and friction loses users. The fewer the steps, the better the experience.

Traditional bridging is a major pain point. It introduces multiple layers of friction, which can be categorized using the Hierarchy of User Friction framework. This model identifies three primary friction types:

But what if you could eliminate bridging friction entirely?

Good news, you can.

By integrating Across, you can embed crosschain functionality directly into your dApp. This empowers you to cut out the extra steps and ensure your users never have to leave your app to move funds across chains. The best part? It all happens under the hood, completely abstracted away from the user experience.

But wait, there’s more…

Integrating with Across doesn’t just improve UX—it also unlocks three key benefits: faster transactions, lower costs, and stronger security. Let’s explore how Across addresses each of them.

Speed is a critical factor in delivering a 10x UX improvement. Traditional bridges can take minutes or even hours to finalize transactions due to complex validation mechanisms. Even under optimal conditions, some bridging services indicate that crosschain transfers may take up to 20 minutes to complete, depending on network traffic.

Across enables near-instant finality, with L2 to L2 transfers completing in as little as 2 seconds. By significantly reducing wait times, your users stay engaged and can execute their transactions without frustrating delays. Faster transactions also enhance the efficiency of DeFi applications, NFT marketplaces, and GameFi platforms that require real-time asset movement.

Transaction costs are another major pain point. Many crosschain solutions require high fees due to intermediary networks and gas-intensive validation processes, and users often incur both bridging fees and gas fees.

Across optimizes execution by leveraging the most cost-efficient routes, ensuring end-users pay the lowest possible fees while still maintaining top-tier security. Lower costs mean more accessibility. Users no longer have to weigh whether a bridge fee is worth it, and you can offer a seamless crosschain experience without worrying about pricing them out.

Crosschain bridges accounted for over half of all crypto hacks in 2022, with billions lost due to smart contract vulnerabilities, weak validation mechanisms, and centralized points of failure. Many rely on multisigs or third-party validators, making them prime targets for exploitation.

Across is built differently. It mitigates risk with UMA’s optimistic oracle, which ensures independent verification and economic security rather than centralized trust assumptions. This optimistic security model prevents fraudulent transactions while maintaining fast and cost-efficient execution, giving you and your users the safest possible crosschain experiences.

Across powers seamless crosschain actions that deliver unparalleled speed, affordability, and security. By integrating these capabilities into your dApp, you can ensure users experience faster transactions, lower costs, and the highest level of security—all without leaving your application. Now, you can embed this power directly within your dApp, giving users a seamless experience without ever leaving your UI.

We also understand the importance of developer experience. That’s why we provide a developer-friendly SDK, making it easy to integrate native crosschain capabilities into your dApp. The two key capabilities are native bridging and embedded crosschain actions.

What if your users never had to leave your app to bridge funds?

With Native Bridging, you can embed Across’ bridging capabilities directly into your dApp. Instead of forcing users to switch tabs, visit third-party sites, and bridge manually, they can move funds across chains seamlessly in-app.

Uniswap’s in-app bridging is a great example of this. Powered by Across, this feature allows users to bridge assets across chains without ever leaving the platform. It just works.

By integrating Across' Native Bridging, you:

Crosschain functionality shouldn’t stop at just bridging. Users should be able to perform entire DeFi transactions across chains directly within your app.

That’s where Embedded Crosschain Actions come in.

Across handles the complex crosschain execution under the hood, providing the fastest and most cost-efficient execution possible. Users simply interact with your dApp as if everything were happening on a single chain.

Embedded crosschain actions open up a world of powerful use case possibilities:

YieldNest’s crosschain liquid staking deposits is a great example of this in action. Powered by Across, this feature allows users to liquid-stake ETH across chains without any extra steps.

By embedding Crosschain Actions, you:

To win in web3, you need a seamless, low-friction UX. Native crosschain functionality is the key to keeping users engaged, reducing complexity, and giving your dApp an edge over the competition.

By integrating Across, you unlock:

Don’t settle for mediocre—your users deserve the best crosschain experiences possible.

Start building with Across today.