Bridge checklist: six checks before sending money between networks

Bridging between networks is one of the few DeFi operations where a mistake is often irreversible. Six checks before hitting the button.

Checklist

• 1. Frontend. Phishing copies of bridges are an industrial-scale genre: use the domain from a bookmark or the official Twitter, not from a search engine. Ads in search results for "bridge" are the worst entry point into DeFi.
• 2. What you'll get on the other end. A native asset or a bridge wrapper? A wrapper is dead without its own bridge and may not be accepted by protocols. Check this in the transaction preview.
• 3. Route liquidity. For pool bridges: your size against the pool depth on the target network - a large sum in a thin pool will come out with wild slippage or get stuck.
• 4. Gas on the target network. A classic trap: you arrive on a new network without a native token - assets are there, but nothing to move them with. Some bridges can deliver "gas included" - turn it on.
• 5. Test with a small amount. The first transfer on a new route should be a minimal sum. The cost of the lesson versus the cost of the deposit.
• 6. Bridge status. Pauses, incidents, "maintenance" - check the bridge's channel before a large transfer. Millions stuck during a pause is a recurring genre.

And a rule on top: a bridge is transit. It arrived, deal with it; "I'll wait a week in the wrapper" is exactly how losses from the next exploit look. Sector incidents are in the section.