==Introduction==

Near is a rich ecosystem with a variety of interesting platforms built on the network. Ref Finance, The Rainbow Bridge, Paras, ZoomLand… the list is almost endless! Some of the key projects can be found in the ranked list - but you may ask, why specifically focus on the Rainbow Bridge? This question does provide with a lot of freedom, but as I have previously deep-dived into the NFTs on Near, now it is time to dive deep into the fundaments! My philosophy is to focus on the fundamental metrics first - without the bridge, not many users would be able to join the Near ecosystem, meaning that a bridge is an essential part of the network. Near is a fairly new network and therefore the ability to bridge to and from other ecosystems is a crucial part of establishing Near’s growth. Once we understand how many users bridge to Near and Aurora, we will be able to see how much potential they see in the network, as well as in the Near’s products themselves, such as Ref Finance. Furthermore, we will investigate how popular stablecoins are on the Rainbow Bridge, by looking at the USDC, USDT and USN volumes across different briding destinations.

What is the Rainbow Bridge?

The ETH ↔ NEAR Rainbow Bridge opens the gates for assets to flow freely between NEAR and Ethereum blockchains while enabling users to bridge any ERC-20 token they wish. Transfers between NEAR and Aurora require a single transaction, cost a few cents and happen instantaneously. On the other hand, transfers to Ethereum, involve two transactions—the kick-off on Aurora or NEAR, and the finalization on Ethereum. The finalization can take up to 16 hours, and its cost will depend on gas prices at that time, and are therefore unpredictable, depending on the congestion of the network.

In this dashboard, I will investigate how the picture is looking like for the Rainbow Bridge, from both perspectives - TO Near and Aurory FROM Ethereum and vice versa.

-- ==Part One: Getting to the City of Near → Ethereum to Near and Aurora through the Rainbow Bridge== --

What a beautiful morning! Enjoy the ride, we will be in the City very soon!

-- ==Which tokens were the most popular among users? Ethereum to Near and Aurora through the Rainbow Bridge, by token== --

What are the Near citizens spending the most, to buy their ‘ticket’ to the City? Let’s find out!

-- ==Part Three: Time to leave the City → Near and Aurora to Ethereum through the Rainbow Bridge== --

After a day full of adventures, it is time to say goodbye to the one and only City of Near…

-- ==Part Four: Near to Aurora and vice versa== --

Where else could Near travellers go to? What if, instead of bridging to use Ref Finance, they want to go on a different adventure? Let’s explore what happens when users bridge to Aurora from Near!

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Key points:

• There seem to be more transactions and more assets bridged to Near and Aurora from Ethereum than vice versa - it is good to see that fewer users are leaving than entering. This analysis shows us exactly what I was hoping to find, namely that users are staying on Near after bridging into it, because they see the value in the ecosystem, which is great news!
• The cumulative USD volume has increased very rapidly in the past few months. Even though we were/are in a bear market, we can still see a pretty big monthly volume from users bridging to Near, both from Ethereum and from Aurora.
• The growth of Near and Aurora seems to be similar, in terms of the cumulative trends. However, we can also notice that a lot more $ has been bridged to Near than to Aurora.

-- ==Part Five: Comparing bridge destinations== --

Not sure where to go on your trip, given the rich possibilities of the City of Near? Let’s compare the bridging destinations next to see what option is the most popular across Near’s users.

Key points:

• There is a lot more bridging action happening between Near and Aurora than to/from Ethereum, which is interesting. What does it imply? One assumption that can be made here is that once users bridge to Near, they don’t leave the network, but instead stay and play around in the ecosystem, by switching to Near and Aurora and vice versa.
• The overall trend when it comes to bridging transactions and unique users is on a big decline - but once the turbulent markets become more stable, the popularity of bridging should resume!

==Conclusion==

This dashboard has investigated the Rainbow Bridge from many different angles. We have looked at how the bridging situation has looked like from Ethereum to Near and Aurora, and vice versa, by looking at both labels and tokens. We have then deep-dived into the briding metrics for Near and Aurora specifically, and have seen that a lot of users are keen to stay in the Near ecosystem to bridge to and from Aurora. lastly, we have compared all of the analysed bridges in three cumulative graphs, to clearly see how the past months have looked like for all perspectives.

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• Dashboard by -nat-#4310
• Twitter:
• Refresh Rate - Daily
• Data from FlipsideCrypto

-- ==Time for a little story== --

Remember the famous City of Near? I hope you will enjoy your next journey through the City, as together we will explore some interesting sights.

1. Firstly, everyone needs to get to the City somehow - the fastest way - the Rainbow Bridge. Without it, the City wouldn’t exist, so it’s important that we spent a big portion of our time exploring the fundamental part of the City.
2. After a successful trip, it is time for some shopping… Everyone likes to buy a souvenir, or something little that will always remind them of the journey. In the City of Near, there are many shops to explore, but given the limited journey time, we will spend the majority of our time in Ref Finance.
3. As they say, time flies when you’re having fun! Sadly, the time has come to leave the City of Near - the last steps that we take together on this journey will be again on the Rainbow Bridge, as we remark on the beautiful sights we have seen on our trip!

-- ==Part Two: Enjoying what the City has to offer → Ref Finance== --

Welcome to the City, you have officially made it! Now, it’s time to sightsee and explore what the City has on offer…

Ref Finance is a multi-purpose DeFi platform built on Near - a place where a lot of users come to enjoy their time after their trip through the bridge to the City. In this section, we will explore some key health metrics for the platform, such as the types of interactions by labels or status, as well as how much gas users actually spent during their time in Ref Finance!

Key points:

• Ref Finance users are mainly swapping assets while they are in the City. A big portion of the total number of transactions executed counts as unlabelled, because there are no logs in the tables, which is sadly outside of my control.
• It’s good to see that there are more ‘add liquidity’ transactions than ‘remove liquidity’, meaning that a bigger proportion of users is staying with Ref Finance.
• A bigger proportion of successful transactions compared to failed ones is always good to see, Ref Finance seems to be working smoothly, except for a few days where we can see the failure rate increase to over 70%.
• Users are spending quite a lot of gas on Ref Finance, but mostly on successful transactions - we can see the standard correlation, that with more transactions executed more gas is being used on a daily basis. The busier the City of Near, the more money is spent on souvenirs - simple!