App Developer Overview
If you're a developer looking to build on Metal L2, you've come to the right place. In this area of the Metal L2 Docs you'll find everything you need to know about building Metal L2 applications for deployment on the Superchains Banking Layer, Metal L2.
Getting Started
If you're brand new to Metal L2, try starting with the guide on deploying a basic contract. It'll get you familiar with the basic steps required to get a contract deployed to the network. Metal L2 is EVM equivalent (opens in a new tab) so you can feel confident that your existing Ethereum smart contract skills will carry over to Metal L2. Just make sure to be aware of the few small differences between Ethereum and Metal L2.
You might also want to check out the testing on Metal L2 guide and the tutorial on running a local development environment to help you feel totally confident in your Metal L2 deployment.
Deploying Your First Contract to Metal L2Bridging and Messaging
Looking to build an application that sends ETH, tokens, or data between Metal L2 and Ethereum? You'll find some useful guides and tutorials in this area of the docs. For instance, if you want to learn how to bridge a token from Ethereum to Metal L2 (or vice versa!), you should check out the Standard Token Bridge.
If you're looking for something more advanced, take a look at the guide on sending data between L1 and L2. Contracts on one chain can trigger contract functions on the other chain, it's pretty cool! The Standard Token Bridge for Metal L2 even uses this same message-passing infrastructure under the hood.
Tutorials
If you're a bit more familiar with Metal L2 and Ethereum, you can try walking through one of the tutorials put together by the Optimism community. They'll help you get a head start when building your first Optimistic project.
| Tutorial Name | Description | Difficulty Level |
|---|---|---|
| Deploying Your First Contract on Metal L2 | Learn how to deploy your first contract to Metal L2 with Remix and MetaMask. | 🟢 Easy |
| Deploying Your Contracts for Free on the Superchain | Learn how to deploy your contracts for free on the Superchain using the Superchain Developer Console | 🟢 Easy |
| Bridging ETH With the Optimism SDK | Learn how to use the Optimism SDK to transfer ETH between Layer 1 (Ethereum or Sepolia) and Layer 2 (Metal L2 or Metal L2 Testnet). | 🟢 Easy |
| Bridging ERC-20 Tokens With the Optimism SDK | Learn how to use the Optimism SDK to transfer ERC-20 tokens between Layer 1 (Ethereum or Sepolia) and Layer 2 (Metal L2 or Metal L2 Testnet). | 🟢 Easy |
| Bridging your Standard ERC-20 token using the Standard Bridge | Learn how to bridge your standard ERC-20 token to layer 2 using the standard bridge. | 🟡 Medium |
| Bridging your Custom ERC-20 token using the Standard Bridge | Learn how to bridge your custom ERC-20 token to layer 2 using the standard bridge. | 🟡 Medium |
| Tracing Deposits and Withdrawals With the Optimism SDK | Learn how to use the Optimism SDK to trace deposits and withdrawals. | 🟢 Easy |
| Viewing Deposits and Withdrawals by Address With the Optimism SDK | Learn how to use the Optimism SDK to view deposits and withdrawals by address. | 🟢 Easy |
| Estimating Transaction Costs With the Optimism SDK | Learn how to use the Optimism SDK to estimate the cost of a transaction on Metal L2. | 🟢 Easy |
| Sending Metal L2 Transactions from Ethereum | Learn how to send transactions to Metal L2 from Ethereum. | 🟢 Easy |
You can also suggest a new tutorial (opens in a new tab) if you have something specific in mind. We'd love to grow this list!
Next Steps
If you still can't find the content you're looking for, there's a few options to get extra help.
- You can ask a question in the Optimism developer support forum (opens in a new tab).
- If you run into any problems during deployment, visit the Transactions Troubleshooting Guide for help.