Dapp Developer Overview
This document provides an overview of tools and resources to help you build applications for OP Mainnet. It points you to guides on basic contract deployment, cross-chain messaging, and Dapp developer tutorials. If you're looking for third-party tools that make building apps on OP Mainnet easier, check out the Developer Tools section.
Getting Started
If you're brand new to OP Mainnet, try starting with the guide on deploying a basic contract. It'll get you familiar with the core steps required to get a contract deployed to the network. Luckily, OP Mainnet is EVM equivalent (opens in a new tab), so it's similar to deploying a contract to Ethereum with a few small differences.
You might also want to check out the testing on OP Networks guide and the tutorial on running a local development environment to help you feel totally confident in your OP Mainnet deployment.
Cross-Chain Messaging
Looking to explore cross-chain messaging? Here are some detailed guides for that. If you want to bridge a token from Ethereum to OP Mainnet (or vice versa!), you should check out the Standard Token Bridge. The Standard Token Bridge makes the process of moving tokens between chains as easy as possible.
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! OP Mainnet even uses this same message-passing infrastructure under the hood of the Standard Token Bridge.
Dapp Developer Tutorials
If you're a bit more familiar with OP Mainnet and Ethereum, you can try walking through one of the tutorials put together by the Optimism community. They'll help you get a headstart when building your first Optimistic project.
| Tutorial Name | Description | Difficulty Level |
|---|---|---|
| Writing Your First Contract on Optimism | Learn how to write your first contact on Optimism using MetaMask browser extension as a wallet. | 🟢 Easy |
| Using OP Mainnet System Contracts | Learn how to work with OP Mainnet contracts directly from other contracts and how to work with contracts from the client side. | 🟢 Easy |
| Bridging ETH with the Optimism SDK | Learn how to use the Optimism SDK to transfer ETH between Layer 1 (Ethereum or Goerli) and Layer 2 (OP Mainnet or OP Goerli). | 🟢 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 Goerli) and Layer 2 (OP Mainnet or OP Goerli). | 🟢 Easy |
| Bridging your Standard ERC-20 token to OP Mainnet using the Standard Bridge | Learn how to bridge your standard ERC-20 token to OP Mainnet using the standard bridge. | 🟡 Moderate |
| Bridging your Custom ERC-20 token to OP Mainnet using the Standard Bridge | Learn how to bridge your custom ERC-20 token to OP Mainnet using the standard bridge. | 🟡 Moderate |
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, please visit the Transactions Troubleshooting Guide for help.