Binance Smart Chain Bridge Workaround For US Users
Over the past few weeks, people have been abandoning Ethereum en-masse to take advantage of the lower transaction fees and faster confirmation times on the Binance Smart Chain. Although there are a lot of great protocols on the Binance Smart Chain like Venus and Pancake Swap, many users, specifically in the US, have trouble accessing BSC because the Binance ---> Binance Smart Chain Bridge is geo-blocked for US users. In this post, I'll show two separate ways of working around this geo-block so that you can still access all of the great features on the Binance Smart Chain.
In theory, the Biance Bridge allows users to migrate tokens from the Tron, Ethereum, or traditional Binance chain to the Binance Smart Chain, however, if you live in the US, or any of the other "forbidden" countries, the first thing you will notice when you try to access the bridge is a warning that prevents you from using the service.
Although the official bridge is disabled for US users, there are still two (at least) ways that can help you convert assets to the Binance Smart Chain and begin enjoying all of the great features on BSC.
Trust Wallet Swap
The first option is converting from within the Trust Wallet. If you have traditional BNB (BEP2) in your trust wallet, you can simply convert it to BSC BEP20 standard by BNB, clicking "more" and then selecting "Swap to Smart Chain."
The process will take place completely in your wallet within a few seconds, and at the time of writing will cost around $1USD. I have found this method to be quite useful, however, it is best suited to people who already keep funds in the Trust wallet. If you have your funds elsewhere, you will first have to create a Trust wallet (free) and then send the crypto there (gas fees) to convert it.
Cross Chain Swap in Binance Extension Wallet
The second option to convert is by doing a "Cross Chain Exchange" directly within your Binance Extension Wallet. To do this, simply log in to your Smart Chain account on the extension wallet, and copy that address. It should start with something like 0x as in an an ETH address.
Copy that address to your clipboard and then use the drop down arrow to log in to the main Binance network on the extension wallet and click send. We will send from our traditional BNB account to the Smart Chain address.
When we click send, we will see a message that tells us we are doing a cross chain transfer. This allows us to swap our BNB from traditional to the Smart Chain directly in the wallet.
Regardless of which method you choose, the transaction fees were both comparable at around $1 USD.
Conclusion
Although the US doesn't have an outright ban on crypto, I like to say that working with crypto in the US is like playing on "challenge" mode because we are blocked from a lot of websites and services. That being said, I think there are some great opportunities on BSC and its worth it to navigate a few hurdles in able to be able to access them.
As always, thanks for reading.
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