Boba Network is a Layer 2 optimistic rollup built on Ethereum. Based on the OP Stack, Boba is fully EVM compatible while offering lower gas fees and higher throughput than Ethereum mainnet. Boba is best known for two developer-facing features on top of the standard OP Stack: Hybrid Compute, which lets smart contracts call off-chain APIs and receive verifiable results, and native support for account abstraction.
The Boba API lets your applications connect to a Boba node on the network. You can read onchain data, submit transactions, and interact with smart contracts using its JSON-RPC endpoints. The API follows the JSON-RPC standard, a stateless, lightweight, remote procedure call (RPC) protocol encoded in JSON.
Explained in the Boba API Quickstart Guide.
Yes. Boba is built on the OP Stack, which means it supports any Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) codebase. You can deploy existing Solidity contracts, use the same tools you use for Ethereum, and migrate assets from Ethereum L1 or other interoperable chains to Boba with minimal changes.
When accessing the Boba network through a node provider like Alchemy, you use an API key to send transactions and retrieve data from the network.
For the best development experience, we recommend that you sign up for a free API key.
Common Ethereum libraries such as viem, ethers.js, and web3.js all support Boba given its EVM nature. viem exports both boba (mainnet) and bobaSepolia (testnet) chain definitions out of the box.
Any language that works with Ethereum works with Boba. Solidity is the primary choice for smart contract development. JavaScript and TypeScript are the most common languages for offchain interactions, while Python, Go, and Rust libraries also work.
Boba uses ETH as its native gas token, the same as Ethereum mainnet.
Hybrid Compute is a feature unique to Boba that lets smart contracts call off-chain APIs and machine-learning endpoints and receive verifiable results back onchain. This enables data-rich dApps that would otherwise be impractical or impossible to build purely onchain. See the Boba Hybrid Compute docs for details.
Alchemy supports the following Boba networks:
- Boba Mainnet (chain ID
288):https://boba-mainnet.g.alchemy.com/v2/{apiKey} - Boba Sepolia (chain ID
28882):https://boba-sepolia.g.alchemy.com/v2/{apiKey}
Use Boba Sepolia (chain ID 28882). It mirrors the Boba mainnet environment and lets you deploy smart contracts, execute transactions, and rehearse bridging flows at no cost. You can find faucet options on the Boba testnet faucets page.
You can find the list of all the methods Alchemy supports for the Boba API on the Boba API Endpoints page.
The Boba Gateway supports bridging ETH and supported ERC-20 tokens between Ethereum and Boba. Connect your wallet, choose the asset, and confirm the transaction on the source chain.
Use Bobascan for Boba Mainnet and Bobascan Testnet for Boba Sepolia. Both let you look up transactions, addresses, tokens, and contracts on the respective network.
If you have any questions or feedback, contact us at [email protected] or open a ticket in the Alchemy Dashboard.