# Primary bridge metric

**URL:** <https://forum.l2beat.com/t/primary-bridge-metric/97>\
**Category:** Methodology & Framework\
**Created:** [October 11, 2022, 10:56pm UTC](https://forum.l2beat.com/t/primary-bridge-metric/97 "2022-10-11T22:56:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![randomishwalk](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.l2beat.com/randomishwalk/32/29_2.png) [@randomishwalk](https://forum.l2beat.com/u/randomishwalk)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 10:56pm UTC](https://forum.l2beat.com/t/primary-bridge-metric/97/1 "2022-10-11T22:56:19Z")

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Understand why TVL is used for scaling solutions, despite flaws that everyone has pointed out [[Reworking TVL on L2BEAT](https://forum.l2beat.com/t/reworking-tvl-on-l2beat/17/8)].

What should the right metric be for bridges though? Should it be TVL or USD volume?

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**Author:** ![Passive](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.l2beat.com/passive/32/41_2.png) [@Passive](https://forum.l2beat.com/u/Passive)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2022, 7:47am UTC](https://forum.l2beat.com/t/primary-bridge-metric/97/2 "2022-10-15T07:47:35Z")

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I’d say Volume !  
High TVL has its own indication but Volume is more important imo.

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**Author:** ![Bartek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@Bartek](https://forum.l2beat.com/u/Bartek)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 1:25pm UTC](https://forum.l2beat.com/t/primary-bridge-metric/97/3 "2022-10-28T13:25:55Z")

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Volume can (and will) be tracked but it does sound to me like a super easy metric to game by simply moving funds back and forth. Locking liquidity in a bridge is much harder as you do need to have these funds in the first place.

Unique users can also be faked, but probably requires more effort

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![randomishwalk](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.l2beat.com/randomishwalk/32/29_2.png) [@randomishwalk](https://forum.l2beat.com/u/randomishwalk)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 2:01pm UTC](https://forum.l2beat.com/t/primary-bridge-metric/97/4 "2022-10-28T14:01:05Z")

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That’s fair and it does seem like you are being judicious in what you are counting as “TVL” (i.e. only specific big tokens) as I think TVL is also quite easy to game if you counted everything.

Only pushback I would give to your criticism of volume is bridge fees potentially somewhat mitigate this, though for large transfers across bridges with a mix of fixed & variable (or 100% fixed) the fixed portion of fees would diminish as % of value transferred. I still think volume more accurately captures economic activity in a bridge.

Maybe the right takeaway from this conversation is that any metric in crypto will be gamed, so it’s on the user of the analytics & dashboard to be prudent when interpreting data.