An EVM-compatible testnet in the Polkadot ecosystem, Moonbase Alpha mirrors Moonbeam’s production environment with low-cost DEV gas, fast finality, and Ethereum tooling.
Moonbase Alpha is Moonbeam’s public test network that mirrors the Moonbeam EVM on Polkadot and uses DEV as its native token; it’s used to stage dapps, dry‑run bridge transfers, and test XC‑20/XCM cross‑chain integrations before mainnet. Typical performance: ~12 s block time, ~1 gwei average gas price (simple transfer ~21,000 gas ≈ 0.000021 DEV), and throughput in the tens of TPS depending on block weight and network load.
Moonbase Alpha is unique in offering production‑parity with Moonbeam (EVM + Substrate pallets, XC‑20s, XCM) and Moonbeam‑specific precompiles, so contracts and gas profiles behave the same when promoted to mainnet. Compared with generic EVM testnets, it pairs Ethereum tooling (MetaMask/Hardhat) with Polkadot interoperability, predictable ~12 s blocks and very low fees (~1 gwei), enabling side‑by‑side benchmarking of activity and TPS versus Ethereum L1 (~15 TPS) and other EVM chains.
Moonbase Alpha uses DEV as the gas token for transaction fees. You can obtain DEV by bridging from other chains or purchasing using thirdweb Bridge.
To bridge DEV to Moonbase Alpha, connect your wallet to thirdweb bridge, select your source chain, choose the token you want to bridge, select Moonbase Alpha as the destination, enter the amount, and confirm the transaction. The bridge will handle the cross-chain transfer instantly.
To build on Moonbase Alpha you can use thirdweb, which provides an easy way to build, monetize and scale your apps, games or agents. You can find detailed guides and documentation on https://portal.thirdweb.com to get started quickly.
To add Moonbase Alpha to your wallet, you can connect your wallet and click on [Add to Wallet] button at the top of the page. Alternatively, you can add the network manually using the RPC URL and chain details and add it to your wallet's network settings.
To send DEV on Moonbase Alpha, ensure your wallet is connected to the Moonbase Alpha network, enter the recipient's address, specify the amount of DEV to send, review the gas fee, and confirm the transaction in your wallet.