This year, Ethereum Layer 2 has experienced explosive growth, similar to the previous explosion of public chains. Many project parties have started to layout the Layer 2 track. As an expansion player in the Optimistic Rollup track, Arbitrum gradually stood out with its Airdrop activity in February this year.
We interviewed the team behind Arbitrum, including Nina, the Asia-Pacific Regional Manager of Offchain Labs; Jason, an Asia-Pacific engineer of Offchain Labs; and Shin, the Chinese community manager of the Arbitrum Foundation. They discussed how Arbitrum is dealing with the fierce competition from other players in the Layer 2 track, as well as their views on the future evolution of the entire Layer 2 landscape.
1. As a leader in the Layer 2 track, how does the Arbitrum team view the evolution of Layer 2 in the Ethereum and blockchain ecosystems, and its impact on the entire crypto industry?
Offchain Labs: The existence of Layer 2 is to scale Ethereum while ensuring security and decentralization. Therefore, Arbitrum had a complete fraud proof when it launched its first version. Offchain Labs has since made multiple updates to its technical stack products, introducing Nitro, Stylus, and Bold.
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In addition, for developers, most Layer 2 solutions use EVM, which allows them to easily deploy their projects from Layer 1 to Layer 2 without any code modifications. For users, the lower gas costs and fast transaction confirmations on Layer 2 compared to Layer 1 enable them to experience a web2-like user experience in web3 products. It can be imagined that as Layer 2 technology continues to improve in the future, more users and developers will enter the Layer 2 ecosystem.
2. We can see that the competition in the Layer 2 track is very fierce. ZkSync and Starknet have experienced rapid growth in user numbers and TVL due to Airdrop expectations. Base Chain, as a latecomer, has the advantage of resources such as Coinbase and has emerged as a dark horse. How does Arbitrum deal with the increasingly intense competition in the Layer 2 market?
Offchain Labs: If you want to have a billion users, you must first have millions of developers. Offchain Labs has developed a new technical stack called Stylus for Arbitrum. If approved through DAO voting, Stylus will allow developers to deploy programs developed in Rust, C, and C++ on Arbitrum. There are an estimated 3 million Rust developers and 12 million C++ developers on the internet. Through Stylus, Arbitrum can open a new door for the Ethereum ecosystem besides the existing 20,000 Solidity developers.
Before this, the EVM and wasm of other public chains did not share the same state. Therefore, new wasm developers could not interact with the existing EVM ecosystem. The introduction of Stylus (EVM+) breaks this limitation, allowing EVM developers and WASM developers to build together on the same ecosystem without being restricted by the ecosystem.
3. The Arbitrum team recently launched a major technology stack called Stylus. Can you understand Stylus as a killer move in response to the intense competition in the current race track? What kind of impact might it have on the entire race track?
Offchain Labs: As mentioned in the previous answer, we hope to see more Web2 developers enter the Web3 industry. The three languages mentioned above, regardless of developer quantity and tools, far exceed solidity. Therefore, for existing Web3 developers, they can incorporate libraries written in wasm contracts into their own contracts. Wasm contracts can easily interact with solidity contracts, and even rewrite and upgrade existing solidity contracts, making contracts run more efficiently and at lower costs. This will further reduce user expenses, improve blockchain performance, and foster more innovative applications.
4. Currently, the Arbitrum ecosystem can be said to be the most mature and abundant in the entire Layer2 race track. However, some very hot projects have also emerged in ecosystems like Base recently. In a bear market, it is mostly a game between existing projects. So, what is your view on the competition between Layer2 project ecosystems? What new actions might Arbitrum take in the future?
Offchain Labs: I believe competition in this field is healthy and beneficial for users. We don’t mind competition, and at the same time, we believe that Arbitrum has the best technology and Ethereum scaling solution.
Offchain Labs will progress together with Arbitrum, providing users and developers with the best technology and products, and giving them the confidence to choose Arbitrum continuously. We have already launched the testnets for Stylus and Orbit. In the future, we will continue to pay attention to user feedback on the testnets and provide users with the best user experience when the mainnet goes live. In addition, we are also researching the decentralization of sequencers. In the near future, we will provide detailed plans.
5. The ignition and development of high-quality native projects are crucial for the Layer2 ecosystem. Looking back, what do you think are the reasons why Arbitrum can have long-lasting and popular native projects like GMX? Do you think there are replicable aspects in this path?
Offchain Labs: Arbitrum has one of the most powerful DeFi ecosystems outside of Ethereum. Many innovative and high-quality projects choose to deploy on Arbitrum because it has a strong community and other projects they want to work and collaborate with. In addition, projects and communities on Arbitrum are willing to collaborate with each other to build a good ecosystem and products. At the same time, we also value developers very much. We are constantly improving our developer tools. For example, we provide a complete Arbitrum Tutorial for newly joined community projects and an Arbitrum SDK for developers who are already developing on Arbitrum. These will reduce the additional workload for developers when developing on Layer2, making it easier for developers to get started.
6. Currently, major Layer2 projects are launching Layer3, and Arbitrum is no exception. How do you view the prospects and development of Layer3?
Offchain Labs: Arbitrum has also launched its own Orbit Chains (L3). Orbit Chains not only have low fees and low latency but also allow customization of gas, privacy, and other aspects. When using Orbit, users can choose to use Rollups or Anytrust mode, and they can also choose Arbitrum One or Arbitrum Nova as their DA chain. For gas Tokens, users can customize gas Tokens other than ethers. Furthermore, for any technical stack upgrades in the future, Orbit can choose whether to upgrade. We believe that in specific areas, the development of Layer3 may even surpass many Layer2 solutions.
7. Previously, many voices believed that Zk-rollup is the optimal solution for Layer2. What is your opinion?
Offchain Labs: Although Zk-rollups can achieve short-term finalization through zero-knowledge proofs, the large computational cost of proofs and performance bottlenecks make ZK-rollups currently weaker than Optimistic rollups in terms of both performance and cost. We want to provide users with technical solutions that meet the current market demand, and Optimistic rollup is currently the most suitable solution. Arbitrum’s technology is also constantly evolving, and we have been researching cutting-edge technologies in the ZK field. When ZK technology matures, we may also incorporate it into our product line.
8. Finally, can you share the future development path and vision of Arbitrum?
Offchain Labs: Offchain Labs will continue to promote the development of Arbitrum’s technology. The recent focus is on launching the official version of Stylus, launching the permissionless validator version (BOLD) developed by Offchain Labs, and decentralizing the Sequencer to provide users with a high-performance and highly secure Layer2 solution. Of course, these developments can only be adopted on Arbitrum through DAO voting.
In addition, the Arbitrum Foundation recently launched two programs: the Grant Program and the Student Ambassador Program. The Grant Program provides grants to different categories of projects/organizations in the Arbitrum ecosystem. The current phase focuses on dapps and infrastructure being developed on the Arbitrum chain. The Student Ambassador Program aims to empower students to represent Arbitrum in their universities and local communities while building their personal reputation and influence.
In the near future, the foundation will also launch a new phase of the Ambassador Program, open to non-student communities and technical professionals.
Whether now or in the future, we are very much looking forward to seeing more participation from our friends in the Greater China region in these programs!
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