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Ethereum Rollup Arbitrum to Release Major Update
The update will halve fees, increase transaction speed, and make it easier for Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible apps to build on Arbitrum.
By Sam Kessler
Updated May 11, 2023, 4:50 p.m. Published Apr 8, 2022, 7:01 p.m.
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Offchain Labs, the company behind Ethereum scaling solution Arbitrum, announced this week the testnet launch of Nitro – a test environment for a pending major update to the optimistic rollup’s technical stack.
- According to Offchain, the update to Arbitrum will cheapen fees, speed up transactions, and make it easier for native Ethereum apps to interface with the Layer 2 chain.
- Offchain founder Steven Goldfeder told CoinDesk that Arbitrum’s fees, which were usually around 50 cents to $1 before the update, will be cut by at least 50%.
- Rollups like Arbitrum scale the Ethereum network by processing transactions and executing smart contracts – the mini-computer programs that run on blockchains – on separate rollup-specific chains.
- The data generated on Arbitrum gets bundled up and passed back down to Ethereum, where Ethereum network actors can check whether the data is valid.
- Last week, a $625 million theft from Ethereum’s Ronin sidechain showed the potential vulnerability of sidechains, which, unlike rollups, do not inherit their security from a layer 1 blockchain.
- In March, Offchain also announced Arbitrum AnyTrust chains – a cheaper, faster, more centralized alternative to its optimistic rollup.
- Arbitrum is currently Ethereum’s largest rollup solution, with nearly $2.5 billion total value locked (TVL), according to DefiiLlama.
Edit: August 30, 2022 15:24 UTC: Clarifies that the update is in testnet.
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