Arbitrum, an Ethereum Layer-2 (L2) scaling solution, announced it would launch its mainnet for users this August. The tool, which allows Ethereum users to transact with very low fees, had launched in beta version last June, with support from some key projects in the Ethereum sphere, like Uniswap, who received a community vote to integrate it. The project will also launch Arbitrum One, which will have up-to-date information about the projects using its network.

Arbitrum To Launch This August

Arbitrum, the Ethereum L2 rollup, has announced it will launch in mainnet beta this month, opening its service to regular users who want to issue projects using the scaling solution. Till now, Arbitrum had been operating in a sort of a sandbox, with more than 250 projects applying to build using the Optimistic rollup tech. Arbitrum will allow users to transact almost instantly with negligible fees, aiming to massify adoption.

Offchain Labs, the company behind the Arbitrum project, states that determining the launch of its rollup was very difficult, having to coordinate the launch and deployment with several projects, including stablecoin companies in the process. It stated:

When deciding when to launch, we had to weigh many factors. We’ve been hard at work over the last few months coordinating deployments with hundreds of projects and bridging many of the most popular stablecoins and tokens onto Arbitrum.

However, it won’t be launched at its full capacity just yet. Offchain Labs stated that, while the network will be available for all users, they will put “initial limits on the volume of activity,” committing to raise these limits over time as their solution matures.

Optimistic Rollups

Technically, Arbitrum is a rollup, a kind of second layer expansion structure that, while executes its operations outside of Ethereum’s L1 network, posts information to it as proof of these operations. Arbitrum is one of the first Optimistic commercial rollup solutions. This means the network assumes operations are always honest and does not do any computation to prove this is right. When a possibly fraudulent operation is conducted, there are protection mechanisms in place to punish the issuer.

Arbitrum was selected by Reddit to place its community points system recently. However, it is not the only optimistic rollup solution in development. Optimism, another similar L2 rollup, is also currently in testing phases. Uniswap has also launched an integration with Optimism, allowing users to transact their funds through a gateway on its site.

Arbitrum also faces competition from the scaling solution Polygon (MATIC). While Polygon is more of a sidechain solution, both Arbitrum and Optimism leverage Optimistic rollups.

What do you think of Arbutrum’s launch? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio Goschenko

Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He describes himself as late to the game, entering the cryptosphere when the price rise happened during December 2017. Having a computer engineering background, living in Venezuela, and being impacted by the cryptocurrency boom at a social level, he offers a different point of view about crypto success and how it helps the unbanked and underserved.

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