Ethereum Scaler Arbitrum Is Launching Friday With Developer Support From Alchemy
A new scaling project has entered the sidechain chat.
Offchain Labs’ Arbitrum rollup technology is set to launch on Friday, May 28 for developers, the firm told CoinDesk. The layer 2 solution offers drastically higher transaction throughput than Ethereum, and gas fees that are up to 270 times lower. It’s been live on testnet since 2020.
Arbitrum goes live in full as scaling platforms again surge in popularity. Projects like Polygon, Optimism and Matter Labs’ zkSync have either seen major funding rounds or their token prices soar in recent months. (Notably, Arbitrum has no token.)
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In tandem with the launch, Offchain Labs is partnering with developer platform Alchemy to help devs more easily tap into the new network.
Alchemy, which is said to power 70% of the top Ethereum applications and over $30 billion in on-chain transactions, announced a similar partnership with Dapper Labs’ Flow blockchain in March. Alchemy works with Dapper, OpenSea, Aave and many others.
Rollup ramp-up
Rollup technology is key to scaling Ethereum apps. A rollup is basically a sidechain aggregation of transactions in a smart contract that will settle to the mainchain at some future point. The “rollup” refers to the way the sidechain bundles many transactions to be committed to the mainchain.
Arbitrum is an “optimistic rollup”, meaning that state changes are first published with minimal inspection and fraud checking, allowing for additional speed. Any user, however, can flag invalid updates as fraudulent and the bad actors are punished by the protocol, while the updates are rolled back. The Arbitrum-Alchemy partnership drastically lowers the barriers to entry by meeting a large swath of developers where they already are.
“High gas fees and slow transaction mining times have been the biggest pain points for Ethereum developers and users for quite some time,” said Alchemy Product Manager Michael Garland. Arbitrum’s layer 2 technology provides a long-needed solution, he said.
Grabbing market share
In development since 2018, Arbitrum is the first general smart contract Ethereum layer 2 rollup solution to go live, according to Offchian Labs’ Director of Partnerships and Strategy A.J. Warner.
The success of any layer 2 rides on the adoption of both infrastructure projects and dapps, so given Alchemy’s reach in the blockchain developer community, native support is key, he said.
“Arbitrum, among other differentiating tech breakthroughs, is the only rollup that supports porting Ethereum contracts at the bytecode level (without making any code modifications),” Warner said via email.
Arbitrum’s goal is to become the default layer 2 rollup for Ethereum users and developers. Crypto exchange OKEx recently announced it will support direct deposits and withdrawals into Arbitrum for its users to avoid expensive gas fees. According to Arbitrum, over 150 projects have requested launch-day access to Arbitrum.
“Alchemy’s developer platform and Offchain Labs’ layer 2 are two of the most critical tools available to blockchain developers,” said Joey Krug, co-chief investment officer at Pantera, which invested in Arbitrum, adding:
It’s the Right Time to Buy a Lot of Ethereum as Prices Plunge
It’s the Right Time to Buy a Lot of Ethereum as Prices Plunge
Ethereum Forecast: What Direction the Smart Contracts Hub Going?
Ethereum Forecast: What Direction the Smart Contracts Hub Going?
In cryptocurrency circles, Bitcoin is definitely the superpower. Any random survey on the street would indicate that the pioneer crypto has far greater name recognition.
Regardless, Ethereum is a made asset in its own right. Beginners researching what Ethereum is will be pleasantly surprised to discover that it is an entire sector within crypto. The growth of decentralized finance in 2020 was impressive, to say the least. These decentralized systems can democratize finance and make services more accessible for billions.
That is the essence of decentralized finance. Traditional finance had a centralization aspect that concentrated power in the hands of few. DeFi apps are granting developers unique tools to innovate and revolutionize finance.
Ethereum Has an Ascending Channel Pattern
You may think all cryptocurrencies are like Bitcoin. Not at all. Ethereum is much more than a store of value. The platform hosts thousands of decentralized applications that have real-world uses.
Ethereum rose in 2020 and this year on the strength of these applications. Institutional capital has followed the maturity of DeFi, pushing the industry past previous highs.
These use cases are likely to drive Ethereum in the future. The Ethereum blockchain has more versatility than the Bitcoin blockchain. Accordingly, developers have found a home to write code, create rules, and release applications. These applications run on “smart contracts,” which validate agreements without a supervising third party.
Decentralized platforms facilitate lending, trading, and even exchange services. The most significant decentralized exchange is Uniswap which moves billions in Ether and other assets every day. Blockchain provenance is creating an innovation boom that is disrupting finance all over.
Ether is at the center of this booming decentralized economy. The Wall Street Journal reported that 7 million new accounts that hold Ethereum balances were created in the first four months of 2021. This staggering number took existing accounts to over 55 million. Ethereum is now having a congestion problem because of the sheer number of transactions on the network. Luckily, Ethereum developers have enacted a series of upgrades to take the network to a new era of scalability called Serenity.
Additionally, the rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) provides more dynamism to Ethereum investors. NFTs create a unique ID or pieces of digital art with set rules for transferring ownership. Content creators and artists can write into a smart contract a piece of digital art and sell it as an NFT. This represents a new era in the marketing of digital art. Already, some NFTs are fetching millions of dollars at auctions.
The duality of DeFi applications and the NFT sector give Ethereum tremendous upside. Think of Ethereum as Google Playstore or Apple Store. It is a hub for many other financial services. Its use-cases will continue to expand as far as the imagination of smart contract developers goes.
Purchasing and Trading Ether Is Very Simple
It is fair to state that the price of Ether has only scratched the surface. The past twelve months were only a glimpse of what Ether is capable of.
Ethereum’s power is that it is at the center of a financial revolution. The true potential of decentralized finance and smart contracts will become apparent with time.
Purchasing Ethereum is quite simple. Follow these steps:
Find an exchange or brokerage platform like eToro to purchase Ethereum- These platforms make the sign-up process very simple.
Verify your account to ensure it is secure- This process typically entails providing basic identity details such as proof of address or passport.
Connect a payment channel such as a card or bank.
Deposit fiat into your account. Alternatively, if you have other cryptocurrencies, you can send them to your wallet address.
Make your first ETH purchase!
To Wrap It Up
Ethereum is one of the most important innovations of the past decade. Its position at the center of the next era of finance is taking shape.
Cryptocurrencies rely on supply and demand to determine prices. This is why Ethereum and other coins still exhibit significant volatility. That said, this volatility is an opportunity in itself.
In summary, Ethereum is a sleeping giant. The use cases for this platform and asset will only continue to grow as decentralized finance takes over.