롤업 경쟁 심화 속 아비트럼의 기술적 우위와 EIP-4844의 비용 절감 효과
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- Introduction1.1. Ethereum Scaling Solution, RollupsLaunched to enhance Ethereum's scalability, rollups have successfully achieved their initial goal of reducing gas fees and accelerating transaction execution through off-chain computations. In particular, Arbitrum and Optimism, which together account for 65% of the TVL across all rollups, have recorded transaction fees (gas fees) that are approximately 10 to 20 times lower than those on Ethereum. As a result, the costs paid by users have decreased by more than 90% compared to Ethereum.User cost reduction due to rollups, source:DuneThe significant reduction in transaction costs has attracted many users and developers who were struggling with Ethereum's high fees. Rollup TVL has grown remarkably, increasing approximately 74 times from 34.5 billion by March 2024, according to the data fromL2Beat. This remarkable growth has established rollups as a core pillar within the blockchain industry, boasting a daily transaction volume that is 8 to 10 times higher than that of Ethereum itself, thereby attracting substantial capital and user engagement.1.2. Cambrian Explosion of RollupsAs of early March 2024, 45 rollups have been launched, and an additional 34 projects are preparing for launch. Among these, Arbitrum and Optimism hold market shares of 42% and 24%, respectively, with Starknet, Base, and zkSync following behind.The development landscape for rollups has become more accessible due to the emergence of Data Availability (DA) layers like Celestia, as well as open-source rollup frameworks such as OP Stack, Orbit, and Polygon CDK. This trend has lowered the technical barriers to rollup development, leading to the launch of numerous new rollups. Furthermore, the increased anticipation for token airdrops has spurred active capital inflow into new rollups. Notably, Blast, Manta, and Mode, which launched their mainnets on February 29, 2024, September 12, 2023, and January 31, 2024, respectively, are now ranked 3rd, 4th, and 15th in terms of TVL.Top 5 Rollups by TVL, source:L2Beat1.3. Arbitrum, Consolidating its LeadDespite the existence of nearly 90 rollups and the continuous launch of numerous new layer 2 solutions intensifying competition, Arbitrum stands out for its remarkable achievements compared to other layer 2 solutions. As mentioned earlier, Arbitrum holds over 42% of the TVL in rollups, securing the top spot, and the number of dApps onboarded on its network is 560, which is about 2.5 times more than that of Base, the second-ranked platform.With its rich ecosystem, Arbitrum also maintains a dominant place in terms of the TVL in dApps, with approximately 0.01, which is about 20 times lower than before. However, the current situation can change at any time. For example, Base experienced a suuden rise in L2 costs following surge in transactions prompted by memecoin trading —which initially led to a reduction in gas fees to $0.0005, over 100 times lower, right after the introduction of blobs. Arbitrum, too, may experience increases in gas fees resulted from a spike in transaction processing that raises L2 costs, as well as from an increase in the demand for blobs, which would affect L1 costs.Rollup gas cost comparison, source:growthepie4. Expanding the Ecosystem Through Technical UpgradeBeyond the implementation of EIP-4844, which affects the entire Ethereum ecosystem, Arbitrum is also making concerted efforts to expand its own ecosystem. These efforts can be broadly categorized into two types: expansion through technical development and expansion through grants. In this chapter, we will first explore examples of ecosystem expansion achieved through technological development.As mentioned above, the rollup space is currently experiencing a Cambrian Explosion, with numerous existing and upcoming rollups vying to onboard users, developers, and projects. Despite maintaining a leading position in terms of TVL, transaction throughput, and onboarded projects, Arbitrum is actively developing its tech stacks to ensure flexible ecosystem expansion. The key players in this development are Arbitrum Orbit for vertical expansion and Arbitrum Stylus for horizontal expansion. Through these upgrades, Arbitrum is striving to attract more projects and developers, facilitating their smooth transition into its ecosystem.4.1. Arbitrum OrbitArbitrum Orbit is a permissionless service that leverages Arbitrum Nitro, allowing users to create layer 2 or layer 3 solutions according to their needs. A comparable service is Optimism's OP Stack. With Orbit, users can freely choose between Arbitrum rollup (Arbitrum One) and AnyTrust (Arbitrum Nova) to easily create a custom chain tailored to the application they wish to develop.To date, approximately 20 projects have announced plans to create chains using Arbitrum Orbit, with five of those projects having already launched their mainnets. Prominent examples of Orbit chains that have launched or plan to launch their mainnets include Xai, TreasureDAO, and Yuga Labs. Notably, the decision for Yuga Labs' ApeChain to use Arbitrum Orbit made through a community vote garnered significant attention outpacing other layer 2 solutions like Optimism, Polygon, and zkSync in the community vote.In addition to onboarding various projects onto the Arbitrum ecosystem through Orbit, Arbitrum is actively collaborating with renowned infrastructure service providers including Caldera, Conduit, Altlayer, and Gelato Network, as well as with data availability protocols like Celestia and EigenDA, to enhance its influence within the modular blockchain ecosystem.Such proactive partnerships by Arbitrum offer potential clients considering their own chain development a wider range of options, thus providing a solid foundation for gaining an advantage in the intensifying competition for ecosystem expansion among rollups. For instance, users can look forward to freely choosing the optimal services based on their preferences and chain characteristics, such as using Arbitrum Orbit as a rollup framework, Base as a settlement layer utilizing Conduit, and Celestia for a data availability (DA) layer.4.2. Arbitrum StylusArbitrum Stylus, an upgrade from Nitro, is a technical enhancement aimed at attracting more developers in conjunction with Arbitrum Orbit. A significant improvement is the addition of WASM VM alongside EVM to Arbitrum One and Nova, enabling the deployment of contracts written in various languages such as Rust, C, and C++ on top of Arbitrum, thus surpassing the existing EVM equivalence to achieve an 'EVM+'. There is anticipation within the Arbitrum community that the Stylus implementation could enhance Arbitrum's scalability to the same extent as, or even more than, the Dencun Upgrade.The introduction of Stylus is expected to have two major effects. First, by supporting languages used by a broader developer base than Solidity, such as Rust, C++, etc., it can secure a wider pool of developers. According to statistics fromStatistafor the year 2023, while only 1.33% of developers used Solidity, while Rust was used by 13.05%, C by 19.34%, and C++ by 22.42%. Secondly, WASM can significantly reduce gas fees and increase transaction execution speed. Arbitrum has stated that by leveraging Nitro's unique fraud-proof technology, transaction execution through WASM could be over ten times faster and cost between 100 to 500 times less.5.Expanding the Ecosystem Through GrantsIn this chapter, we explore Arbitrum's efforts to expand its ecosystem through grants such as STIP, LTIPP, and GCP. While Arbitrum Orbit and Stylus aim to lower technical barriers and onboard new projects, grant programs like STIP and GCP are designed to increase onchain activity within the Arbitrum ecosystem and attract more users.5.1. STIP and LTIPP5.1.1. STIPThe Short Term Incentive Program (STIP) is a grant program that distributes 50 million ARB to 30 projects selected through community voting. The goal of this program is to distribute ARB tokens to projects within Arbitrum, providing them with a foundation to design incentive structures that attract users and funds and maintain them sustainably.STIP wasproposedin October 2023 and passed in December 2023 with 99% approval. The proposal attracted over 100 project applications within a week of its announcement, highlighting the community's high interest. Of the 50 million ARB distributed, about 44% was allocated to perp DEX protocols, with GMX receiving the largest grant of 12 million ARB. Decentralized exchanges followed, receiving 12% of the total grant allocation.STIP allocation per project, source:The Castle ChronicleAdditionally, Arbitrumproposedthe Backfund program in November, extending an additional support of 21.4 million ARB to 26 projects that did not receive grant from STIP. In this program, the Perp DEX protocol Gains Network received the largest allocation of 4.5 million ARB. Unlike STIP, this round included bridge protocols such as Stargate, Synapse, and Wormhole, which were not part of the original STIP allocations.Projects selected for the STIP and Backfund programs must complete the distribution of ARB incentives to users by March 29, 2024. The original deadline for incentive distribution was January 31, 2024, but it wasextendedto March 15 for the Arbitrum Foundation's ARB distribution and March 29 for projects to distribute ARB incentives to their users, especially for those included in the Backfund to facilitate the design of effective incentive structures. Moreover, projects which received ARB incentive are required to update their progress biweekly on the Arbitrum forum, including details such as the amount of ARB received from the foundation, how much of this was used, details of the incentives, trends in TVL and transaction increases, and plans for the next two weeks.Approximately four months after the initiation of STIP,82.1%of the total allocated 62.68M ARB has been distributed to the projects, with 75.47% of that being used for user incentives. It has been observed that the majority of the top 20 projects by ARB allocation, where over 90% of ARB distribution has been completed, have seen an increase in TVL since the start of STIP. Notably, the Perp DEX protocol Vertex, which received an allocation of 3 million ARB, experienced a TVL increase from 6,000 ETH to 22,000 ETH during the incentive program period, a roughly 3.67-fold increase, demonstrating significant fund inflows beyond mere ETH price appreciation.Vertex TVL trend, source:DefiLlamaVertex launched its native token, VRTX, concurrently with the start of STIP and announced a VRTX and ARBincentive program. This program was designed to enable users to earn ARB and VRTX rewards through trading and staking in liquidity pools, aiming to increase the number of transactions executed, boost the protocol's revenue, and secure long-term user liquidity within the protocol. The rapid success of Vertex can be considered a prime example of effectively utilizing the anticipation of a protocol token airdrop to design an incentive structure that benefits the protocol, its users, and the Arbitrum ecosystem, fulfilling the objectives of the grant program most effectively.5.1.2. LTIPPThe Long Term Incentive Pilot Program (LTIPP) is a 12-week test program that bridges the gap between STIP and LTIP, with a total support of 45 million ARB, approved on January 17th. According to the Arbitrum DAO, STIP identified three major issues, and Arbitrum aims to address these problems within LTIPP, using the solutions as a foundation to enhance the outcomes of future grant programs.The Issue and Solution for STIPIssue 1:The challenge of reviewing and voting on over 100 project proposals through direct elections.Solution 1:Transition to an indirect voting method by electing a 5 council members.Issue 2:Lack of appropriate feedback for projects that were not selected.Solution 2:Introduction of Application Advisors to provide guidance and feedback.Issue 3:The strict limitations on ARB incentive structure design led to a scarcity of innovative examples.Solution 3:Relaxation of restrictions through the introduction of Application Advisors.Theelectionfor the 5 council members was completed on January 24th, selecting GFX Labs, 404 DAO, Wintermute, GMX, and Karel Vuong. The application period for LTIPP ended on March 17th at 23:59 EST, followed by a two-week feedback period, one week of council evaluation, and one week of voting. After this process, the selected projects will participate in LTIPP for 12 weeks. Projects that applied for LTIPP can be found on theArbitrum forum.5.2. Gaming Catalyze ProgramThe Gaming Catalyze Program (GCP) is a grant program designed to expand the Arbitrum gaming ecosystem with an allocation of 200 million ARB tokens. Unlike the STIP and LTIPP, which focus on DeFi projects that leverage Arbitrum's strengths, the GCP targets Web3 gaming projects—a sector previously considered a weakness within the Arbitrum ecosystem.As the largest and longest initiative of its kind, spanning two years, Arbitrum aims for the successful implementation of the GCP through rigorous vetting by the Arbitrum Foundation, a 5 council member, and a Venture Team. The council, elected through community voting similar to the LTIPP process, will oversee the hiring and firing of the Venture Team members—a subsidiary of the Arbitrum Foundation—and manage the whitelisting of projects wishing to participate in the GCP.Out of the total 200 million ARB allocated to the GCP, 160 million ARB will be used for builder onboarding and development, while the remaining 40 million ARB will be distributed for the construction of infrastructure to support game development.Builder Onboarding and Development Funds (160 million ARB):These funds are allocated to onboard promising projects onto Arbitrum, aiming to facilitate their development within the ecosystem.Infrastructure Development (40 million ARB):This portion of the funds is dedicated to the development of technology and infrastructure crucial for game development, such as account abstraction, game engine SDKs, and more.Through the strategic use of these funds, GCP aims to onboard between 200 to 300 gaming applications and launch over 25 Orbit chains. This initiative is projected to secure over 20% market share of the total gaming projects, positioning Arbitrum to gain a competitive edge over other layer 2 solutions.Theproposalfor GCP was introduced on the Arbitrum forum on March 11 and passed a governance vote with approximately99%approval on March 23. Following this, the GCP council elections and the formation of the Venture Team are scheduled to be completed between April and May, with the program starting to receive project applications soon after. Despite only completing the community vote phase, GCP has already attracted significant interest within the Arbitrum community. This attention is not only due to the program's unprecedented scale and long-term vision but also its timely introduction amidst growing efforts to energize the gaming ecosystem, such as the launch of Arbitrum Arcade. Furthermore, the GCP proposal was authored byKarel Vuong, a co-founder of TreasureDAO and a member of the LTIPP committee, highlighting the strategic involvement of key figures within the Arbitrum ecosystem. Vuong's involvement, along with the expressed enthusiasm from various notable community members, underscores the GCP's potential to drive significant growth and innovation within the Arbitrum gaming sector from its early stages.6. ConclusionWe've examined the background that could allow Arbitrum to maintain its lead in the intensifying competition among layer 2 solutions, focusing on aspects such as gas fee reduction following the Dencun upgrade, development of the technology upgrade including Orbit and Stylus, and the implementation of grant programs like STIP and GCP. However, while the decrease in gas fees due to the Dencun upgrade is a necessary condition for the revival of the rollup ecosystem, but it is not sufficient on its own. Even if the absolute cost for users to operate on the network significantly decreases, the lack of appealing services or applications to attract users means that the reduction in fees could not only fail to be beneficial but could also negatively impact revenue due to decreased earnings.Arbitrum revenue estimates under EIP-4844, source:Arbitrum forumFrom its launch, Arbitrum has onboarded numerous dApps, particularly DeFi projects, thereby establishing itself as the network with the highest TVL and a significant number of transactions among rollup solutions. Furthermore, the steady release and migration of emerging DeFi dApps to Arbitrum highlight its dominant position in the DeFi sector. With the introduction of GCP, Arbitrum is also making concerted efforts to expand into the gaming sector, aiming to solidify its presence and attract a broader user base.Top 5 rollup by TVL, source:DefiLlamaDespite the rich ecosystem of Arbitrum, ongoing concerns about the limited utility of its native token, ARB, remain a challenge that Arbitrum needs to address. Like most Ethereum rollup solutions, the primary use case for ARB is governance, with gas fees still being paid in ETH. This results in a lack of opportunities for ARB's continual utilization within the ecosystem.Furthermore, a significant unlock event occurred on March 16, with 1.11 billion ARB being released in the largest unlock since ARB's launch. This will be followed by monthly unlocks of 926 million ARB targeted at teams and investors until March 2027. Therefore, to leverage the increased liquidity from these unlocks as a driving force for ecosystem activation rather than a downward pressure on price, Arbitrum must diversify the use cases for ARB.ARB unlock schedul, source:TokenUnlocksHaving addressed the issue of comparatively high gas fees with the Dencun upgrade, Arbitrum is strengthening its existing advantages while also striving to arm itself with new tools, such as gaming and L3 expansion. As liquidity continues to flow into layer 2 solutions and the technical barriers to network launches are reduced, it will be important to observe whether Arbitrum can solidify its leading position.ReferencesOffchain Labs,Understanding Arbitrum: 2-Dimensional Fees, 2022Four Pillars,[KBW related Article] 아비트럼 101, 2023Offchain Labs,Hello, Stylus, 2023Delphi Digital,The Year Ahead for Infrastructure 2024, 2023Galaxy Research,How Modularity and Rollups Impact ETH Value, 2023Galaxy Research,Proto-danksharding: What It Is and How It Works, 2023Consensys,Ethereum Evolved: Dencun Upgrade Part 5, EIP-4844,2023Messari,The Road Ahead for Rollups and EIP4844, 2024Zeeve,What’s brewing on Arbitrum Orbit? Navigating the Hottest Projects, 2024The Castle Chronicle,The State of Arbitrum, 2024Arbitrum Docs,How to estimate gas in ArbitrumREAD ARTICLE IN LANGUAGE한국어ABOUT THE AUTHORDeclan KimStrategy Manager49 postsON THIS PAGEShare on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on LinkedInEmail addressNotify meWelcome!You will soon receive an email. Please click the log in link to confirm your subscription.Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.
