What is Arbitrum Orbit? Arbitrum Orbit is the latest Blockchain platform introduced by Arbitrum after the launch of Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova respectively. Arbitrum Orbit represents a future Layer 3 vision alongside zkSync, StarkNet or Optimism's Superchain. So if there's something interesting about Arbitrum Orbit, everyone, let's find out in the article below.
To understand more about Arbitrum Orbit, people can refer to some of the articles below:
What Is Arbitrum Orbit?
The current setting of Arbitrum
As of the time of writing in June 2023, Arbitrum is the most successful Optimistic platform in particular and Layer 2 with the leading number of TVLs, the number of transactions & active users also outperforming the competitors below. Except, Optimism is clinging fiercely, platforms like Boba Network, Metis DAO have been far behind or zkRollup platforms are just starting to kick in.
Arbitrum itself is also constantly changing and upgrading to maintain its position. Most recently in March 2023, Arbitrum continued to announce that it would soon upgrade the Arbitrum network from Nitro to Stylus with many notable updates. People can read about the Stylus update at What's Stylus? All About the Arbitrum Stylus Update to learn more about this update.
However, if you have observed Arbitrum since its inception, the picture of the Arbitrum ecosystem still lacks the Layer 3 vision if Optimism announced the OP Stack and Superchain vision, zkSync also shared about Hyperchain & Hyperbridge, ... but Arbitrum remained silent until March 2023, when Arbitrum first shared about Arbitrum Orbit with a Layer 3 vision.
Overview of Arbitrum Orbit

Arbitrum Orbit Operation Model
Arbitrum Orbit are blockchains built on the Arbitrum Nitro platform with Arbitrum Orbit Trading, NFT or Gaming projects on Arbitrum Nitro that can be developed on a private chain thanks to Arbitrum Orbit technology to take full advantage of the transaction speed. Extremely high transaction costs and low transaction costs. Arbitrum Nitro will act as Layer 1 of the Arbitrum Orbit.
When building Layer 3 on Arbitrum Nitro, developers have several options:
- Arbitrum Rollup : Building a Layer 3 using Rollup technology like Arbitrum One will give priority to security, but scalability is also solved quite thoroughly.
- Arbitrum Anytrust : Build a Layer 3 using Anytrust technology similar to Arbitrum Nova. This Layer 3 will focus on scalability with extreme speed comes with almost zero cost but a little security trade-off.
- Make Modifications : Projects that want to develop in the direction that DApps specializing in a certain area such as dYdX or Immutable X can choose the core technology of Arbitrum Nitro.
Any individual, group or organization can deploy a Layer 3 on Arbitrum Nitro on their own, but launching a Layer 2 on Ethereum (similar to the Arbitrum fork) requires submitting a proposal to the Arbitrum DAO.
Besides, when Arbitrum Nitro upgrades from Nitro to Stylus, Layer 3 will be supported normally. With Stylust, building on Arbitrum Stylus will be much easier when there are more choices of programming languages such as C, C++ and Rust.
Opportunities open for protocols on Arbitrum
The introduction of Orbit is a crucial piece for the Arbitrum ecosystem. Updates like Stylust or the addition of Ethereum's EIP 4488 will also be difficult to reduce fees on Arbitrum because currently the upgrade rate is slower than the network's development rate. Trading-friendly or NFT protocols such as GMX, Treasure DAO, Dopex,... can use Arbitrum Nitro technology to build Layer 3 specialized in DApps.
If it is moved from Layer 2 to Layer 3, protocols such as GMX, Dopex, Treasure DAO, etc. will be even easier to reach users in the near future.
Arbitrum Orbit Development Roadmap
Currently, all individuals, groups or organizations can immediately build their own Layer 3 with many options on Arbitrum Nitro.
Summary
It can be seen that the Layer 2 war is becoming extremely fierce, we cannot conclude that Optimistic Rollup will lose to zkRollup in a long-term battle because when zkRollup is completed and put into operation stably, Layer 2 of At the same time, Layer 3 of the Optimistic Rollup solutions is also in the same state.
It will be difficult to compare Layer 3 of Optimistic Rollup with zkRollup so we still have to continue to observe more to find investment insights.
The post What is Arbitrum Orbit? Arbitrum's Layer 3 Vision Overview first appeared on HakResearch .