Overview of Arbitrum chains
This document is for developers and decision-makers who want to learn more about Arbitrum chains, a product offering that lets you create your own Arbitrum chains.
In the programmable economy, markets, transactions, and business processes run in software. Arbitrum provides the infrastructure for those systems to execute with configurable rules and Ethereum settlement.
If you'd prefer to learn by doing, see the Chain SDK Rollup creation example for step-by-step instructions that walk you through how to use chain-sdk to configure and launch your own Arbitrum chain.
In a nutshell
Arbitrum chains are dedicated chains built with Arbitrum technology. Teams can configure execution, fee models, governance, data availability, validation, and other chain parameters for their application or business requirements.
What's an Arbitrum chain?
- You can think of Arbitrum chains as deployable, configurable instances of the Arbitrum Nitro tech stack.
- You can also think of them as tailored chains: chains tailored precisely to your exact use-case and business needs.
- This gives you another way to progressively decentralize your applications and incrementally adopt the properties and security assumptions of Ethereum's base layer.
- Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova are owned and governed by the Arbitrum DAO. With Arbitrum chains, you determine the way that your chain is governed.
What problem do Arbitrum chains solve?
The Ethereum ecosystem is supported by a decentralized network of nodes that each run Ethereum's Layer 1 (L1) client software. Ethereum's block space is in high demand, so users are often stuck waiting for the network to become less congested (and thus, less expensive).
Arbitrum's protocols address this challenge by offloading some of the Ethereum network's heavy lifting to another decentralized network of nodes that support the Arbitrum stack (Arbitrum chains).
What key features should I consider?
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Dedicated throughput | |
| EVM+ compatibility | + |
| Account abstraction | |
| Gas & Tokens | or |
| Data availability | , , |
| Fast confirmations | |
| Security & validation | , , |
| Safety Features | & |
| MEV | |
| Cost | |
| Infrastructure | |
| Interop | TBD |
How do Arbitrum chains help the Ethereum ecosystem?
Arbitrum helps Ethereum move towards a multi-chain future. This is valuable for the following reasons:
| Value add | Description |
|---|---|
| Scalability | Multiple chains help overcome scaling bottlenecks by dividing activity into opt-in environments with separate resource management. |
| Flexible security models | Different chains can experiment with different security models, allowing for tradeoffs. For example: Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova are both L2 chains, with Arbitrum Nova giving developers the ability to optimize for lower fees. With Arbitrum chains, extending the technology and experimenting is easier than ever. |
| Flexible execution environments | Different chains can experiment with more-or-less restrictive execution environments. For example, although Arbitrum chains are fully EVM compatible, Arbitrum chains can restrict smart contract functionality to optimize for your project's needs. |
| Flexible governance | Arbitrum chains let you define your own governance protocols. |
Are Arbitrum chains the same thing as "app chains"?
It depends on your definition of "app chain". Arbitrum chains can be used as application-specific chains (often referred to as "app chains" or "appchains"). But they aren't just for apps. They're for hosting EVM-compatible smart contracts using self-managed infrastructure that isolates compute resources away from Arbitrum's public L2 chains based on your unique needs.
- You can use your Arbitrum chain to host the smart contracts that support one app, two apps, an ecosystem of apps, or no apps at all.
- You can use your Arbitrum chain to host a private, centralized service.
- Your Arbitrum chain can be special-purpose, general-purpose, and everything in-between.
- You could even build an app that uses multiple Arbitrum chains to support strange new forms of redundancy, high availability, and trustlessness.