A long time ago, when smart contracts were known by few…
A professor observed scalability issues in blockchain technology that predated Ethereum’s launch.
He crafted an idea for resolving conflicting blockchain updates with interactive fraud proofs. These proofs require back-and-forth communication between parties to find the true chain state.
Years passed until two Ph.D. students met with their professor and committed to building out their vision for a scalable blockchain solution.
Excited by Ethereum’s potential to be a credibly neutral settlement layer for the world, they started working on bringing Arbitrum to life.
After many iterations and a few new gray hairs, the entire system – fraud proofs and all – was alive.
dApps launched, Discord exploded, crypto Twitter was ablaze. Entire ecosystems within Arbitrum were formed with their own languages, emojis, culture. Fueled by the thriving community, the team building Arbitrum itself expanded.
Overwhelming amounts of “wen token” requests flooded in. However, building robust, stable infrastructure remained the top priority. The next year was spent honing in on key scalability improvements, leading to the release of Arbitrum Nitro.
Armed with battle-tested infrastructure, Arbitrum is ready to decentralize and The Arbitrum Foundation will distribute voting power via the ARB token.
This token gives the community control in shaping the very foundation and future of Arbitrum and Ethereum.
The Arbitrum DAO will be controlled by no single entity. Token holders can either delegate or retain their voting power. Decentralized governance is a nascent concept and we are purposefully allowing space for the community to guide its formation.
With great power comes great responsibility.
The community is the future of Arbitrum. Welcome traveler.