Summary:
- Ethereum Layer 2 protocol Arbitrum will airdrop native tokens under the ticker ARB to community members on Mar. 23.
- ARB will serve as the governance token for the protocol’s new self-executing DAO and its network – Arbitrum One and Nova.
- The protocol also announced a layer 3 stack for developers dubbed Orbit to incentive activity on its network and support builders.
Ethereum Layer 2 scaling protocol Arbitrum will airdrop governance tokens under the ticker ARB to community members on Mar. 23 as the project moves toward establishing a greater level of decentralization.
The ARB Airdrop And DAO
Users who have interacted with the network over the past 12 months will be eligible for the airdrop. “The Arbitrum token is majority community owned (~56%)” the L2 protocol shared in an announcement on Thursday. The airdrop allocation makes up 12.75% of the community’s allocation and Arbitrum will use an on-chain snapshot from Feb. 6 for the ARB token distribution.
Of the 12.75%, 11.5% will go to network users. 1.25% was allocated to decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) within the project’s ecosystem and a DAO of Ethereum developers known as Project Guild.
Offchain Labs, Arbitrum’s developer, emphasized that the airdrop serves as a path towards greater decentralization and placing active community members in the driver’s seat. Notable, users won’t settle transaction fees in ARB. Also, it’s unclear whether the ARB token will be listed on centralized exchanges.
We worked very closely with Nansen over the past few months on designing airdrop eligibility criteria. We have a point system based on different criteria, such as usage, to help determine the amount of points each user gets.
– Steven Goldfeder, CEO at Offchain Labs.
Aside from the ARB airdrop, Arbitrum also announced a self-executing DAO that will oversee distribution and the ETH scaling protocol moving forward. The DAO will feature a security council with the power to make crucial decisions in certain situations. This DAO will manage proposals and direct changes to the code for Arbitrum One and Nova.
12 members will seat on the security council and they will be changed every six to 12 months. Some of the members currently on the council include Celer Network co-founder Mo Dong, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake, and LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino to name a few.
Although this DAO style poses risks, Goldfeder argued that the DAO governance system will adopt a thorough model where proposals and changes are slowly reviewed. The shortest period for changes will be 21 days and that timeline can stretch as much as 34 days for major changes.
Arbitrum L3 Developer Kit
The Ethereum L2 scaling protocol also unveiled a developer stack for builders dubbed Arbitrum Orbit. Per the announcement, Orbit will give developers the tools to ship Layer 3 solutions on the protocol’s network.
Developers will be able to build smart contracts on the networks of the project while tapping Ethereum’s famous security layer, CEO Goldfeder noted.