Arbitrum Announces $ARB Token Airdrop 🪂

Quick Take

• Arbitrum announces its $ARB token airdrop.
• Shanghai on Ethereum Mainnet is scheduled for April 12th.
• Ethereum Foundation Next Billion Fellowship opens third Cohort.
• Sismo releases zkConnect SSO solution.

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Arbitrum Announces $ARB Token Airdrop

Arbitrum announced the launch of its long-awaited Arbitrum DAO and $ARB governance token airdrop. Users can visit arbitrum.foundation to check their airdrop eligibility. Over 625k addresses will be able to claim a share of 1.16 billion $ARB tokens. The token has not yet been released but will go live on Thursday, March 23rd.

$ARB has a total supply of 10 billion with a 2% max inflation rate per year. Investors and core contributors are allocated 44.4% of the token supply. The Arbitrum DAO treasury will house 42.87% of $ARB tokens. The remaining 12.75% of $ARB tokens will be distributed in a single airdrop to eligible Arbitrum users and DAOs.

$ARB is strictly a governance token and will not be used as the rollup’s gas token. It will govern both Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova, as well as any future L2s. Arbitrum also decided to preserve upgradeability in the form of the Arbitrum Security Council, a 9/12 multisig that can execute emergency upgrades to the chain.

Arbitrum Orbit For Launching L3 Chains

Arbitrum also announced Arbitrum Orbit, a tech stack for launching L3 chains on Arbitrum One and Nova. The stack is being released under a free and perpetual license. Arbitrum Orbit will also support WASM smart contracts. WebAssembly, or WASM, allows developers to write dapps in high-level languages such as C++ and Rust.

Developers are free to customize and modify the Arbitrum source code as they see fit for L3 deployments on the rollup. However, using the Arbitrum stack to deploy an L2 chain directly on Ethereum is not allowed without approval from the Arbitrum DAO. Developers can submit a DAO proposal for obtaining a license.

Shanghai On Mainnet Scheduled For April 12th

Ethereum core developers scheduled the Shanghai upgrade on Ethereum Mainnet to occur at epoch 6209536 on April 12, 2023, at approximately 10:27:35 PM UTC. Shanghai is an upgrade to Ethereum’s execution layer (EL) that enables compatibility for staking withdrawals. The Shanghai upgrade also includes five EIPs.

Capella is an upgrade to the consensus layer (CL), also referred to as the Beacon Chain, that enables partial and full staking withdrawals. Partial withdrawals only remove staking rewards. Capella also allows validators to update their withdrawal credentials. Coined as Shapella, the Shanghai and Capella upgrades will occur simultaneously. New client releases are expected in the coming week.

EF Opens Fellowship Cohort 3

The Ethereum Foundation is now accepting applications for its third Cohort of the Next Billion Fellowship. The fellowship is a non-technical apprenticeship that supports individuals on a personal quest to use Ethereum for improving the lives of billions of people. Next Billion Fellowship provides access to relevant experts, resources from the EF, and financial support. Applications are open between now and April 28th.

Sismo Releases zkConnect SSO

Attestation protocol Sismo released zkConnect, a privacy-preserving single sign-on method for applications. Developers can integrate zkConnect into their dapps to allow users to authenticate anonymously. Currently, connecting to a dapps via wallet connection exposes a user’s wallet and all associated data. zkConnect uses ZK proofs to allow dapps to privately view granular data without revealing a user’s identity.