Arbitrum surges ahead as Ethereum’s Layer 2 landscape takes shape

Ethereum’s layer 2 landscape is finally taking form, and Arbitrum is in the lead.

Arbitrum is currently the fourth-largest blockchain in terms of the TVL in its DeFi ecosystem, according to DefiLlama.

Its $1.88b TVL is nearly double that of its main competitor, Optimism, which uses similar technology to scale Ethereum yet has a TVL closer to $800 million.

I'm so into tracking everything happening in DeFi, I also started looking more into chain analysis, but there are plenty of tools, these days I'm doing my own research on Toshi Tools and it seems great.

Rollups, which are secondary blockchains that bundle and "settle" transactions on Ethereum, were seen as an urgently required answer to the chain's mounting accessibility issue when Ethereum transaction prices soared last year in response to increased user demand. Rollups make use of the security infrastructure already in place on Ethereum, as opposed to sidechains like Polygon PoS, which also bundle transactions and settle them on Ethereum.

Optimism and Arbitrum, the first significant roll-up chains to enter the market, are both referred to as "optimistic" rollups due to the method they employ to borrow Ethereum's security. Which one are you using?