Arbitrum Vs Optimism: Who Is The Leader?

The comparison between Arbitrum vs Optimism is increasingly popular in the Crypto market. Some people think that Optimism is better than Arbitrum because Binance, Celo, Coinbase,… all chose OP Stack to build Layer 2, but there are also people who think that the fact that the Bedrock update came 1 year later than Nitro shows that Arbitrum is much better. So between Arbitrum vs Optimism, which is the best Optimistic Rollup platform?

To better understand this article, people can refer to some of the articles below:

• What is Optimistic Rollup? Overview of Optimistic Rollup
• What is Arbitrum (ARB)? Arbitrum Cryptocurrency Overview
• What is Optimism (OP)? Overview of Cryptocurrency Optimism
• Arbitrum and Optimism: When the Advantage Goes to Arbitrum. What are the opportunities for Optimism?

Overview Between Arbitrum Vs Optimism

Comments on Arbitrum vs Optimism

There has been a strong debate about between Arbitrum vs Optimism, which is the best Optimistic Rollup platform in particular and the most powerful Layer 2 platform in particular. Some of the reasons the Optimism community gives to prove Optimism is better include:

• OP Stack is chosen by big players in the Crypto market such as Binance, Coinbase, Celo,… but not Arbitrum!
• Currently, the trading level on Optimism is much better than Arbitrum, so clearly Optimism’s technology is better than Arbitrum.

On the contrary, Arbitrum lovers also have their own reasons to prove Arbitrum is better including:

• Arbitrum has a much better TVL, total number of users, Active Users, Daily Transaction, ecosystem,… than Optimism.
• Nitro is the first update on Arbitrum, 1 year faster than Optimism’s Bedrock.

Above are just a few of the main reasons given by fans of both sides, there are many other reasons as well. As for myself, Arbitrum or Optimism both have their own strengths, no project is comprehensive or perfect. As for the conclusions that are made, we must look for the real cause of it, not just based on the results that we rush to value.

My perspective on Arbitrum vs Optimism is quite brief, simple and concise as follows:

• Arbitrum’s strongest point is technology.
• Optimism’s strongest point is how to build DAO and community.

Arbitrum’s strength is also Optimism’s weakness and vice versa. There is another point where both are quite evenly matched, which is ecosystem building. For Arbitrum, it is the ecosystem on Arbitrum Nitro and for Optimism it is Superchain. And to prove the above conclusion, everyone and I will analyze some of the arguments below.

Argument 1: Arbitrum is stronger than Optimism in terms of technology

There are 3 main arguments from which I conclude that in terms of technology, Optimism is quite “no door” compared to Arbitrum, including:

• Network upgrade.
• Proof of transaction.
• Some differences in EVM, security,…

The first, let’s look back at Arbitrum and Optimism in upgrading the network. While Arbitrum is on time with the Nitro update in September 2022, Optimism’s Bedrock update was expected to be released in Q3/2022 to keep up with Arbitrum, which was delayed until June 2023. . While Optimism is still struggling with Bedrock, Arbitrum has plans for the next network upgrade with the Stylus update at the end of 2023.

Not only that, while Optimism is engrossed in the Superchain story, Arbitrum continues to upgrade its Fraud Proof transaction evidence to improve the security and decentralization of its network, BOLD. In contrast to Optimism, the fact is that they operate without proof of transactions. This is the difference Monday.

Tuesdayin terms of EVM integration and network security, Arbitrum is more prominent than Optimism.

Some of you will ask some questions to deny that Optimism’s technology is better than Arbitrum as follows:

Once again, based on the above arguments, I subjectively believe that in terms of technology, Arbitrum is completely superior to Optimism.

Argument 2: Optimism is stronger than Arbitrum in terms of building DAOs and communities

Regarding the construction and development of DAO, it shows that Optimism is doing much better than Arbitrum through a few real-life examples using OP or ARB as incentives. If projects want to get OP to do Incentive, they are required to have a Proposal, which clearly states a number of ideas such as:

• Overview of the project.
• How much does OP want to request?
• What is the purpose of taking OP?
• How do you plan to use OP?
• What is the goal in using OP?

In contrast to Optimism, right at the time of ARB launch, Arbitrum Foundation transfers directly to projects an amount of ARB equivalent to the level of contribution to the project from the beginning until now. With Optimism’s implementation, Incentive was able to reach the right project and Optimism’s TVL, Active User, and Daily Transaction had strong growth. But with Arbitrum, that has not happened yet, but there are projects that have sold all ARB to make a profit.

Besides, Optimism’s proposals all received strong support from the community, on the contrary, Arbitrum’s first proposals were massively opposed.

Optimism’s community deployment and development is truly innovative as they have a common community called Optimism Collective. The Optimism Collective consists of communities, projects and citizens (known as users on the network) that operate based on a set of mutually beneficial rules. The more active the parties, the more benefits they will receive.

Optimism Collective will include Token House and Citizens House with some accs as follows:

• Token House: OP holders will be able to participate in voting for activities such as Grant, Protocol Upgrade, Inflation,…
• Citizens House: Nominees will own NFTs called Citizenship and cannot be transferred. Citizenships will decide on a number of activities such as Retroactive or Grants for offchain contributions of different organizations and individuals.

It can be seen that if projects are often quite worried about the DAO sometimes making “silly” decisions because part of the OP holders are investors who do not have much knowledge about the technology. technology or network development, Optimism has come up with a solution: building Citizenships who are knowledgeable, knowledgeable and famous in the community. When these two sides intersect, it will help Optimism have a good direction. most and most sustainable.

Not only that, Optimism also recently announced Law of Chains. Law of Chains is for a number of Layer 2s built on the OP Stack to decide to participate and become a more special part of the Superchain itself. Shared Law of Chains benefits include:

• Make sure the blockspace is uniform and neutral.
• Benefit from continuous improvement.
• Enable better infrastructure.

Every community that wants to develop sustainably needs to have clear laws. There, rights and obligations are regulated and enforced. As soon as Superchain was in its early stages, Optimism quickly built a set of rules that would help a portion of Superchain make further breakthroughs if they agreed to join the rules. This shows that in terms of community development, DAO is clearly doing much better than Arbitrum on the other side.

The Difference Between Optimism and Arbitrum

Besides the factors we can compare, there are a number of factors we cannot compare because if we compare, they are just lame comparisons. At different factors, we can only give the advantages and disadvantages of each factor and then make subjective judgments.

Layer 3 and Superchain

At the present time, after competing with each other in the Optimistic Rollup war, Arbitrum and Optimism now have completely different visions, plans and strategies in the medium to long term. If Optimism focuses on the Superchain vision similar to the way Cosmos builds the Internet of Blockchain concept, we can simply understand that Superchain is the Internet of Layer 2.

On the other side of the front line, Arbitrum has affirmed its Layer 3 vision when introducing Arbitrum Orbit. To have an overview of Layer 3 and Superchain, people can refer to some articles:

• What is Superchain? Overview of Optimism’s OP Stack, OP-Chain & Superchain
• Weaknesses in Optimism’s Superchain Model
• What is Orbit? Overview of Arbitrum Orbit’s Layer 3 Vision

Thinking in building ecosystems

In building the ecosystem, the two platforms had differences from the beginning. While Optimism requires KYC of developers and has priority, betting more on Perpetual, Synthetix, AAVE or Velodrome, Arbitrum chooses a more open approach as they welcome all developers, that’s why. We see that Arbitrum has more anonymous and even fraudulent projects than Optimism.

While Optimism supports projects by focusing Incentive on key projects in the ecosystem, Arbitrum supports more Marketing projects such as retweets, AMAs,… The leading project on Arbitrum is GMX is also a project built so that other projects can build on GMX itself, this makes the Arbitrum ecosystem cohesive, strong and a bit Ponzi, which most projects on Optimism lack. This cohesion makes the Optimism ecosystem quite boring.

In building the Optimism ecosystem, it chooses a cautious and safe move when betting on big players while Arbitrum bets on the talent of developers. In your opinion, which move is smarter? It is highly likely that people will rely on TVL to evaluate and think that Arbitrum is more successful. However, Arbitrum’s model can easily collapse if GMX encounters problems. And if that really happens, then we will lean towards Optimism, which has a smarter move.

Some Side Notes

Optimism has an extremely hyped story

Up to now, the story of Optimism’s Superchain has a much higher virality than Arbitrum’s Orbit. We are not talking about whose technology is better, Layer 3 or Superchain Capture Value is better for Native Tokens, but in terms of creating hype and virality, Optimism is doing a great job.

Most of it comes from the fact that many big companies have chosen OP Stack to build Layer 2 and participate in Optimism’s Superchain network such as Coinbase, Celo, Binance, A16Z,… And people believe that Optimism’s technology must be terrible. How do the big guys choose? In the current crypto market, sometimes you don’t need a terrible technology, you simply need a simple, easy to understand and viral story. I don’t know if Optimism is doing that intentionally or unintentionally.

Nowadays, people don’t know too much about Arbitrum Orbit, even when they announced XAI as the first Layer 3, it has not received much attention from the community.

Summary

It is difficult to say which project has been more successful in recent times because it is clear that they are all succeeding on the path they choose. But from the perspective of an investor, everyone should focus on two issues: Tokenomics and Story, but the problem is also right here. If Arbitrum seems to have a better Tokenomics model, Optimism currently has one. a better story.

Draw. Who is stronger clearly depends on each person’s perspective.