Chainlink x Arbitrum: Discord Q & A Video Unwrapped
Photo Provided By:
https://twitter.com/ChainlinkoracIe
https://twitter.com/ChainlinkoracIe/status/1394641026732732416
Written By: Isaiah "Zaindretti" Payton
May 24, 2021
If you've been paying attention to Chainlink at all for the past month or so, you probably have seen the Arbitrum Mainnet Launch talk amongst Chainlink Marines and developers alike. The launch is scheduled for May 28th, which is 4 days away and many are highly enthusiastic about the launch considering Chainlink will be an integral part of Arbitrum's systems moving forward. I have decided to breakdown the Discord Q&A video from April 28th on Youtube to summarize and attempt to dissect what this could mean for the Chainlink network and developers looking to use Arbitrum. This article will be in question, response, and interpretation format along with the time stamps if you decide to watch the video to hear the Arbitrum team for yourself. I have attached the link as well if you would rather watch the video, but I would like to speculate what Friday can bring. Let's dive in.
YouTube Link: Arbitrum Discord Q&A April 28, 2021
Team Members: Ed Felton (Chief Scientist), Steven Goldfeder (CEO), Harry Kalodner (Chief Technology Officer), Daniel Goldman (Integration Engineer), and A.J. Warner (Director of Partnerships and Strategy) - Questions covered in the article are answered by Ed Felton, Harry Kalodner, and Daniel Goldman. I wasn't able to hear any answers that Steven Goldfeder or A.J. Warner provided but be sure to visit the link in order to hear the entire Q&A. All answers are paraphrased from the video.
01:13 Q1: What will it take for the average ETH consumer to see the benefits of the Arbitrum rollup? Will it need to bridge tokens, eth gas prices, etc.
(Daniel Goldman): The experience will be exactly like Ethereum blockchain. Experience will be even better than what developers experienced with the testnet. Metamask will function virtually the same as on the Ethereum network with a popup that would tell you it’s an arbitrum app and an option to switch to the network. Ed also mentions lower fees, but the caveat is that you would have to get some Ethereum assets onto the chain at some point. Users will need ETH to be able transact like normal. As a developer and user, you will have to deposit ETH onto the app in the Arbitrum network for the apps to work and perform transactions. An example: If you’re purchasing ETH from a centralized exchange, the exchanges will have an option to “withdraw to layer 1 on Ethereum or Arbitrum”. Once you get the ETH on the Arbitrum chain, you can then start using Dapps on Ethereum without touching layer 1 directly. Arbitrum also has similar mechanisms "for communication across different layer 2s, from channels to Arbitrum, across from different Arbitrum chains". He added, other L1 and L2 level infrastructure allows for this “shortcut” way of getting onboarded and mentioned the Dapps Atomic Swap and Submarine Swap. At most you have to do a single layer 1 transaction in order to start utilizing the network.
Takeaway: From the sound of it, Arbitrum will be a seamless integration for L2s to communicate to L1s with interoperability. It takes a sort of "Business as Usual" approach but also promises more flexibility on the developer side. Lowering transaction fees along with constant communication between layers will be a powerful tool for developers on Arbitrum.
03:52 Q2: What are some overlooked use cases for Arbitrum? What else does Arbitrum offer besides lowered gas fees?
(Harry Kalodner): Harry believes that one case that is overlooked but is looking forward to is the fast sequencing of transactions available to users. Harry goes on to mention that Arbitrum offers a better user experience than using Ethereum to wait for transactions to be settled. Harry adds that transactions will be settled in a couple seconds rather than the longer waiting period of Ethereum to process the transaction. Another use case he feels is overlooked and one he is personally excited about was the increased innovation possible and the ability to "go over and beyond what Ethereum can do”. An example he gives is how Arbitrum is handling gas fees with L2. This is an approach inspired from EIP-1559 and Arbitrum’s ability to expand its capabilities and networks without waiting on Ethereum to update and improve. One case he mentioned is an ongoing process, which is the ability to support “alternatives” to the EVM which would be possible through Web Assembly Support. Once Arbitrum’s "WAS" is achieved, developers will be able to compose smart contracts with traditional languages rather than having to use solidity while also improving performance. Developers will be able to innovate what language they use to write smart contracts for more use cases. Daniel Goldman then chimed in and mentioned that if developers want to experiment with other protocol designs for their Dapps, they won’t have to hardfork Ethereum or create another L1. Users will be able to innovate directly on L2 with permission-less innovation once L2 emerges, even on the protocol level.
Takeaway: The fact that Arbitrum has the ability to try other data models and other protocols to innovate is huge improvement for developers and I believe this will drive innovation for many new services in the near future. The team seems very excited about these solutions coming to life very soon.
08:30 Q3: Are there any tools for devs to migrate their contracts to Arbitrum?
(Daniel Goldman): The tools already exist because you are able to use the same tools such as truffle, hardhat, solidity etc. “It just works”. He noted there were 5-6 differences from Solidity operations.
Takeaway: David's answer seems to be a reiteration from his answer to Q1. The integration is seamless and very similar to operating on Ethereum. There are minute differences but developers have the luxury of being able to use the same tools that are currently being utilized in the space today.
11:08 Q4: What will happen to Arbitrum when Ethereum releases 2.0?
(Harry Kalodner): Ethereum 2.0 is already live in some aspects and is currently in phase 0, but he is more interested in Phase 1 with sharding. He says that sharding helps Ethereum store more data on chain but doesn’t execute transactions. He stated that this is what rollups need from L1. Says that sharding with L1 will benefit rollups substantially and is basically what L2is meant for already.
Takeaway: There will be no noticeable change with Arbitrum as Ethereum 2.0 is gradually released through Phase 1. Sharding will enhance the developer and user experience making processes execute on a higher level. There seems to be a common theme that upcoming changes and updates are more than welcome with Arbitrum's mainnet launch and progression.
20:49 Q5: Any plans to incorporate NFTs into Arbitrum’s optimistic roll ups?
(Daniel Goldman): Yes, Arbitrum will be able to bridge tokens and assets. The way bridging assets work on Arbitrum is that it supports any token standard because interchain communication is possible and there is a generalized ability to have an L1 trigger a contract on L2 and vice versa. Developers can build whatever type of Dapps they can around this infrastructure.
Takeaway: More affordable NFTs??? Yessir!
23:21 Q6: How does the Chainlink integration work?
(Harry Kalodner): Harry stated that oracles have an obvious integral part for Dapps moving to L2, and also stated having Chainlink integrated is just as important as for the Dapps being deployed on the layer. Having new Dapps integrating through Chainlink provides developers cheaper and faster transactions, which would make sub-data feeds more feasible rather than running directly on L1. In practice this means that a low level transaction from Arbitrum to Ethereum can take up to a week but with a Chainlink DON as a node, communication from L2 to L1 moves significantly quicker which is more feasible for developers. An example Harry used was a DAO on L2 wanting to control a process on L1. The DAO can take a vote on L2 and has the advantage of gas costing less because they can run the vote on L2 through the DON. The Chainlink DON will allow the DAO on L2 to complete a decision and relay the decision to L1 because the output through the DON, is deterministically ran through an Arbitrum node. He went on to state that having Chainlink’s DONs integrated is an essential component to interoperability for Arbitrum’s users.
Takeaway: Chainlink is implied to be an essential and integral component of Arbitrum's inner workings. Through Chainlink's DONs, transactions and requests are settled seemingly instantly in a trustless manner. In short, if developers are using Arbitrum, then they are essentially running with Chainlink's DONs. This points to how Arbitrum is abstracting away L2 from L1, which makes development cheaper and quicker for everyone using the Arbitrum network.
32:00 Q7: How will Arbitrum help to improve the situation when it comes to order front-running and “sandwiching”?
(Ed Felton): The sequencer that will be implemented on the mainnet launch will ensure that the result of transactions will be pushed through right away. The sequencer will also determine the order of transactions rather than the miner that makes the block. In the beginning, the sequencer is implied be somewhat centralized, but will eventually move completely to decentralization as Arbitrum moves forward. The sequencers activity will be available to the public to view to see how transactions are ordered sequentially and to ensure Arbitrum is sequencing fairly. Ed then goes on to say that the move towards decentralization for the sequencers includes technologies being innovated alongside Steven Goldfeder (CEO) and Ari Juels and others. He went on to imply Chainlink's DONs being the collection of committees that will sequence the transactions fairly while maintaining decentralization. He notes that the key word in MEV Extraction is “extraction” because "if you’re not the one doing the extracting then you are being extracted from".
Takeaway: Eliminating the possibility of front-running, back-running, and sandwiching ensures that users won’t waste away time and money because of malicious parties extracting value from user transactions. This solution is a topic that Ari Juels from Chainlink highlighted in the Chainlink Whitepaper 2.0 Research Panel video and is very passionate about. This will be exciting news for everyday users and developers alike knowing that this issue will be put to rest in the near future.
This was a lot to unpack but is very exciting to say the least. Arbitrum looks to be a solution for L2 and L1 Dapps alike and more seems to be coming in the future. Chainlink being a part of this mainnet launch is just a glimpse of what the crypto space will be able to innovate moving forward. The top seems to be far away and the ride looks to be a fun one, we'll have to see starting this Friday.
