Introduction
As part of The Arbitrum Foundation’s ongoing commitment to transparency, the Foundation is excited to publish its Progress Update for the first half of 2024 (H1’2024). This report is a bi-annual update to the Transparency Report published annually (in the first quarter) and details the Foundation’s activities and their impact on the Arbitrum ecosystem.
As per the 2023 Transparency Report, this progress report is structured based on the mission statements in the Foundation’s bylaws:
- Fostering Ecosystem Growth through Grants and Strategic Partnerships
- Educational and Community initiatives
- Technical Advancement
Additionally, it covers an update of the Foundation’s finances and operations for the first half of 2024, as well as an overview of how the Foundation has helped with the implementation and actuation of initiatives that have been voted on and approved by the ArbitrumDAO.
Key Takeaways
Fostering Ecosystem Growth through Grants and Strategic Partnerships
The Arbitrum Foundation Grants Program
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As of June 30, 2024, the Grants Program has received 1,436 applications and approved grants to 212 projects since its inception.
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Phase 3 of The Arbitrum Foundation Grant Program was rolled out in April 2024, with an emphasis on transparency and standardized criteria for selection. The Foundation introduced 5 Grant Tracks that projects can choose from based on their development stage, growth projection and type of project. The 5 tracks are:
- Growth Track: For projects showing early signs of traction and aim to launch on the Arbitrum (One or Nova) mainnet soon.
- Advanced Growth Track: For projects with proven momentum looking to amplify their growth on Arbitrum (One or Nova).
- Multi-Chain Track: For projects with proven momentum on another blockchain, but keen to integrate with Arbitrum.
- Orbit Track: For projects building innovative app chains, rollups and rollup infrastructure on Orbit.
- Stylus Track: For innovative projects like (but not limited to) math-heavy finance algorithms, onchain generative art or complex cryptography on Stylus.
Strategic Partnerships and Growth Initiatives
- Solidifying Arbitrum as a robust platform for DeFi: The Foundation has led key DeFi partnerships and integrations from liquidity protocols to infrastructure projects, and solidified Arbitrum as a robust platform for DeFi applications. The Robinhood Wallet X Arbitrum Foundation collaboration, for instance, enabled low-cost in-app swaps for traders and paved the way for a new wave of adoptions. Other key examples include Synthetix, Venus Protocol, CoW Swap, and Renzo.
- Doubling down on Gaming: Key gaming deployments and milestones for the first half of 2024 include Pirate Nation launching Apex Chain as an Orbit Chain, Square Enix (a prominent video game publisher) bringing Symbiogenesis to Arbitrum One, and InfiniGods’ King of Destiny Web3 mobile game integrating with Arbitrum Nova. Additionally, Arbitrum welcomed more than 15,000 visitors via the 2024 Game Developers Conference (GDC) to its booth during the three-day event, which exposed traditional gaming professionals to the opportunities in Web3 gaming and in the Arbitrum ecosystem.
- Orbit Chains Multiply: In January 2024, the launch of the Arbitrum Expansion Program (AEP) catalyzed the rapid growth of Orbit chains. The AEP introduced licensing terms that made it simple for projects to create custom Arbitrum Layer 2s (L2s) that directly settle on Ethereum, as well as Arbitrum Layer 3s (L3s) on other non-Arbitrum chains. Major communities like Apes and Treasure have chosen Arbitrum Orbit through open procurement processes despite strong competition, and other significant projects, such as Azuki, Degen, and Sanko, have also been drawn to its value proposition and are building their own Orbit chains.
- Stylus Ecosystem Growth: In an effort to boost pre-launch awareness, the Arbitrum Foundation organized a ‘Stylus Blitz Buildathon’, where 7 teams were granted $1,500 each for building Stylus contracts on Arbitrum Sepolia. In addition to the open competition, the Foundation has also sponsored developer toolings like Software Development Kit (SDK) and Command Line Interface (CLI) tools to ease the migration and development processes.
Educational and Community Initiatives
Event Sponsorships and Participation
- The Foundation cultivates a strong presence within the Ethereum developer community by purposefully sponsoring, attending, and co-hosting important third-party conferences such as ETH events.
- The Foundation plans and leads events tailored to the Arbitrum community, such as Arbitrum Day, which offers networking and targeted education opportunities. A sponsored BUIDLathon at ETHDenver, GovHack, ETHGlobal Brussels, and an ArbiBrunch at Consensus 2024 are among the other noteworthy events.
Regional Community Growth via Ambassadors
- Phase 1 Concludes: As of June 30, 2024, the Foundation had 151 Arbitrum Ambassadors from Phase 1 across 36 countries, including university-based blockchain clubs. These ambassadors have organized over 30 offline events and produced over 100 high-quality content resources. Their online efforts have totaled 1,870 posts, garnering 14 million earned reach.
- Phase 2 Expansion: With an emphasis on advancing educational initiatives for the Arbitrum ecosystem, the Ambassador program opened its doors to developers, non-developers, entrepreneurs, Web3 enthusiasts, and students starting in June 2024. The Foundation provides ambassadors with the tools, direction, and rewards they need to become fully committed Arbitrum supporters and community builders. As of June 30, 2024, 2,100 applications had been received for Phase 2.
Technical Advancements
The Arbitrum Foundation focused on 3 key pillars for technical advancements: enhancing Arbitrum’s security, realizing the vision of rollup as the new server, and expanding the virtual machine and the developer experience. Executing on these pillars, the Foundation has led proposals through technical AIPs to progress topics like Stylus, BoLD and Timeboost.
Operationalizing and Empowering DAO Initiatives
In the first half of 2024, some of the Foundation’s key initiatives were:
- Managed the Security Council member elections for Cohort 2,
- Operationalized key DAO initiatives such as the Stable Treasury Endowment Program (STEP) and Gaming Catalyst Program (GCP),
- Allocated $250,000 to support the creation of independent GrantsDAOs,
- Became the first Foundation in Web3 to obtain insurance coverage to protect token holders, and
- Sponsored and co-hosted the first-of-its-kind governance hackathon (GovHack) at ETHDenver.
Conclusion
The Foundation has increased its headcount from 20 to 31 full-time employees in the first half of 2024 across ecosystem growth, marketing, developer relations, finance, legal and compliance, operations, and DAO relations to keep up with the growing needs of the ecosystem.
The Foundation is dedicated to Arbitrum’s success, security, and network growth, and is excited to continue working hand-in-hand with the ArbitrumDAO and Arbitrum’s community members.
NOTE: This report is for the period of January to June 2024, which shall be referred to as H1 2024. Unless otherwise specified, data snapshots are as of June 30, 2024.
