Arbitrum To Expand Orbit Chains Beyond Ethereum Ecosystem

Arbitrum’s Orbit tech stack is poised to expand beyond the Ethereum ecosystem.

In just a few hours, an Arbitrum governance proposal advocating for expanding its Orbit tech stack onto new networks appears set to pass. ARB holders have voted in favor of the proposal with 83% support so far.

The proposal builds on Arbitrum Foundation launching the Arbitrum Expansion Program in January, enabling third-party projects to fork and modify Arbitrum’s codebase for deployment on “any chain that derives security from Ethereum” in exchange for observing a revenue-sharing arrangement.

However, the proposal noted that the Arbitrum Foundation has since received requests from developers wanting to deploy Orbit on non-Ethereum chains, including Bitcoin, BNB Chain, and Cosmos.

“Over the past few weeks, the Arbitrum Foundation has received inbound interest from projects that want to deploy their own Orbit chain on other networks,” the proposal said. “We expect this type of interest to increase over time as the Arbitrum Tech Stack gains popularity on Ethereum.”

The proposal noted that expanding the scope of Arbitrum Orbit deployments could drive increased revenue for the project. Per the Arbitrum Expansion Program, new Orbit chains are expected to share 10% of profits back to the Arbitrum ecosystem — with 8% going to ArbitrumDAO and 2% earmarked for the Arbitrum Developer Guild.

“Allowing widespread deployment of Orbit could potentially increase the revenue generated for the ArbitrumDAO simply due to the increased number of deployments,” the proposal said.

Voting on the proposal will end during July 31.

The rise of Orbit chains

Arbitrum Orbit is a framework allowing developers to create bespoke Layer 2 and Layer 3 rollup chains. Orbit chains can be heavily customized, allowing developers to change core features including the network’s supported gas token, governance mechanism, data availability layer, and privacy features.

Projects leveraging the Orbit tech have recently been on a roll, with Xai, a gaming-focused Layer 3 network co-developed by OffChain Labs — the team behind Arbitrum — emerging as the top Layer 3 network by activity.

Xai’s daily throughput has consistently exceeded 100 transactions per second (TPS) in recent weeks, equating to more than 40% of the combined TPS of the Ethereum mainnet, Layer 2s, and Layer 3s.

Reya Network, a modular Layer 2 network optimized for trading applications, recently emerged as the top Orbit DeFi chain by total value locked following its mainnet launch in May. While Reya currently reports a total value locked (TVL) of $142.3 million — down from an all-time high exceeding $250 million — the project still enjoys a considerable lead amongst Orbit chains by TVL.

Rey has also hosted $535 million in cumulative trade volume. Churro, a community manager at OffChain Labs, the team behind Arbitrum, described Reya as “a crowning achievement to what DeFi on Orbit chains can achieve.”

The price of Arbitrum’s ARB token is down 3.3% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

Related: Rising Dominance Of Arbitrum and Base Defies Liquidity Fragmentation Narrative