Arbitrum’s Atlas Upgrade Activated

The Atlas upgrade aligns Arbitrum with EVM security standards and promises to open up new possibilities in gaming, SocialFi, and DeFi exchanges.

Offchain Labs, the principal developer of Arbitrum, has declared the ArbOS 20 “Atlas” upgrade to the network successfully activated.

The upgrade enables Dencun to operate on Ethereum by implementing blobs, facilitating cost-effective and efficient data processing. On March 18, Arbitrum is scheduled to implement additional reductions in execution transaction fees in light of the Atlas upgrade becoming operational.

The Atlas upgrade initially aims to reduce posting fees for layer 1 (L1) content via EIP-4844; further fee reductions are scheduled for the following week.

Atlas is anticipated to reduce the layer 1 (L1) surplus charge per compressed byte from 32 gwei to zero and the layer 2 (L2) base fee from 0.1 gwei to 0.01 gwei, per Arbitrum.

Applications utilizing Arbitrum One should be capable of capitalizing on the revised pricing framework without necessitating any adjustments.

Layer 3 rollup chains constructed upon Arbitrum One will also experience reduced fees automatically. Similarly, self-governed Orbit L2 rollup chains are encouraged to implement ArbOS Atlas and enable blob uploading to obtain equivalent advantages.

Arbitrum’s Impact on Ethereum Ecosystem

Arbitrum RaaS (Rollups-as-a-Service) providers, including Altlayer, Caldera, Conduit, and Gelato, have pledged to upgrade existing Orbit chains to support the Ethereum Dencun upgrade and the Atlas upgrade, according to Offchain Labs.

By incorporating support for EIP-6780, the Atlas upgrade further synchronizes Arbitrum with the security standards set forth by EVM. This, according to Offchain Labs, establishes the foundation for forthcoming improvements to the EVM.

Steven Goldfeder, co-founder and CEO of Offchain Labs, is confident that the Atlas enhancement will enable the cryptocurrency community to explore additional use cases. Goldfeder stated:

“We are excited to see the Arbitrum DAO has voted to upgrade to ArbOS Atlas, which will bring significant benefits to the community in terms of improved transaction pricing. This particular upgrade aligns strongly with our mission to continue scaling Ethereum so that it is more usable for the masses and native crypto community.”

Atlas will facilitate use cases previously deemed impracticable, such as gaming, SocialFi, and DeFi exchanges, by optimizing transaction costs, according to Offchain Labs.

The Dencun upgrade for Ethereum, which debuted earlier this week, is anticipated to substantially reduce gas fees on L2 blockchains, thereby boosting Ethereum ecosystem adoption.

However, there is no assurance of immediate charge reductions due to the requirement for the project teams to upgrade their architecture to comply with the new standard.