Arbitrum 'Nitro' Upgrade Set For Tomorrow (August 31, 2022)
"Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum is set to undergo one of its most significant upgrades on Wednesday, set to increase transaction throughput, slash transaction fees and simplify cross-chain communication between Arbitrum and Ethereum. Referred to as the “Nitro” upgrade, Arbitrum reconfirmed the date of the upgrade in a Twitter post on Aug. 29, confirming that the upgrade will take effect on Aug. 31 at 10:30 AM Eastern Time [...]" [Lindrea, B. Ethereum scaling network Arbitrum set for major upgrade on Aug. 31. (Accessed August 30, 2022)].
The stated purpose for this 'Nitro' migration is to deploy second generation optimistic rollup technology which permits the scaling of Ethereum to L2.
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As noted in the above tweet, Arbitrum anticipates 2 to 4 hours of network downtime to accomplish the above upgrade.
More specifically:
With Nitro, both fees and transfer throughput are about to get a whole lot better, according to the introductory Nitro blog post, Offchain Labs published on April 6. “Arbitrum Nitro is the most advanced rollup stack ever built, and it enables massively higher throughput and lower fees,” the Nitro summary explains. The latest Arbitrum Nitro blog post, published two days ago, says the upgrade will add:
- Advanced Calldata Compression, which further drives down transaction costs on Arbitrum by reducing the amount of data posted to L1.
- Ethereum L1 Gas Compatibility, bringing pricing and accounting for EVM operations perfectly in line with Ethereum.
- Additional L1 Interoperability, including tighter synchronization with L1 Block numbers, and full support for all Ethereum L1 precompiles.
- Safe Retryables, eliminating the failure mode where a retryable ticket fails to get created.
- Geth Tracing, for even broader debugging support.
[Blockchain Times. L2 Scaling Solution Arbitrum Schedules Nitro Rollup Stack Upgrade for August 31. (Accessed August 30, 2022)].
Arbitrum One is a scaling solution utilizing Optimistic Rollup technology and was developed by the blockchain-based company, Offchain Labs. The GitHub account of Offchain Labs notes that Nitro will represent a 'fully integrated, complete layer 2 optimistic rollup system'. Arbitrum One will feature improved fraud proofs, along with updated sequencers, token bridges, and calldata compression mechanisms after the upgrade. Offchain Labs has previously said that 'Nitro will massively increase network capacity and reduce transaction costs.' The firm has also said that the migration of the current stack to the Nitro stack will be seamless, thus providing users ‘an uninterrupted experience’.
[Mansata, S. Arbitrum will Undergo ‘Nitro’ Upgrade on August 31. Accessed August 30, 2022)].
"Offchain Labs also updated its ArbOS (Arbitrum Operating System) component, which is now rewritten in the software programming language Go. The new version will improve cross-chain communication between Arbitrum and Ethereum, as well as transaction batching and data compression, which will in turn minimize costs on the Ethereum mainnet [...] [T]he state of Arbitrum One “will be migrated seamlessly” on to Nitro, which should, if executed correctly, rule out any possibility of a chain split" [Lindrea, supra].
On April 6, 2022, while first announcing the readiness of 'Nitro', Offchain Labs wrote:
Nitro will massively increase network capacity and reduce transaction costs. Today, we throttle Arbitrum’s capacity, but with Nitro we’ll be able to release those controls and significantly up our throughput. And while Arbitrum today is already 90–95% cheaper than Ethereum on average, Nitro cuts our costs even further.
[Offchain Labs. It’s Nitro time. (Accessed August 30, 2022)].
And in addressing the innovations present in 'Nitro', Offchain Labs continued:
At its core is a new prover, which can do Arbitrum’s classic interactive fraud proofs over WASM code. That means the L2 Arbitrum engine can be written and compiled using standard languages and tools, replacing the custom-designed language and compiler we use today.In normal execution, validators and nodes run the Nitro engine compiled to native code, switching to WASM if a fraud proof is needed. Now here’s the coolest part: we compile the core of Geth, the EVM engine that practically defines the Ethereum standard, right into Arbitrum. So our current custom-built EVM emulator is replaced by Geth, the most popular and well-supported Ethereum client.
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And regarding licensing, Offchain Labs provided the following information:
For those looking at the source code, you’ll notice that during the devnet period, we have licensed the Nitro stack under a Business Source License, similar to our friends at Uniswap and Aave. Before mainnet launch, we will be re-licensing the code in a more permissive fashion to ensure that everyone can have full comfort using and running nodes on Arbitrum One.
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