The Arbitrum DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that governs the Arbitrum layer-2 scaling solution, has approved a proposal to increase its grant budget by $23.4 million. The proposal, voted by the Arbitrum community between Nov. 18 and Dec. 2, sought to distribute additional funds for projects approved for a grant by the Arbitrum Grants Committee.
The proposal, titled ARB-003, was submitted by the Arbitrum Grants Committee, a group of seven members elected by the Arbitrum community to review and approve grant applications. The committee stated that the original grant budget of $25 million, allocated from the Arbitrum DAO treasury, was insufficient to fund all the high-quality projects that applied for a grant. Therefore, the committee requested an extra $23.4 million to be able to fund all the 104 projects that passed the committee’s evaluation.
The proposal received overwhelming support from the Arbitrum community, with 99.98% of the votes in favor and only 0.02% against. The voting period lasted for two weeks, and the minimum quorum was 4% of the total ARB supply. The proposal was executed on Dec. 2, and the funds were transferred from the Arbitrum DAO treasury to the Arbitrum Grants Committee multisig wallet.
The committee expressed its gratitude to the community for its trust and support, and announced that it would start disbursing the grants to the approved projects as soon as possible. The committee also shared the list of the grant recipients, which included projects in various categories such as infrastructure, tooling, user experience, education, community, and more.
A strategic move to attract more developers and users to Arbitrum
The Arbitrum DAO’s decision to increase its grant budget is not only a generous gesture, but also a strategic move to attract more developers and users to its layer-2 scaling solution. Arbitrum is one of the leading platforms that leverages optimistic rollups, a technology that enables fast and cheap transactions on Ethereum by batching them on a sidechain and periodically submitting proofs to the main chain.
Arbitrum has seen a rapid growth in its adoption since its launch in May 2023, with over $2.7 billion of total value locked on its platform, according to Defi Llama. Arbitrum hosts several popular decentralized applications, such as Uniswap, Aave, Maker, Compound, and more. However, Arbitrum also faces fierce competition from other layer-2 solutions, such as Polygon, Optimism, zkSync, and StarkWare.
By funding more projects that build on or integrate with Arbitrum, the Arbitrum DAO hopes to expand its ecosystem and network effect, and to foster innovation and diversity on its platform. The Arbitrum DAO also aims to empower its community and stakeholders, and to promote its vision of a decentralized and scalable future for Ethereum.
A positive sign for the future of decentralized governance
The Arbitrum DAO’s successful execution of its third proposal is also a positive sign for the future of decentralized governance. The Arbitrum DAO was launched in September 2023, as a way to decentralize the control and ownership of the Arbitrum network. The DAO is governed by the ARB token, which represents voting rights and economic interests in the Arbitrum ecosystem. The ARB token was initially distributed to the early backers, team members, and users of Arbitrum, and is expected to be fully decentralized by 2025.
The Arbitrum DAO allows anyone to submit proposals for improving the Arbitrum network, such as adjusting parameters, upgrading contracts, allocating funds, and more. The proposals are then voted by the ARB holders, who can delegate their votes to other users or entities. The Arbitrum DAO also has a technical council, composed of seven members elected by the community, that can veto malicious or harmful proposals.
The Arbitrum DAO’s governance model is designed to be transparent, inclusive, and responsive, and to reflect the needs and preferences of the Arbitrum community. The Arbitrum DAO’s grant program is one of the examples of how the DAO can support the development and growth of the Arbitrum ecosystem, and how the community can participate and contribute to the decision-making process.
