Despite the update of The Merge for Ethereum on September 15, 2022, the network still does not provide investors with a cheap, fast and scalable infrastructure to perform cryptocurrency transactions. Surprisingly, this solution came a year earlier, on September 1, 2021, thanks to Arbitrum. If you want to learn more about this network and its ARB token, keep reading!

Arbitration – how does it work?

Arbitrum is a Layer 2 scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain. It consists in processing the purchase/sale of cryptocurrencies, and then sending it to a kind of “inbox” Arbitrum. When the blockchain processes it, it issues a confirmation. The method used for this process is called the “optimistic rollup”. However, before the transaction is reported to Ethereum, it is settled in the side chain of the block.

Rollup is a dedicated technique for compressing data in a transaction performed on the blockchain. As the name suggests, it consists in rolling up the individual parts of the same into a uniform whole. This saves the blockchain from having to deal with every transaction in the stack, saving time and money.

Why is the rollup “optimistic”? In order to speed up the process, the rollup assumes that the transactions in it took place correctly. Of course, it is possible to raise objections, for fear of irregularities.

Announcement and airdrop of the ARB token

The ARB token was announced on March 23, 2023. Its maximum circulating supply is 10 billion units. Of the total supply, the platform intends to drop 11.62 percent to its early investors. Another 1.13 percent of the total supply was transferred to developers creating applications on Arbitrum.

There were several checkboxes that had to be checked in order to be eligible for the Arbitrum drop. Users were awarded points based on the number of ticked boxes. We are talking about factors such as: the number and value of transactions, the number of active months of using the blockchain, the number of smart contracts that were interacted with, etc.

Users needed at least 3 points to be able to receive ARB tokens via airdrop. Depending on their points, they could receive from 625 ARB to 10,250 ARB.

ARB drop and scammer attacks

Arbitrum has already issued a notice to its community regarding fake websites and phishing campaigns offering Arbitrum airdrop tokens. Similarly, on March 19, popular smart contract audit firm CertiK drew attention to Arbitrum’s illegal Twitter account – “arbitrum_launch” – which advertised a fake token airdrop.

On the same day, another blockchain security company, Redefine, discovered a fake Arbitrum website that asked users to link their wallets for airdrop. Of course, all users who linked their wallet to the site would most likely be robbed of their assets. In total, the scam detection tool, Scam Sniffer, found 273 phishing sites targeting the Arbitrum drop.