Arbitrum Ecosystem Unveils 'Onchain Labs' to Support Early-Stage Projects

The main organizations supporting the Arbitrum blockchain, Offchain Labs and the Arbitrum Foundation, unveiled a new program designed to kick-start early-stage projects in the ecosystem.

The new program, "Onchain Labs," is designed to provide go-to-market support to "experimental and volatile" projects, according to a blog post from Offchain Labs, Arbitrum's main developer.

“Through Onchain Labs, we’re dedicating resources to support developers looking to rapidly expand the application layer by ideating with them from the ground floor to bring the best user experiences to Arbitrum,” the blog post said. “As we do with many Arbitrum teams, we’ll provide product and [go-to-market] support to these early-stage projects, collaborating closely to help their applications thrive on Arbitrum.”

Arbitrum Foundation is a non-profit that stewards Arbitrum ecosystem governance. Offchain Labs, which created the blockchain in 2021, focuses on developer tooling and core network infrastructure.

Offchain Labs is pitching its new initiative as a way to spur greater activity and interest in the wider Arbitrum ecosystem. According to the blog post from the company, the first Onchain Labs projects will soon emerge from stealth. Offchain Labs said the only projects supported by its new program will be those that explicitly "commit to fair and equitable launches" — presumably meaning they avoid token launches and other mechanics that preference insiders.

Offchain Labs stated in its blog post that the selection criteria are meant to avoid "extractive ecosystems" and "zero-sum games." Tandem, Offchain Labs' venture capital arm, "may or may not purchase associated tokens in public markets," the company added.

Arbitrum is a layer-2 optimistic rollup network on Ethereum. Like other rollups, the chain is designed to process transactions faster and more cheaply than the main Ethereum blockchain. Several new blockchains are built on Arbitrum's technical framework, forming a network of interconnected blockchains called Arbitrum 'Orbit.'

Arbitrum is currently the largest layer-2 network on Ethereum, with roughly $12.2 billion on its primary 'Arbitrum One' chain, according to L2beat.