A helping hand: ANDAO's Contribution to Promising Arbitrum Ventures

Limited scalability and unreasonably high transaction fees are two major challenges overshadowing Ethereum’s growth. Layer 1 and Layer 2 solutions have emerged to address these issues, and Arbitrum quickly gained the upper hand as one of the most promising scaling solutions.

While gaining popularity, the platform has started growing its own ecosystem of projects that build on top of Arbitrum. A donation-based Arbitrum News DAO took on the mission of helping such new projects build their communities.

In this piece, we’ll look into Arbitrum News DAO’s initiative and its role in the platform’s hearty reception. But first things first, let’s get a closer look at what Arbitrum brings to Ethereum’s table.

The Arbitrum way

Offchain Labs, the company behind Arbitrum, was founded in 2018, and three years later, they were able to raise $120 million in a Series B funding round. Supported by big-name investors such as Alameda Research, Pantera Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, the promising Layer 2 solution gradually continued its rise to power.

Today, Arbitrum has the fastest-growing user base among leading blockchains, with impressive developer activity and rapid transaction growth.

Arbitrum is a low-cost and quick-to-use blockchain that relays all transaction information back to the main Ethereum blockchain. Compared to Ethereum, with 14 transactions per second on average, Arbitrum demonstrates an astounding 40,000 TPS. The platform supports the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing developers to integrate their dapps with Arbitrum without modifications.

Arbitrum enhances Ethereum's scalability and reduces transaction costs by creating a sidechain that operates alongside the Ethereum mainnet. It achieves this through optimistic rollup technology, which speeds up transactions by assuming they're valid by default and only verifying if disputes arise.

This approach offloads some transaction processing from Ettoncoinhereum. Arbitrum maintains compatibility with Ethereum, ensuring a seamless transition for developers and users.

Security is upheld by periodically anchoring its state on Ethereum, allowing dispute resolution on the mainnet while benefiting from faster and cheaper transactions on the sidechain.

Arbitrum News DAO: the triumph of collective force

Arbitrum's significant growth in users, transactions, and overall activity is driven by the widespread adoption and expansion of its DeFi and gaming applications. In turn, an expanding app ecosystem is driving blockchain adoption, with leading DeFi and gaming applications contributing to the expansion.

Due to the growing popularity of the platform, numerous projects try their luck building their platforms on Arbitrum. However, Arbitrum’s core team cannot physically help all the new ventures, so the ANDAO, initially a fun news channel, took on the mission. They strive to assist all Arbitrum-based startups to build their initial community.

We’ve talked to Larva, ANDAO’s founder, to find out what it takes to operate such an aspiring and complex decentralised community.

What is your background? How did you come into Web3?

I majored in psychology and minored in information security at university. I first entered Web3 out of interest in BTC in 2017, became a full time Crypto trader in 2021, and then started ANDAO part-time.

What motivated you to start ANDAO? How has the initial vision changed over time?

Our vision is to help all projects, especially the new ones, in the Arbitrum ecosystem build their communities. We have never changed our initial vision in the past two years. I know that community building is critical to Web3 projects, but some projects can't get to market due to a lack of funding at the beginning, so they really need an organisation like ANDAO to provide free marketing assistance.

Why did you choose Arbitrum as your focus of interest?

I've tried to start a similar organisation in Optimism, but they're not as inclusive as Arbitrum, and the Arbitrum ecosystem has always been way ahead of Optimism. So we decided to focus on Arbitrum.

How much time does it take daily to manage ANDAO? Do you take any days off?

In fact, it depends on the heat of the market. For example, six months ago, I might have been working a dozen hours a day, talking to dozens of new projects, but these days I might only be working 1 hour a day for ANDAO. Even though we are a non-profit organisation, we don't charge any fees, and our funding comes entirely from donations. We get a great deal of joy out of this great cause.

How would you describe the core values and principles that guide your community, and how do they align with the Arbitrum platform's vision?

We have identified our core values from the beginning, which are openness and transparency, focused on building the Arbitrum ecosystem. You can go to our Discord and check out our DAO-Rules.

Can you share any success stories where your community has had a significant impact on the adoption or development of Arbitrum?

I think our existence is the best proof of that, and I've never seen an organisation like us in any other L2 ecosystem. Of course, if I had to give some other proof, I would tell you that at least 50% of the early Arbitrum's NFT and Gamefi players were from ANDAO, when the Arbitrum mainnet just launched. Similarly, in the past memecoin season, you will notice that the AIDOGE project, when they were born, also gained a initial vitality from our community.

How many projects have you helped/assisted with already? Do you promote everybody or do you do any background checks?

We've assisted at least 300 projects on Arbitrum. Of course, we do our due diligence before we provide some support for a new project.

Who is your average follower?

People who like DeFi, NFTs, and GameFi within the Arbitrum ecosystem.

What kind of activities do you host? Which ones are the most popular with the audience?

Twitter Spaces and giveaways. I think both of them are the most popular events. Let’s say, I’m building an Arbitrum startup and want to get noticed; where should I start? Just DM our Twitter and provide the details about your project, like your website, Twitter, and other documents, which can help us understand your project.

Why do you think Arbitrum is so popular compared to other scaling solutions?

Obviously, Arbitrum has the most active L2 community, and its TVL exceeds even that of all other L2 combined.

What unique challenges have you encountered in building and managing a community focused on blockchain and decentralised technologies like Arbitrum?

I think the unique challenge and biggest problem is fraud. There are always scams or rug projects that contact us. There are also hackers who have attacked our social media.

What is the hardest part of driving Web3 adoption?

The most challenging part is regulatory compliance. Regulatory resistance is strong.