Arbitrum Nova ¹

What is Arbitrum Nova?

Arbitrum's ultra-cheap chain for gaming and social apps, trading maximum security for sub-penny transactions. While Arbitrum One protects DeFi billions, Nova powers millions of microtransactions for games and social platforms. The key difference: Nova uses a Data Availability Committee (Google Cloud, Reddit, ConsenSys) instead of posting all data to Ethereum, achieving 90%+ lower fees than Arbitrum One — perfect for in-game actions and social rewards.

Best for: Web3 games with frequent transactions, social platforms with token rewards, NFT collections prioritizing cheap minting over DeFi composability.

Technical: AnyTrust protocol with off-chain data availability via committee, ~250ms blocks, fallback to rollup mode if DAC fails.

• Security & Data Availability

  • Uses AnyTrust protocol with Data Availability Committee (DAC) of 7 members including Google Cloud, Reddit, ConsenSys.
  • Requires only 2 honest DAC members to function; falls back to full rollup mode if DAC fails.
  • Fraud proofs same as Arbitrum One, but data stored off-chain via committee signatures.

• Infra & Execution

  • Built on Arbitrum Nitro stack with WASM-based execution and Stylus support.
  • ~250ms block times, optimized for high-frequency, low-value transactions.
  • Centralized sequencer operated by Offchain Labs.

• Performance

  • Sub-penny transaction fees (typically <$0.01), 90%+ cheaper than Arbitrum One.
  • Handles millions of daily transactions for social and gaming use cases.
  • Throughput depends on sequencer capacity and DAC performance.

• Use Cases

  • Gaming ecosystems: Treasure DAO (The Beacon, BattleFly), web3 games needing cheap on-chain actions
  • Reddit Community Points: MOON and BRICK tokens for r/CryptoCurrency and r/Fortnite rewards
  • Social platforms: High-volume token distributions, tipping systems, community rewards
  • NFT projects: Collections prioritizing low minting costs over DeFi integration

• Trade-offs

  • DAC trust assumptions — not fully decentralized like Arbitrum One.
  • Limited DeFi ecosystem — most liquidity stays on Arbitrum One for security.
  • Centralized sequencer with potential censorship risk.
  • Less composable — isolated from main DeFi protocols.

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