Seeing the big picture from the small, the richness and value of the Arbitrum chain ecosystem.

When most people mention Arbitrum, they may still have an impression of the early Ethereum L2 - a cheap and fast battleground for DeFi.

But if you casually open the Arbitrum Orbit chain ecosystem page today: Rollup, it is a multichain universe.

Brothers, the Orbit chain that we often hear about is a customized independent blockchain built using Arbitrum technology. These chains maintain compatibility with the Arbitrum ecosystem while also having unique features.

As of now, Arbitrum has supported over 100 chains, spanning multiple verticals such as DeFi, RWA, AI, gaming, NFT, and DePIN. These chains inherit Arbitrum's security and technical advantages while achieving extreme customization, creating an unprecedented richness.

Xai has implemented the following key features:
1. Exclusive gas tokens, free from ETH, lowering the entry barrier for players.
2. Local off-chain data indexing to optimize the experience of frequent small transactions within the game.
3. Efficient transfer of game assets and efficient bridging with the mainnet and other chains.

These details indicate that Orbit is not simply "copying an Arbitrum," but rather truly provides project parties with a high degree of freedom: from virtual machine selection, fee models, privacy layers to data indexing, everything is fully customizable.

Why does the Orbit chain have more potential than traditional public chains?
The mode of Orbit reminds me of the early internet era's debate between "dedicated servers" and "shared servers."

Traditional public chains (shared servers): Everyone competes for a resource pool, with many limitations and performance bottlenecks.
Orbit Chain (Dedicated Server): Tailored infrastructure for each project.

In scenarios such as DeFi, RWA, AI, and gaming that require high concurrency, low fees, and even compliance, the Orbit chain has clear natural advantages. This combination of "modularization + customization" is almost closer to real application needs than any single public chain.

Rather than saying that Arbitrum is a chain, it is more accurate to say it is a framework for "Blockchain Infrastructure as a Service." The understanding behind this framework reflects a profound comprehension of the future of Ethereum L2: not all projects require a generic L2; some projects need a dedicated L2, and Orbit is the answer.

In the future, if you see a popular Web3 game, AI platform, or RWA application, pay attention to whether it is running on an Orbit chain. This might be the greatest aspect of Arbitrum – seeing the big picture through the small details, allowing each application to have its own chain while being closely connected within the same ecosystem.

Official detailed documentation: