Arbitrum vs Base

Arbitrum One and Nova are optimistic rollups using Nitro fraud proofs that compress transactions into calldata submitted to Ethereum. The Orbit toolkit lets projects deploy their own Arbitrum Orbit chains with configurable permissions. ARB token governance manages the 3 000‑plus validator whitelist and a 1 billion‑dollar ecosystem grant fund.

Base is Coinbase's OP-Stack Layer-2 that offers EVM equivalence and native account abstraction. Sequencer revenue is shared back to the Optimism Collective, and Coinbase NFTs plus USDC flows bootstrap early liquidity. The July 2023 mainnet launch attracted projects like Friend.tech and Aerodrome, pushing Base TVL above $1 billion.