Arbitrum Foundation today announced a brand new chain named ‘Stylus.’ This is in response to a few of the ongoing issues/hindrances to wider adoption of blockchain technology around the world.

Arbitrum

You may be familiar with Arbitrum network, which is a layer 2 solution on Ethereum. This means that Arbitrum operates on top of Ethereum blockchain but significantly improves transaction times and lower costs compared to Ethereum.

The new Stylus chain aims to take this a few steps forward.

Stylus enables writing blockchain code in several languages — Rust, C, and C++.

The importance of this is, that Rust is a pretty low-level programming language, it uses fewer resources to execute a program written in it. Also, it is the general consensus that Rus is less prone to vulnerabilities over more popular languages such as Solidity.

According to the Stylus website, Rust boasts “computation is over 10x more efficient. Memory over 100x.”

However, this does not mean that you cannot run programs written in Solidity on Stylus. According to the Arbitrum Docs, “Solidity contracts and Stylus contracts are fully interoperable. In Solidity, you can call a Rust program and vice versa.”

They call it EVM+

Stylus is being branded as an EVM+ chain. This means it is not shedding any of the Ethereum compatibilities its predecessor, Arbitrum Nitro, had. Stylus merely adds more features to Arbitrum Nitro.

What’s in Stylus for you and me?

All the programming jargon aside, how is Stylus chain going to help you and me who use the chain?

1. Transaction costs are going to be even lower. Arbitrum already boasts transaction costs of less than $0.50 — considering blockchain adoption, this needs to go down a lot more. Stylus will fill this need by being at least 10x (to 100x) cheaper than Arbitrum.
2. Faster transactions — Arbitrum is fast enough already, but Stylus is going to obliterate Arbitrum in speed. Stylus will leave Ethereum transaction speeds by multitudes.
3. Improved security — Rust contracts are less prone to vulnerabilities, thus making blockchains less prone to hacks and attacks.

Is there a Stylus ($STL) token? Nothing is confirmed at the moment.

There is little to no need for a token for a chain of this nature. However, Arbitrum airdrop of their native token $ARB was one of the biggest in the industry. One of the airdrop multipliers was having used the then testnet Arbitrum Nitro. So, there could be a $STL airdrop or there could be another $ARB airdrop. Or nothing at all. But being early is everything.

How to interact with Stylus Chain by Arbitrum?

As of now we can only leave our footprint on the chain with $ETH transfers. So, let’s do that.

(1) You need to add two new chains to your MetaMask to proceed.

First —

Network Name: Arbitrum Stylus
Network URL: https://sepolia-rollup.arbitrum.io/rpc
Chain ID: 421614
Currency symbol: Eth

Second —

Network Name: Arbitrum Sepolia
Network URL: https://sepolia-rollup.arbitrum.io/rpc
Chain ID: 23011913
Currency symbol: Eth

(2) Now you need $ETH on Sepolia testnet for transactions

Go to any of the following faucets and get testnet $ETH;

Arbitrum Faucet by QuickNode

Sepolia Faucet

(3) Bridge $ETH from Sepolia to Arbitrum Sepolia Chain

• Go to https://bridge.arbitrum.io/?l2ChainId=421614
• Connect MetaMask wallet
• Change ‘From’ to Sepolia and ‘To’ to Arbitrum Sepolia
• Enter the amount of $ETH to transfer and click ‘Move Funds to Arbitrum Sepolia.’

(4) Bridge $ETH from Arbitrum Sepolia to Arbitrum Stylus Chain

• Go to https://bridge.arbitrum.io/?l2ChainId=421614
• Connect MetaMask wallet
• Change ‘From’ to Arbitrum Sepolia and ‘To’ to Arbitrum Stylus
• Enter the amount of $ETH to transfer and click ‘Move Funds to Arbitrum Sepolia.’

Congrats! You’ve made your mark on the brand new Arbitrum Stylus chain.

That is it for now folks like us. If you are a builder wanting to explore Rust, C, and C++ in all its EVM-compatible glory, do the above, and head over to this full guide by the Arbitrum team.